If the busts in the Pro Football Hall of Fame gallery in Canton could talk, as John Madden suggests, then there's some pretty good New York football conversation going on in that room lately.
There's been a real New York flavor to the HOF inductions the last three years with Curtis Martin in 2012, Bill Parcells last year and Michael Strahan on Saturday night. Their busts can chat with Lawrence Taylor, who entered in 1999, and after a wait that was much too long, Harry Carson was enshrined in 2006.
So, who is next for New York?
If Tiki Barber has not retired at the peak of his career after getting off to a slow start the first few years, he was likely Canton-bound. He averaged 1,529 yards rushing his last five years after averaging just 561 yards his first five years. He finished with 10.449 yards, which is 24th all-time. Another 1,864 yards and he would rank No. 9 right now, just ahead of Jim Brown. He's been eligible for the last three years and has not made it to the final 25.
Tom Coughlin seems like an easy choice: He took the expansion Jaguars to the AFC title game in two of their first four seasons and has won two Super Bowls with the Giants. Eli Manning's regular season resume to this point might not be Hall-worthy, but he directed two last-minute game-winning Super Bowl drives and isn't that what the NFL is all about? There are eight retired quarterbacks with at least two Super Bowl rings in the Hall, Jim Plunkett is the only QB with two rings who is not.
Manning, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger are the active QBs who have won at least two Super Bowls. Brady, who has been to five Super Bowls, is a given, and Manning and Big Ben have a great chance.
George Young, the late Giants GM, turned around the franchise and was a respected voice in league affairs and has come close a couple of times in the voting. Young's chances of getting into Canton improved Friday when the Hall of Fame announced it was establishing a separate category for the league's contributors - owners, GMs and coaches - which means they won't be competing with players for a spot.
The Jets?
Joe Klecko, who made the Pro Bowl at three different positions on the defensive line, should have gone in a long time ago, but now will have to wait his turn as a senior candidate.
Darrelle Revis was having a Hall of Fame career before contract issues prompted his trade to the Bucs last year. He was cut by the Bucs, who no longer wanted to pay him $16 million, and he signed with the Patriots. If Revis, who is having a great camp in New England, is fully recovered from his ACL injury of 2012, and if he sticks around New England and the team has a lot of success, then he will be a HOF contender for sure.
Brett Favre will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2016 and LaDainian Tomlinson, the fifth leading rusher in NFL history, right behind Martin, will get in within his first couple of years of eligibility starting in 2017, but they are hardly going in for what they did as Jets. Favre had one miserable season in New York after being acquired from the Packers and before finishing up with the Vikings. Tomlinson played the final two years of his career with the Jets, but will get in because of what he did with the Chargers.
Jason Taylor snuck in one year with the Jets in 2010 before going back to the Dolphins to finish up his 15-year career and he could be Hall-worthy. Michael Vick was on a Hall of Fame track before the dogfighting scandal ended his career in Atlanta. He went to Philly for five seasons after getting out of jail and is now the Jets backup.
If the busts could talk, you know Parcells would be leading the conversation.
BUILD IT OR LOSE IT
Raiders owner Mark Davis apparently has a lot of his late father Al in him as he flirted with civic leaders in San Antonio about moving the team there. Davis has been unable to get Oakland moving on a new stadium. He has one year left on his lease in the worst stadium in the NFL. It's hard to imagine Davis going to San Antonio when the Los Angeles market is open and has been since the Raiders and Rams left after the 1994 season. The key for L.A., as it has been for two decades, is getting a stadium built. Any team moving has to get 24 of the 32 votes from the owners - unless they want to go to court, which we know the Raiders would never do... There were just three bids by the Tuesday deadline for the Bills: Sabres owner Terry Pegula, the group that includes Jon Bon Jovi, and Donald Trump. The final price will likely be about $1.3 billion. Trump is a longshot because NFL owners still fault him for the USFL's $1.69 billion antitrust lawsuit against the league in 1986. There were 28 teams back in '86 and 15 of them are still owned by the same person or their families. 'He did try to bring the NFL down,' one NFL owner told me in April. The USFL was awarded $1 in damages. Trump says he's not going to do something 'totally stupid' with the amount he will bid and calls his chances 'very, very unlikely.'...Bon Jovi's group has indicated a desire to move the team to Toronto and there's no way the NFL will let that happen, especially since Roger Goodell's early years were spent not far from Buffalo. That leaves Pegula unless the bidding process is extended and others get involved.
BADGER BALLIN'
Smith, Bryan
Wisconsin running back James White, a fourth round pick, has been an early star in Patriots training camp... In the Patriots' first practice with pads last Saturday, Revis was the star, twice intercepting Tom Brady. On Thursday, the Pats were practicing plays backed up to their own goal line. Revis jumped a route by Kenbrell Thompkins, picked off Brady over the middle and scored. This could be the best $12 million Bill Belichick ever asked Robert Kraft to spend... Arizona's Patrick Peterson became the highest paid cornerback in the NFL when he signed a five-year, $70.05 million deal last week as the three best young corners in the league try to out-do each other with their new contracts. In May, Seattle's Richard Sherman signed a four-year, $56 million deal and one week later Cleveland Joe Haden signed a five-year, $67.5 million deal. Peterson's deal averages $14.01 million. Sherman's is $14 million. You think Peterson was trying to send a message to Sherman?
TONY SLOW GO
Tony Romo is not practicing every day as he paces himself following his back surgery late last season. That means plenty of Brandon Weeden in training camp... I asked Eagles coach Chip Kelly last week if he had to build up Mark Sanchez psychologically after what he went through with the Jets. 'No, I didn't really get into that,' he said. 'The Mark Sanchez I know is very positive, very upbeat. Every day he's here, there is an energy you can feed off from him. I didn't get any feeling when he walked in our building that this guy is down in the dumps and we need to pick him up.'... The 49ers are travelling east to practice against the Ravens in Baltimore this week before they play on Thursday night. That's an awful lot of people to bring along just so the Harbaugh brothers can share a few dinners... The 49ers have put talks about a contract extension for Jim Harbaugh on hold until after the season. He's in the fourth year of a five-year $25 million deal. There were rumors that the 49ers were going to trade Harbaugh to the Browns a few months ago before Mike Pettine was hired. There is some friction in the San Francisco front office that could eventually lead to Harbaugh coaching somewhere else.
RICE MOVES ON
About 30 of Ray Rice's teammates attended his news conference on Thursday, one week after Roger Goodell gave him a two-game suspension for a domestic violence incident. When he was asked about the NFL discipline, which has been criticized for being too lenient, he said he didn't have any control over it. 'I'm being punished on a day-to-day basis,' he said. 'No football games and no money wasn't going to determine what I have to live with for the rest of my life.' He said he wouldn't have appealed the suspension regardless of the length. I feel it should have been six games with the opportunity to cut it to four... Marshawn Lynch ended his holdout after the Seahawks made some adjustments in his contract, but did not give him a new one. He was due to make $5 million this year. They turned $500,000 in roster bonuses and $500,000 in incentives and added it to his salary, which guarantees the extra $1 million. They also moved up $500,000 in 2015 salary to this season, which means he makes $6.5 million in 2014. The 'Hawks are also not going to make Lynch pay the $500,000 in fines he had accumulated during his holdout. Sounds like a good deal for Lynch: He missed a week of camp, doesn't have to pay his fines and has money guaranteed that he otherwise would have had to earn.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, August 3, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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