Where will you be in 5 years?

When Strahan announced his retirement, the first thing I heard was how he was going to get inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame along side of Brett Favre and Warren Sapp. Not so fast. The HOF Class of 2013 looks like it is going to be a little crowded.

I think the order is just about right, but mine would look like this:
Favre
Strahan
Seau
Ogden
Sapp
Allen

McNair? Nope. As for the other 6, ALL OF THEM are getting into the Hall of Fame, period. But if you can only let in a maximum of five in one year, then one is going to have to wait another year. If I am the voter, I make Allen wait. F the Boys!

I have a particular bias toward interior Defensive Linemen anyway- it is easily the single most thankless position in the NFL. You can be a great DL and there are very few stats that can capture your play. Tackles? Many times this is irrelevant because you are so often getting wedged and doubled. Your job is just to maintain your place, not get blown off the line, so that the LB can get the glory. Yes, Sapp’s mouth was bigger than his play some of the time, but not a lot. He went at it with Favre so many times over the two of their careers that for them to not go into together would not be right. It would not make sense.

Favre is going in on this ballot.

Strahan is going in on this ballot.

Seau played for so many schtick dreck teams, think about how many times he had Guards and Tackles in his face yet somehow made the tackle anyway. 12 Pro Bowls? There are a lot of people in the Hall who have not played 12 YEARS, let alone have 12Pro Bowls. It was a good thing he was in the waning moments of his career, because if the Giants saw him on a Patriots team a little earlier, it could have been ugly.

Ogden? All I can think of is cyclops, aka Cedric Jones. We had the 5th pick in the draft and were gambling that someone (hint, Cardinals) would be stupid enough to take Lawrence Phillips before we picked. Then it would not matter, because Johnson-Hardy-Rice-Ogden… one of them would be ours. Johnson, Rice and Ogden all won a Super Bowl ring, but Ogden was the prize. Ogden shut it down, imo more than Allen. And since I have a stronger appreciation for Tackle than Guard, and Allen played a lot of Guard… well, you are a great player and belong in the hall, but… Larry, take a seat. In the audience. For one more year.