"Quality Of The Game and Butkus IV"

 

HELMET HUT NEWS/REFLECTIONS May 2012:

Quality of the Game and Butkus  PART IV

 

By Dr. Ken 


I believe that the point has been strongly made over the past few months’ columns, that the emphasis on basic fundamentals has been lacking in today’s game on both the professional and collegiate levels. I’ve used the great Dick Butkus as an obvious example of a player from a past era who entered the field of play, intent on doing things the correct way and doing them as well as he could possibly do them. His Hall of Fame level of success indicates that he in fact garnered the recognition he so richly deserved. Of course, this brings up yet another topic of controversy and conversation, one that could fill numerous books if it were not so politically incorrect to point out what I believe is obvious. I am a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association

[see their website at  http://www.profootballresearchers.org/ ]. Many of the organization’s members are well known researchers and authors, and some perhaps not so well known but still extremely knowledgeable. The primary focus of the organization is the history of professional football, and be it statistical, anecdotal, or analytical the membership is passionate about the study and discussion of “everything” pro football related. Stating it far better than I could, PFRA Executive Director Ken Crippen described the organization as one “dedicated to research into and the preservation of the history of pro football.” The monthly Coffin Corner newsletter publication is filled with informative articles that are unpredictable, varied, and always interesting. One area of discussion that seems to attract a lot of attention is the voting for the Professional Football Hall Of Fame, certainly an expected subject of interest.
 

Dick Butkus, Halls Of Fame, plural!

 

The organization also has what it aptly named The Hall Of Very Good which “seeks to honor outstanding players and coaches who are not in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame and have been retired for at least 25 years.” A number of their Hall Of Very Good members later were in fact elected to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame including Floyd Little, Chris Hanburger, Bob Hayes, Carl Eller, and Bennie Friedman.

 

With absolutely no disrespect intended towards some of the recent inductees of the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, I find it unfortunate that many members of the PFRA Hall Of Very Good are more deserving of induction to the “real” Hall Of Fame than some of those recent inductees. Our entire present day sports culture is statistics-driven and if one” has the stats” it is assumed that they are or were an excellent player. Inflated statistics or a very limited aspect of play that allowed for the generation of an impressive statistical achievement has catapulted some players into the Hall Of Fame when they were more deserving of entry to the Hall Of Very Good. Winning a championship of some kind is also a requisite it seems with some players or coaches who were “middle-of-the-road” guys for most of a lengthy career, being considered as Hall Of Fame worthy because they were part of a championship squad. As it is with much of our current culture, it has become more important to “look good than to do good,” even on the football field. When I think of a Hall Of Fame Player in any sport, I believe he (or she where applicable) should be a singular, special, player whose presence was absolutely indispensable to whatever success his team achieved. He should have stood head and shoulders above his peers in ability, on the effect his play and presence had on his teammates, serving as an example of a player whose on-the-field approach to the game and ultimate results, often not defined by statistics, made a positive difference in the game.

 

Examining some of the names on the PFRA “Very Good” list and comparing them to some of the recent inductees to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame certainly made me wonder just how much the statistics matter. I would state that without exception, the members of the Hall Of Very Good knew how to play football. They blocked and tackled well utilizing the techniques that have been taught for decades. Even with the major changes instituted in what was considered to be legal blocking and tackling procedures in the mid-1970’s (see HELMET HUT HELMET NEWS/REFLECTIONS columns related to concussion and helmet safety for 2004), the solid, completed, and effective blocks and tackles were made. Our previous months’ columns have indicated that at least in my opinion, that has not been the case for at least the past ten to fifteen years. The Shannon Sharpes, Fred Deans, and John Randles don’t quite compare to the John Mackeys, Mike Ditkas, Gino Marchettis, nor of course to Dick Butkus and I will repeat that I mean no disrespect towards the aforementioned players. It is immediately understood that the attitude of most of the modern inductees is at a polar opposite of that exhibited by so many of the “older generation” of players. Listening to the blatant campaigning of some ex-players who have a forum because they are CBS, NBC, NFL Network, or ESPN analysts or commentators, is in marked contrast to the much more humble approach taken by those who truly understood and respected what the Hall Of Fame stood for. Baseball great Earle Combs summed it up quite well and accurately when he said, upon his own induction to the Baseball Hall Of Fame, "I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like me."

 

Any and every football related Hall Of Fame should include Mike Ditka


Part of the problem is revealed if one can stand to listen to an extended period of sports-talk radio. The broadcast celebrities have no sense of history. “Long ago” to them is 1983. Even in New York City which should be the epicenter of accurate, media disseminated information, they have no clue. On one of the most popular mid-morning shows, the two bombastic hosts were screeching at the New York Giants for wearing a red alternate home jersey. They frequently made a reference to “red not even being more than a trim color” because “the Giants color is blue, they’re the Big Blue.” Of course every true Giants fan should know, just as a sports reporting “expert” should know, that the Giants did in fact utilize red as their primary home jersey until and into the 1953 season, and thus the red made perfect sense as an alternate jersey and would have in any season. Worse was a segment of the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players. The network is owned and operated by the National Football League. One would assume that they have access to every fact and figure related to NFL history. Presenting their own program, on their own network would cry out for everything, especially the most basic of facts, being correct. Yet, when their segment on Gino Marchetti came on, I howled because they very clearly stated that this great player was, in 1952, a member of the Baltimore Colts.
 

 

Seriously? This is NFL history? Even the most casual of Baltimore Colts fans knows that Marchetti was a member of the ill-fated Dallas Texans in 1952, as their second round draft choice. Even worse, any individual connected with the NFL and a broadcasted show on the NFL Network, presented with the NFL name on it, and their seal of approval would absolutely have to know that Marchetti could not have played for the Colts in 1952 because the Baltimore Colts did not exist in 1952! Yet these are the same individuals making decisions related to Hall Of Fame enshrinement. Most of these men and women are absolutely clueless about football history that predates them by more than fifteen years, thus they have no true basis of comparison of the modern players and coaches to each other.
 

ESPN, Sports-Talk Radio hosts and most of the other so-called media experts believe the Broncos great defensive end Rich “Tombstone” Jackson played in a long ago, forgotten stone age

 

Coaches receiving, or seeking to receive entry into the Hall Of Fame are also held to what I believe is a skewed standard.  While I am not pushing Don Coryell for membership in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, though I certainly would never oppose it, his membership in the PFRA Hall Of Very Good serves as an understandable example of my complaint. Simply put, Coryell was an excellent coach and his innovations in the passing offense literally altered the entire game, on both sides of the ball. Those who played under him were clear that he was a superb teacher and motivator and his “coaching tree” is lengthy and impressive with assistants like Joe Gibbs and John Madden having had their own highest-level success. His tenure at San Diego State resulted in a 104 – 19 - 2 record with three undefeated seasons and winning streaks of both thirty-one and twenty-five games. He developed a slew of quarterbacks and receivers who entered the NFL with many named to All Pro teams. As an innovator of the passing game and what was popularly called the “Air Coryell” Offense, many forget that he also tinkered with the I-Formation in his early years of college coaching and as John McKay’s assistant at USC, did a lot towards making that “the” innovative offense of the early 1960’s.

 

Making something out of very little, Coryell took Jim Hart and the 1974 Cardinals to the Eastern Division title
 

His pro football record was impressive if, and only if one took the time to examine the fact that he inherited a St. Louis Cardinals team that was nothing short of miserable and made them a playoff contender and division title winners. The Chargers team he took over was similarly bad and he forged them into a winner and of course, brought his high powered offense to full fruition. The Hall Of Fame players he developed, the defensive innovations that arose from the necessity to slow down or stop his offense, producing winners from long term losers all gave him a credible platform for Hall Of Fame admission yet it did not come. Fair or not, my point is that his credentials are every bit as good or better than some of the coaches who have entered that did much less than him other than win a Super Bowl. One can say that winning the big prize in any year is the ultimate goal and if one achieves the ultimate, they should be in, without question and little discussion but again, this reflects the “statistical-championship model” rather than “what makes a true Hall Of Fame recipient?”