One More Bronco In The Hall Of Fame Makes, Uh...Two

Gary Zimmerman aka the "Technician," who was on the NFL's All-Decade team for two different decades, is now the second player who associates himself mostly with the Denver Broncos to make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Gary was part of the Broncos' stacked offensive line right up to the first championship in 1997. Although Zimmerman spent the bulk of his career with the Vikings, the Vikings had inept ownership and basically sucked while he was there and the Broncos had John Elway and won a Super Bowl. Who would you rather represent? Exactly. Congratulations to one of the best offensive linemen ever.

As the linked article states, there are other guys in the Hall of Fame who played for Denver, but they mostly made their marks elsewhere. That may change if Rod Smith gets in (Art Monk just got in with similar numbers--over more years--and one fewer Super Bowl ring, so there's hope right there) and Shannon Sharpe will be up soon. Champ Bailey and Tom Nalen are possibilities too. And then there's Terrell.

Terrell Davis is a longshot even though he crushes the numbers of Gale Sayers, who played roughly the same length of time and never won a title. Yet Sayers is given legend status, the Sandy Koufax of the NFL (although Koufax was more dominant in his sport) and even made the All-Century team. Not to put down Sayers, he's a college legend and was one of the best RB's of his era. But the Sporting News ranked him #21 all time in the NFL...among all players, not just RBs. That's just ludicrous; even Gale Sayers wouldn't rank himself that high. Not above players like Earl Campbell, Ronnie Lott, Dan Marino, and O.J. Simpson. The real reason for this, of course, is sentmentality. Besides the whole "Brian's Song" thing, the Bears of the George Halas era are put on that pedestal next to the Vince Lombardi Packers, the Chuck Noll Steelers, the Bill Walsh 49er's, and the Tom Landry Cowboys as one of "Those Teams." The fact that Gale Sayers came and went within only a handful of years added to the legend at a time when the NFL did not yet dominate the sports world, when TV wasn't the primary source of news and full of microscoped highlights, and when sportswriters for powerful newspapers in New York, Boston--and oh yeah, Chicago--were the ones fashioning sports legends in the minds of America. Terrell could never be canonized like that. Since the ESPN era began, few people could--maybe only Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods became larger than life and more than human. If Terrell had played for, say the New York Giants of the 1950's, he might have been bigger than Jim Brown. But he played for Denver, a city which even after 6 Super Bowl appearances, 2 NFL titles, the 2007 National League Champions, and a Stanley Cup, still finds itself regarded as a second- or even third-tier sports town in terms of national recognition and importance.

But this is about Terrell. Since we wouldn't take Sayers out of the Hall, where does that leave TD? Terrell, with 65 overall TDs, 7607 rushing yards, and two championships in essentially five full seasons (78 total games) is apparently going to be "one of those guys" who is left out in the cold until the voters wise up. This is not to take away from Gale Sayers. He was a great player and by all accounts, a really good guy. But where's the love for Terrell, who was just as great if not far better?

Anyway, that's where we stand on the Hall of Fame thing. LPP himself was going to write up a glowing love letter to Ed McCaffrey, but he's lazy and seriously, it kind of strikes the rest of us as, well...let's just say it's in the realm of Patriots fans who think Wes Welker is just fackin' dynamite but Randy Moss couldn't have done what he did last year without Brady feeding him perfect passes. Personally, I like McCaffrey too but calm down, bro. "I love you Eddie Mac"? Geez.