Deion Sanders: They’re letting too many players into the Hall of Fame

[CGI_Ram]

Deion Sanders: They're letting too many players into the Hall of Fame

Deion Sanders is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he thinks that club is adding too many members.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

Deion Sanders: They’re letting too many players into the Hall of Fame

Deion Sanders is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he thinks that club is adding too many members.

Sanders said on the Dan Patrick Show that he believes there are too many players being allowed into the Hall of Fame, even if they weren’t truly great players, and it’s watering down the honor.

“What is a Hall of Famer now? Is it a guy who played a long time?” Sanders said. “It’s so skewed now. Once upon a time, a Hall of Famer was a player who changed the darn game, who made you want to reach in your pocket and pay your admission to see that guy play. That’s not a Hall of Famer anymore. Every Tom, Dick and Harry, you’re a Hall of Famer, you’re a Hall of Famer, you’re a Hall of Famer. They let everybody in this thing. It’s not exclusive anymore. And I don’t like it.”

Although Sanders didn’t want to name any specific players who he thinks have watered down the Hall of Fame, when Patrick asked him about Eli Manning, Sanders answered, “You get the point.”

Sanders added that he doesn’t think there should be a minimum number of new Hall of Famers each year. The Hall has enshrined at least six new members in every class since 2006, and Sanders thinks that’s too many.

“It should be based on, ‘Are you that guy?’ Not just because we have to meet a quota,” Sanders said.

Sanders’ comments may not make him popular among some of the Hall of Fame finalists hoping to get voted in on Saturday, but he sees the Hall of Fame as a club that ought to be more exclusive than it is.

 

[coconut]

Deion should be in the Hall of Vain.

 

[Selassie I]

He is absolutely correct.

 

[RamsSince1969]

The segment I saw, he said something like "every Tom, Dick and Harry and even Larry are getting into the hall these days."

 

[Loyal]

He is absolutely correct.

God, it hurts me to agree with him. But then, maybe they need a Hall of Fame West and a Hall of Fame West (Canton), eh Stan K.?

 

[LARams_1963]

Says the loudmouth who's in the Hall of Fame....

 

[thirteen28]

He is absolutely correct.

I tend to agree, and at the risk of blasphemy, I will list two Rams in the HOF who I don't really think merit the honor: Kevin Greene and Jerome Bettis.

Greene was a good edge rusher, but was he really a guy that could just completely take over a game the way other edge-rushing OLB's were? I don't think so. A good, even very good player, but not a HOFer.

Similarly, compare Bettis to two Rams RBs that are in the HOF (and are most worthy of it) - Dickerson and Faulk. Those two guys could dominate games in ways that Bettis never could, and in Dickerson's case, he did it without much of any pass offense to help. In Faulk's case, his ridiculous versatility made him into a weapon of the likes that Bettis could never have been.

There are plenty of other players on other teams too. And I think several of the WRs that went in before Bruce and Holt (both HOF worthy) probably shouldn't be there.

Sanders may be a dilrod at times, but he's right on this one.

 

[Jacobarch]

Dont like him much but hes right

 

[Selassie I]

I tend to agree, and at the risk of blasphemy, I will list two Rams in the HOF who I don't really think merit the honor: Kevin Greene and Jerome Bettis.

Greene was a good edge rusher, but was he really a guy that could just completely take over a game the way other edge-rushing OLB's were? I don't think so. A good, even very good player, but not a HOFer.

Similarly, compare Bettis to two Rams RBs that are in the HOF (and are most worthy of it) - Dickerson and Faulk. Those two guys could dominate games in ways that Bettis never could, and in Dickerson's case, he did it without much of any pass offense to help. In Faulk's case, his ridiculous versatility made him into a weapon of the likes that Bettis could never have been.

There are plenty of other players on other teams too. And I think several of the WRs that went in before Bruce and Holt (both HOF worthy) probably shouldn't be there.

Sanders may be a dilrod at times, but he's right on this one.

Excellent examples for sure, and I agree with your descriptions on both players.

You could have just said that they were both HOF pretenders because they both played for the squealers though... that would have been more than enough to close both cases for me.


Plus... with Greene. I kinda had a bad experience with him when he was still a Ram. I got over on him in the end... but it basically ended my fandom for him even before he left to play for the enemy.

 

[jap]

Primetime is right.

 

[Merlin]

I don't like Deion but he's got the balls to say what he thinks and put it out there for a topic where there's a lot of that "don't want to hurt peoples' feelings" type deal. Who is your target for the Hall of Fame? The top 5%? Or the top 30%? The NFL would be wise to tighten that stuff up IMO.

 

[Cjcinec]

The Hall of Fame is growing but the growth is proportional to the growth in the number of teams that are in the NFL. To be fair I don’t give to much credence to anything Deion Sanders says anymore because he has become just another rambling mouth trying to stay relevant as the years pass since he actually played the game. I’d like to hear Barry Sanders view on this discussion and would actually respect his perception. Deion Sanders mouth has been just a lot of noise for sometime now and nothing he says makes a lot of sense as usual.

 

[RamFan503]

Not a Neon fan but he's right.

 

[Young Ram]

Well let’s see. Since 2000 the NFL has averaged about 7 inductees per year. Every NFL team has 53 men on their rosters. That’s 1,696 players league wide. So that means that Hall of Fame inductees account for only 0.4% (less than half of 1%!) of all players per year. That sounds pretty exclusive to me.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

The moment they chose bettis and troy Brown over Kurt Warner I haven't paid attention to the hall of fame anything.

.

 

[Zaphod]

Human douche saying wah, my club is too exclusive and elite. We gotta keep it separated.

Fuck you Douche, nobody cares about you, so you can take off the sunglasses and stop stalling TSA with your pretending not to want it look at me bullshit.

I think the best award for any football player is a Super Bowl ring anyway.

 

[Ram77]

I see a lot of you agreeing with Deion. Well if you believe Deion then you must not think that Bruce and Holt belong in the HOF. Thats fine. They didnt have the First Team All-Pros that Owens, Moss and Rice did. They also didnt have the total TDs and were largely considered by many to be really really really good but never great or the BEST WR in the NFL at any given time. Where do you draw the line of who is a Hall of Famer and who isnt? Stats? All-Pro Selections?? Sportswriter and Hall of Fame Commitee opinions? If we go by Deion then maybe only 0, one or 2 guys should get in each year.

 

[IBruce80]

I tend to agree, and at the risk of blasphemy, I will list two Rams in the HOF who I don't really think merit the honor: Kevin Greene and Jerome Bettis.

Greene was a good edge rusher, but was he really a guy that could just completely take over a game the way other edge-rushing OLB's were? I don't think so. A good, even very good player, but not a HOFer.

Similarly, compare Bettis to two Rams RBs that are in the HOF (and are most worthy of it) - Dickerson and Faulk. Those two guys could dominate games in ways that Bettis never could, and in Dickerson's case, he did it without much of any pass offense to help. In Faulk's case, his ridiculous versatility made him into a weapon of the likes that Bettis could never have been.

There are plenty of other players on other teams too. And I think several of the WRs that went in before Bruce and Holt (both HOF worthy) probably shouldn't be there.

Sanders may be a dilrod at times, but he's right on this one.

I agree with Bettis and Greene. Bettis always seemed a surprise inductee to me.