Detroit Lions CB Dick LeBeau and Broncos running back Floyd Little have been chosen as this year's senior nominees to the pro football hall of fame.
The way the Pro Football Hall of Fame works each year is that a committee whittles dozens of possible candidates down to 5 potential inductees. To those 5 candidates are then added two senior candidates, that is, two players who did not make it in their first 20 years of eligibility (a player is first eligible 5 years after they retire).
So the seven candidates are then each given a vote or confidence: a simple "yea" or "nay." Those who get at least 80% "yea"s are inducted into the Hall of Fame.
It's neat that the old timers do not have to compete head on with newly inducted players to be enshrined. But if this is the best the old timers have to offer, then I think we've run out of truly great players from the old days.
Dick LeBeau, of course, is much, much MUCH better known as a coach than as a player. He's coached all over the NFL for 35+ years, invented zone blitzes, and recently won two super bowls as defensive coordinator of the Steelers. He was a head coach for parts of three seasons with the Bengals, and one year opened up camp by dressing up like Superman and used the costume to attempt to convince grown men that they could be super enough themselves to win the Super Bowl. (Needless to say, he makes a better assistant than head coach.)
LeBeau was a good but unremarkable player, and has stated himself in interviews that he was "your average white cornerback." His best credentials as a player are starting 171 straight games (a CB record) and intercepting 62 passes (3rd all-time at retirement, tied 7th all-time today). The 117 games is impressive and adds to his resume for sure. However, it also subtracts because, hey, if you show up to work that many days in a row, your 62nd interception is bound to come eventually. Indeed, statistics like that are not good for use at cornerback, because the better you are, the less often you're thrown to. Dick LeBeau was NEVER first team All-Pro, and this should be the first red flag in any hall of fame discussion.
All six guys ahead of Dick LeBeau in interceptions are in the Hall of Fame, but all of them have at least 4 All-Pro selections. The guy LeBeau is tied with, Dave Brown, was actually a 2x All-Pro, and has been out of football for 20 years, but no one is clamoring for him to join the Hall of Fame.
But, you say, LeBeau deserves to go as a coach! Indeed, Dick LeBeau is easily the greatest assistant coach in NFL history. But since he's not retired, he can't be inducted as a coach yet. His veteran's committee nomination is only as a player.
No one has ever been inducted for their contributions as an assistant coach. This is probably because coordinators didn't exist until Paul Brown invented them in the late forties. So they weren't high profile until the eighties at the earliest. If we need to induct Dick that way, then change the rules of induction. I'm fine with that. But there's no reason to break the rules when there are better veteran players than LeBeau. He shouldn't get in just because he's more high profile today.
I won't comment as much on Little. Suffice it to say the Broncos have very few alumni in the Hall of Fame, and I would like to see more. I hold out hope that we'll see TD and Sharpe both there eventually. Little was important to the Broncos, and as an AFL star, it is interesting to read about him, but he just is not important or all that notable in NFL history.
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