The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2017 class was, of course, announced last Saturday.
The list of enshrinees includes:
*Defensive end and University of Akron product Jason Taylor. Good for him. Good for the Zips.
*Kicker Morten Andersen.
*Running back Terrell Davis.
*Safety Kenny Easley.
*Owner, president and general manager Jerry Jones.
*Running back LaDainian Tomlinson.
*Quarterback Kurt Warner.
A wonderful class, don’t you think?
Certainly, but there’s a problem. I still don’t see the names of two former Browns greats, left tackle Dick Schafrath and wide receiver/punter Gary Collins. That’s not right. It’s just not right.
Joe Horrigan, one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and, for my money, the smartest football man alive, is the HOF’s vice president of communications and exhibits. He knows all about Collins and Schafrath, a Wooster High School and Ohio State product, and will tell you that they’re probably forever destined to be stuck in the Hall of the Very Good. That’s still a pretty prestigious hall, to be sure, but it’s not the Hall of Fame.
I would voice my disagreement, and have, personally, to him, with that contention.
“Every team has their list of guys they think should be in the Hall of Fame,” Horrigan told me.
The Browns are no different than anyone else. They have their list, too, and it includes Schafrath and Collins. More specifically, I think those two clearly headline the list, and have since 2007 when guard Gene Hickerson, one of their former teammates, was inducted.
The careers of Hickerson and Schafrath pretty much mirror each other. Hickerson played 1958-73, and Schafrath from 1959-71.
They both blocked for three HOF running backs in Leroy Kelly, Bobby Mitchell and Jim Brown, the greatest player of all-time at any position.
They also both blocked for Frank Ryan, one of the greatest quarterbacks in the 1960s. In fact, Schafrath, being at left tackle, was charged with protecting Ryan’s blind side.
They both played on the 1964 NFL champions, and three other Cleveland teams that made it to the league championship game before the merger with the AFL was finalized in 1970. Those teams were all led by their offenses, one of the most prolific units of that time. The 1964 team still has the Browns record for points in a season with 415. The 1966 team is second with 403 points, and the 1968 club is fourth with 394.
All in 14-game seasons.
Kelly made it to six Pro Bowls. So did Hickerson and Schafrath. They are tied for the third-most trips in Browns history.
As such, if Hickerson was good enough for the Hall, and he certainly was – albeit that he had to wait 29 years after he became eligible five years following his retirement – shouldn’t Schafrath’s body of work be good enough as well?
And then there’s Collins, who played from 1962-71. He and Warren Harding High School and Ohio State product Paul Warfield, who joined the team in 1964 (they were both first-round selections in the NFL Draft), were arguably the greatest pair of wide receivers in the league during their era.
Collins had 331 receptions, the second-most in Browns history behind Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome, for a franchise-record 70 touchdowns. That’s a staggering total of scores considering the fact that, as mentioned, the NFL played 14-game schedules back then and rules allowed defensive players to mug receivers all over the field without fear of being penalized.
He caught 13 TD passes in 1963, which was a Browns record until Braylon Edwards broke it in 2007. He was at his best in the Browns’ biggest game during his career, catching three touchdown passes in the 1964 title game victory over the Baltimore Colts, which is still tied for the most in a postseason game in NFL history. He had five receptions overall that day, good for 130 yards.
In addition, Collins was the club’s punter from 1963-67 and led the NFL in that category in 1965 with a 46.7 average, which stood as a Browns record until Andy Lee beat it by .05 of a yard in 2015.
Again, as with Schafrath, what is Collins lacking?
My fear – and I’m afraid it’s well-placed – is that neither player will ever get inducted. The longer they sit on the outside looking in, the fewer the number of voters who know anything about them, or would be willing to champion their causes to the other members of the Selection Committee.
In this case, time doesn’t heal all wounds. Rather, with Dick Schafrath and Collins, it exacerbates them.
