Hall of Fame buzz
MIAMI -- Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was not voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Word from inside the room Saturday is that Tagliabue was debated for 58 minutes. The side working against him cited the current collective bargaining agreement, approved 30-2 in March by owners (Mike Brown and Ralph Wilson of the Bills were the nays). The sense is that Tagliabue muscled through a CBA that could still hurt the league in an effort to cement his legacy of labor peace before his yet-announced retirement. Also working against Tagliabue was how Los Angeles was left without a team during his tenure.
I've heard from a handful of Bengals fans who are not happy that cornerback Roger Wehrli of the old St. Louis Cardinals was voted in. How is Ken Riley still not in?
Riley had 25 more interceptions (good for fifth all time), returned three more for touchdowns and played in one Super Bowl.
posted by Mark at 4:44 PM
1 Comments:
at 3/08/2007 8:11 PM 
Anonymous said...
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Post a Comment*Regarding Paul Tagliabue not getting in the HoF: note that Pete Rozelle was a finalist eight times before being elected. I'm hard pressed to see Tags as a better commissioner than Rozelle, thus it seems fair to make him wait a while before getting in.
Re Roger Wehrli: he was in fact an excellent HoF choice. Wehrli was a 5 time all-pro (1970, and 1974-77) to go with his 7 pro bowls, and he’s a member of the all-70’s team. In fact, Wehrli was the only DB with this level of all-pro/pro bowl accomplishment not in the HoF.
Wehrli’s interception totals are lower than one might expect because he was such an accomplished cover back that QB’s simply avoided him; HoF QB’s like Griese and Jurgensen are on record saying that they gave up throwing his way and had to game plan around him.
Another thing to consider is that Wehrli was in his last year of eligibility before falling into the Seniors abyss. Some deserving players, like John Mackey and Carl Eller, didn’t get in until their last year eligible. Who knows why that happens? But throwing more deserving players into the Seniors category just makes the situation worse.
Does Riley belong in the HoF? That’s a good question, and maybe he does. Riley does have a ton of interceptions. But from what I can see, Riley was an all pro only once (1983), never made the pro bowl, and is not on any all-decade teams. I’m also not sure what his large number of picks means, either; it’s clearly his strongest argument. Riley played at least half his career manning one cornerback position with the Bengals while Lemar Parrish manned the other; note that Parrish was an all-pro 3 times (1976, 1979-80, once as a Bengal) and went to 8 pro bowls. Does this mean that QB’s avoided Parish and usually threw in Riley’s direction? I don’t know the answer. But two reasons a DB gets a lot of interceptions is that he’s thrown to a lot or takes a lot of risks, and neither is necessarily seen as a good thing.
It can be like sacks: for example, I’ve seen the idea mentioned that the reason Richard Dent got all his sacks is that Dan Hampton created a ton of havoc taking double and triple teams and still collapsing the pocket while Dent ran around and feasted on the QB. Note that Hampton is in the HoF and Dent is not. One needs to look at big stats with care sometimes.
As for Riley, I don’t know what his reputation was beyond the picks. He may well have been terrific, but I wish I knew for sure. And it would be great to have his case heard before the HoF committee. But I’d also like to have Lemar Parrish get the same thing, and nobody’s pushing for him, sadly enough (Parrish was also an excellent kick returner, which should help his case even more). Regardless, I don’t think Riley’s consideration should have come at Wehrli’s expense — in fact Wehrli getting in means there’s one less player standing in his way come deliberation time, which would be an advantage.
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