But what about the NFL?

The recent explosion of offensive passing stats and slow decline of long-term RBs, have changed the HOF landscape a bit.  A guy like LaDainian Tomlinson is a sure-fire HOF lock, but he unbelievably collected his resume in just 9 seasons … and is gonna pad his stats with the Jets this season.  But how many more LTs are we gonna see?  RBs in the NFL are abused by coaches much like greasy-haired teenagers beatdown their first vehicle.  Neither last too long, the end is inevitable either by accident or by constant pounding with little rest and rehab.  LT is only 31, he is not an old man by any reach, but the tread on the tires are thin and his prime is hard to see in the rear-view mirror.

Will all RBs following LT need to come close to his numbers (approx 16,500 run/rec) to get a sniff of the NFL HOF?

Most likely.  How about QBs?  I firmly believe Troy Aikman (32,942 pass yards) is the last QB to get into the HOF with a sub 33,000 passing yards total.  With field generals slinging balls all over the gridiron nowadays, 3,000 yard seasons will be expected … especially with all the contact rules defenses have to worry about.

Which gets me thinking, how much do those precious rings weigh in the HOF voting?  Aikman’s numbers don’t have the ‘oh-wow’ result when you give them a glance.  Steve Young threw for more yards in less attempts than Troy, and Steve liked to go for a run once in awhile.  Now before you huff and puff, Young tossed for 33,124 to Aikman’s 32,942, so they were close.  But Young destroys Aikman on TDs (232>165) and INTs (107<141) and rushing (4,239>1,016).  So clearly the stats favor Stevie, but did the number of rings Mr. Aikman had make it an easy scoot into the HOF?

Hmmmmmmm.

Let’s play a little game called guess that dude … I’ll drop some career stats on you … you tell me which baller has the gold NFL HOF blazer in his closet?  Ready?  Here we go!

PLAYER A

PLAYER B

So, have you crunched the numbers enough?  Did you cheat like a snibbling weasel and google?

Whatever you did … doesn’t matter.  Because one guy is in the HOF and the other isn’t.  And apparently nothing is gonna change the result.

I’m not here to defend, nor prop up, either player.  Just thought I’d use these former ballers as a clear example of the power of the almighty ring.

PLAYER A is NOT in the HOF.

PLAYER B is IN the HOF.

So, who are these masked men?  If you’re the snibbling weasel, you googled before you kept reading so you know, shame on you … go drink some rancid milk why don’t cha.

For the rest of ya, PLAYER A is Ricky Watters, PLAYER B is Lynn Swann.

Can you believe that!  Watters has almost 15,000 rush/rec … while Mr. Swann has just over 5,500 rec/rush.  But get this … Swann never had one season over 1,000 receiving yards!  In fact, he never came close.  His best season was 1978 with 880 yards receiving.  Unreal, I know.  Unimaginable these days.  Hell, Ricky had 719 yards receiving in 1994.  Go figure!

Hmmmmmmm.

I wonder if those precious rings had something to do with it?  They most certainly did!  All FOUR of Lynn’s!  Don’t be a numskull.  Yeah, those Steelers teams Swann was on were legendary, I know, I remember glimpses of them.  But this little example should shine clear the fact that in a sport where HOF milestones are few and far between, and where the benchmarks shift quickly, that the number that weighs most for any player dreaming for induction … are the rings he wears on his hand.

Funny, because Charles Haley has 5 fucking rings (the only baller that does) and is not in the HOF.

WTF, HOF voters?

There must be a secret handshake that poor Mr. Haley doesn’t know.

Football season is here (august-february).

Cowboys vs Bengals @ 5pm PST – NBC.

Yup, it’s that Hall of Fame game.  The annual kickoff to live football action.  Though it may be football-lite because it is preseason, this first game does get the juices flowing like free chips & salsa at your favorite Mexican restaurant.  I know I’ll be pumped for the initial quarter, but then, realistically, the adrenaline rush will disappear when the starters put on their caps and begin chatting to the on-field reporters.  Only Cowboys & Bengals fans will stay juiced up for the entire game.  The actual game really isn’t the excitement, it’s the overall HOF weekend package that is kinda a symbol of what is to come very soon … much like a politician breaking ground with a golden shovel to represent a citizen friendly structure being built.  Yup, this weekend is merely one big hell-yeah! fist pump into the air moment.

Oh, and for you degenerate gamblers … Bengals are the chalk by 3 … O/U is 32.5 … practice up … the real thing is a month away.

When the starters do trot off the field tonight … we could be in for some sideline antics … remember, Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens are both Cincy WRs … and both love the camera … expect something silly before halftime.

While on the subject of WRs majoring in drama … hopefully we’ll get a good glimpse of Cowboys stud WR Dez Bryant tonight.  By now everyone has heard of the whole … I ain’t carrying your pads, Roy … incident.  So tonight could be a good time for Dallas to light up some snazzy Romo-to-Dez highlights as a teaser for the real thing in September.  Could they be the next Favre/Harvin combo?  One thing is for sure, Dez won’t be compared to Tim Tebow in team-bonding exercises (Tebow gets Friar Tuck haircut via Denver teammates, classic, Tim earns big points for this).

Let’s not forget about that Rocknrolla named Adam Jones playing DB for Cincy, aka Pacman Jones.  Dude is getting his 3rd, or 4th, 5th chance in this league?  Whatever the case, he’ll be looking across the field at his former fellas … makes me wonder if there are some quality gentlemen clubs in Canton, Ohio.  If I turn on Sportscenter tomorrow morning and see Pacman’s mug on the screen, I’ll already know the story.

Tsssssccchhhh!!!

The sound of an ice cold beer crackin open will be heard in the Meerkat den around 5:11 tonight when I settle in to watch this glorified preseason game.  It will be paired perfectly with the sounds of pads slamming together, analyst X-and-O chatter, Brett Favre specualtion, HOF inductee reminiscing, and that comfortable feeling on the couch knowing that football season is here.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

I leave you with training camp humor via Redskins Chris Cooley punking new fella Donovan McNabb.

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Well, Kurt Warner is certainly hoping it is five.

12 years, 3 teams, 1 ring, 2 nfl mvps, 5 silly statistical seasons (red) … that’s the bulk of his resume.  Is this enough for Kurt to don one of those sweet HOF jackets?  Does Kurt get extra points because he was possibly the greatest Cinderella story (better than Brady’s too) in NFL history?

Don’t you remember?  The dude played Arena ball and NFL Europe before landing a spot on the Rams in 1998.  Then the season nobody saw coming happened.  In a 1999 preseason game, starter Trent Green blew out his ACL and was down for the season.  Coach Vermeil had no choice but to hand the keys of the new Ferrari over to a journeyman QB named Kurt Warner.  Who? 

Warner lit up scoreboards.  The Rams were deemed The Greatest Show on Turf.  Kurt would lead St. Louis thru the playoffs and to Super Bowl victory … all in his first season as a starter.  Absolutely ridiculous.  He’d collect a Super Bowl MVP trophy along with his NFL MVP trophy.

That was season 1 of 5 silly seasons over the span of his career.  The rest of his non-silly years are mediocre.  Mostly because Kurt was injury-prone.  Maybe he stood too long in the pocket too many times or just played too many games on artificial turf (northern iowa, arena, st louis) for his body to handle.  Whatever the reason, Warner had some stretches where he looked bad.  And he took a real beating the year he spent in NY as a Giant (39 sacks in just 10 games was brutal). The dude was also a fumbling machine.  So when he wasn’t tossing touchdowns, well –his fumblitis was simply a headache to coaches and fans.

A fresh start in Arizona was exactly what the beat-down QB needed.  And playing mentor to Matt Leinart was not how this story was gonna end.  Kurt grabbed the starting job and in 2007, would go back to rippin defenses.  In 2008 he’d come one play away from winning a second ring.  Personally, I was pulling for the old guy to win … and he should of if he only would have tripped up Harrison on his way down the sideline for that unbelievable end of 1st half INT for TD.

Anywho, it’s comp time.  Let’s look at some numbers.

Here we got Warner’s (retired), Aikman’s (HOF), Moon’s (HOF) and Gannon’s (retired).

Clearly, Warren Moon with his staggering 49k+ passing yards made him an easy ‘yes’ for Canton … the guy was durable, played forever, lit up defenses with the run-and-shoot, and lost 6 years in Canada to boot.  Also, he did throw the prettiest spiral at the time. If Warner had the durability of Moon, I ain’t typin up this gumbo of text.

Troy Aikman has solid numbers, but not shreddin-defenses-apart-numbers.  But then he didn’t have to because he had Emmit Smith in his backfield.  A lot of weight is givin to Troy because of his 3 rings, but strip those and the weight of his numbers alone don’t seem to HOF worthy.  But if you watched him play his whole career you’d know that he’s possibly the most accurate passer ever between 0-25 yards.  Compared to Warner, Aikman stands out as a consistent force, one that’s gotta be close to the in-or-out HOF border (numbers-wise-that-is).  Ya see, Troy got dem big rings … and they’re precious.

Rich Gannon was a late bloomer.  He bounced around as an average QB until he arrived in Oakland.  As a Raider, Gannon found his calling as a West-Coast style passer.  Gannon and Gruden probably slept in a bunk bed at the Oakland film room on weeknights.  These dudes were lunch pail workaholics that came ready on game-day to move chains and pillage defensive formations.  Gannon is kinda Warner-lite.  He had a handful of big seasons to balance out some sub-par seasons.  But as much as I loved Richie G, he ain’t gettin the HOF call.

So does Kurt Warner get the HOF call?

I think he does.  It might be a struggle at first.  But he’ll be wearing the HOF gear eventually.  And it will help that his great-guy persona will give him a voting boost.  Because it’s always easier to pull for the good guy (with the great story).

On a side note … I’ve got all fingers and toes crossed that ESPN boots out KeyShawn Johnson in favor of Kurt Warner on NFL Countdown (please make this happen ESPN execs).

Kurt Warner:

Troy Aikman:

Warren Moon:

Rich Gannon: