| THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER | FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1998 |
Cincinnati's Moment of Fame
BY GEOFF HOBSON
Take a good, long look at Anthony Munoz. He may be the only one for awhile.
Quarterback Ken Anderson? He has been denied twice in the final round of selection.
Quarterback Boomer Esiason? He may get a break because he'll be in the public eye as a a broadcaster, but he has the same ŚŚnever-won-the-big-one'' knock as Anderson.
Wide receiver Carl Pickens? The jury is way out on the fingertips because he has hit his stride only in the past 3 1/2 years and his numbers will have to be judged against the supersonic statistics of the Jerry Rices and Cris Carters instead of the Steve Largents and Charlie Joiners of the previous era.
Running back Corey Dillon? His jersey from the Dec. 4, 1997, victory over the Oilers is already in Canton because he broke Jim Brown's rookie rushing record with 246 yards in the game. But if he wants to get the rest of himself in the Hall, he'll have to play like he did in 1997 for the next decade.
The Hall vote hasn't been a minefield for just Bengals. Excluding the three teams formed in the '90s (Jacksonville, Carolina, Baltimore), seven teams have either one or no Hall members.
How tough? Munoz is just the seventh offensive lineman who played after World War II to go into the Hall on the first ballot, joining Jim Parker, Forrest Gregg, Jim Otto, Jim Langer, Gene Upshaw and John Hannah.
The final vote is a closed-door session with the 36 selectors the day before each Super Bowl.
The panel is made up of media members from each of the 30 NFL cities, five at-large voters and the president of the Pro Football Writers Association.
A list of 60-65 nominees are pared to 15 by mail-in ballot for that Super Saturday. At the meeting, selectors from the player's city present their case to the panel. That's presumed to be followed by spirited debate, although the committee isn't allowed to divulge contents of the meeting.
There is a plurality vote to get down to 10. Then the next round goes to six, plus the voters decide if the one pre-World War II player should go to the last round. The six or seven finalists have to get 80 percent of the votes to make it, with a minimum of four and a maximum of seven getting into the Hall.
Two years ago, Anderson made it into the top 10, but didn't make the final cut. He didn't make it last year, either, despite intensive lobbying by Bengals President Mike Brown both years that included a letter to the committee.
Brown has long believed his club and other small-market teams who haven't won championships have been overlooked in voting for the Hall. He points to the Steelers, who have won four Super Bowls and have 14 Hall members.
"I'm not picking on Pittsburgh," Brown says. "But the Steelers didn't have 13 guys who were better than anyone we had but Anthony. Winning is important, but it shouldn't be the final criteria. Teams that win the Super Bowl get a disproportionate amount of players in the Hall of Fame. They're before the media more."
Brown believes cornerback Ken Riley, fourth on the all-time interception list with 65 in 15 Cincinnati seasons, and wide receiver Isaac Curtis, who had 53 touchdowns in 12 seasons, deserve consideration.
There's virtually no support for them, and an informal survey of selectors indicates they're lukewarm on Anderson and Esiason because they didn't win the Super Bowl.
Peter King of Sports Illustrated, a former Enquirer reporter who is a Hall selector, holds them to the Otto Graham test. Graham was coach Paul Brown's quarterback with the Cleveland Browns and Brown, the Bengals' founder elected to the Hall before the Bengals ever played a game, felt a quarterback is ultimately judged on how much he wins.
But Pat Harmon, the long-time Cincinnati Post sports editor and the city's outgoing Hall selector, made a strong four-minute presentation before the voters the first time around.
He handed out statistics showing Anderson's passing rating of 81.9 was better than 16 of the 23 Hall of Fame quarterbacks and that his four passing titles was second only to Sammy Baugh's six. Steve Young has since added a sixth title.
Plus, Anderson is the only man to win back-to-back passing titles in two decades, and he threw for more yards (32,838) than Hall-of-Famers Len Dawson, Sonny Jurgensen and Bob Griese. Only Troy Aikman has a better completion percentage in the post- season, and Anderson threw for more yards (300) in his one Super Bowl than Griese did in three (295).
"Let's face it, if Bob Griese were an Atlanta Falcon, he never would have had one mention of the Hall," says King of the quarterback who led Miami to two Super Bowl titles. "Ken Anderson probably has better credentials than Bob Griese, but the fact is there is a lot of emphasis on winning, and there should be."
Esiason faces the same problem. He finished his career ninth in all-time passing yards (37,920), 10th in touchdown passes (247) and eighth in completions (2,969). Except for Dave Krieg, only Hall-of-Famers or future Hall-of-Famers are ahead of him on those lists.
"Boomer's problem is he played in a golden age of quarterbacks," King says. "(John) Elway and (Dan) Marino are going in, and then guys like Boomer, (Jim) Kelly, (Warren) Moon, (Phil) Simms are going to have to battle it out. The top two or three of the era should go in. The committee should want to keep the integrity and not put in seven quarterbacks who were really good in 1991."
Brown thinks Esiason's Hall bid is helped by his announcing gig on ABC's Monday Night Football because it will keep him in the limelight. But Steve Schoenfeld of The Arizona Republic, president of the Pro Football Writers, believes Esiason's partner in the booth, Dan Dierdorf, was hurt by the job.
"There was a heavy bias against TV," Schoenfeld said, but Dierdorf eventually made it in 1996, 13 years after his last game.
Some selectors question the small-market bias.
They point to how those great Chicago teams of the mid-1980s will probably end up with just two Hall members ‹ running back Walter Payton and linebacker Mike Singletary.
They compare the Bengals, the New York Giants and New York Jets over the last 20 years. They figure the Jets will get no one in the Hall and the Bengals will get at least one, with the Giants' having only one lock, linebacker Lawrence Taylor, plus borderline candidates Simms and linebacker Harry Carson.
But "the big (market) teams seem to get the benefit of the doubt," Brown said.
Ed Bouchette, the Pittsburgh selector from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also votes for Baseball's Hall and admits football is a more subjective game.
"Baseball is a game of statistics," Bouchette said. "Everything from hitting, fielding, pitching, to hitting with men on base. But in football, how do you judge a guard or tackle? With a guy like Griese, did he help make the Dolphins great, or was it the other way around?"
Which is why Bengals fans should savor that Munoz Moment. Who knows when it will come again?
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