The Redskin Report

This was originally published on January 28, 2006

One of the biggest travesty’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is the lack of Redskins from the 1st Joe Gibbs era.  Over the 12 years, the team had a winning percentage of over .650 (that would be nearly 10.5 wins over a 16 game season), went to the Super Bowl 4 times and won 3 of them.  Yet only John Riggins is the Hall of Fame as a player from that era.  Gibbs is in as a coach as well, but the player representation is highly suspect.

Then again the entire Hall of Fame selection process is suspect.  The entire basis for entry seems to be based on the memories of a bunch of reporters.  You often hear the argument from anti Art Monk voters that he may have had a lot of catches, but I remember watching games and Monk didn’t make big plays or Gary Clark was the more feared receiver.

This memory induced voting process leads to certain prejudices.  Obviously everyone has certain games that stand out, and biases towards certain players.  Having all the voters sit in a room and listen to reporter’s campaign for their guys is also questionable.  Who knows if any potential votes for Monk have been lost because of an impassioned speech by the big name voters in the room, many of whom have been outspoken in their opposition to Monk’s induction.

Unfortunately the process is what it is, and no amount of complaining by fans is going to change the process. What we can influence is the biases of these voters by proving Monk belongs.  Statistics can’t lie, and even though the numbers I’ll be present are being adjusted to attempt to put the different eras on a comparable scale, these adjustments aren’t made just to improve Monk’s standing on a historical basis.

Comparisons will be made on three levels: career numbers, peak value, big games.  Monk will be compared with modern era hall of famers.  The voters often say that so and so doesn’t belong in the Hall, so we shouldn’t compare Monk with Lynn Swann or whoever they determine to be the weakest link.  But each of these players has been voted in, so they will be included in the comparison.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame lists the following players as the Modern Era Wide Receivers:
Alworth, Lance (1962-1972)
Berry, Raymond (1955-1967)
Biletnikoff, Fred (1965-1978)
Fears, Tom (1948-1956)
Hirsh, Elroy “Crazylegs” (1946-1956)
Joiner, Charlie (1969-1986)
Largent, Steve (1976-1989)
Lavelli, Dante (1946-1956)
Lofton, James (1978-1993)
McDonald, Tommy (1957-1968)
Mitchell, Bobby (1958-1968)
Pihos, Pete (1947-1955)
Stallworth, John (1974-1987)
Swann, Lynn (1974-1982)
Taylor, Charley (1964-1975, 1977)
Warfield, Paul (1964-1977)

I don’t think you’ll find a better set of articles on why Art Monk should be in the hall of fame anywhere.  I’ve completed most of them already and I’m pretty proud of how they are coming out.  You’ll see tons of numbers in these articles you won’t find anywhere else.   So be sure to check us out early next week.  Part one on career numbers will be posted by Monday morning.

Special thanks to Pro-football-reference.com and scruffylookin from Extremeskins for provided me with stats.

Continue to Part Two: The Case for Art Monk – Career Numbers