Many of you reading this have heard this before – perhaps even several times, in fact.
But despite that – despite the fact I know you guys will get bored and quit reading if I get too repetitive on any subject, no matter what it is – I think I have to state all this again. If I don’t – if I fail to keep this flame burning – then I will feel as if I’m not doing my job on this site.
What am I talking about?
The recent selections of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2018 class of enshrines.
It’s not that these new inductees are unworthy – on the contrary, Ray Lewis, Randy Moss, Brian Urlacher, Terrell Owens, Brian Dawkins, Bobby Beathard, Jerry Kramer and Robert Brazile certainly deserve to be Hall of Famers – but it’s just that two former Browns who are worthy as well, keep getting passed over. In fact, as the years go by, it seems more and more as if left tackle Dick Schafrath and wide receiver Gary Collins will never get their call.
HOF Vice President of Communications and Exhibits Joe Horrigan is the smartest person I know when it comes to the Hall of Fame selection process and the history of pro football. When he talks, I listen. He knows of what he speaks.
But when he says, “They belong in the Hall of the Very Good,” when I mention the candidacies of Schafrath and Collins, I just don’t believe it. I strongly – very strongly – disagree. I beg to differ with every fiber of my being.
Schafrath and Collins were key components on the 1964 NFL champion Browns and all the other great teams the club had during the 1960s.
Schafrath was – by far – the best player of his era at the most important position on one of the most important position areas on the field, the offensive line. He blocked for three HOF running backs in Bobby Mitchell, Leroy Kelly and Jim Brown, the greatest player at any position in the game’s history, and for one of the best quarterbacks of that era in Frank Ryan.
Collins had a team-record 70 touchdown receptions in his 10-year career at a time when, with the rules practically allowing defensive players to mug receivers in coverage, it was extremely hard to get open, let alone in the end zone. He was at his very best on the biggest stage of his career, catching three TD passes from Ryan in that 1964 title game victory over the Baltimore Colts, who had one of the greatest defenses in pro football history, to be named the game’s MVP.
I don’t know what else Dick Schafrath and Gary Collins could have done, and no one – not even Joe Horrigan – can give me a good answer.
