77.5 sacks, 20.5 sacks in a season, All Pro at 3 different positions, DE, NT, DT, why is he not in the HOF...one wasted season in 1982 when Hasselbeck dove at his knee 3 seconds after the play ended and blew out his patella tendon...
Its almost a crime that he is not in. Ask any lineman from his era and they will tell you joe was the last guy they wanted to try to block
+1000 The Sack Exchange!!!!!!!!! Bout time they nominate Klecko Lyons Gastineau and Sallaam, or at least Klecko /Lyons please
Joe would have been the upper stratosphere of career sacks leaders but chose to help the team by playing DT and DE
Its a crime and a sin that he is not in ! He also at one time when Gastineau was starting his boxing career said " I will fight him anytime anywhere for nothing and we can donate the money to charity ",,love 73
Career numbers speak volumes. Kevin Greene had 10 double digit sack seasons, and double the amount of sacks Klecko had over the course of his career. It could be easier saying this by looking at statistics rather than having watched either play, but all Hall of Fames become a numbers game at some point, especially as we move into the era of advanced analytics.
Playing defensive line is more than just sacks, especially when a chunk of the time you are playing Nose Tackle. I like Kevin Green as a player, but comparing sack numbers of a guy who played OLB in a 3-4 for most of his career with the rest being solely a DE in a 4-3 is not quite apples to apples. I would take Klecko over Greene any day and TWICE on Sundays!
The fickle finger of fate working against us.....just makes the '82 Championship game harder to take. Joe never exactly went out of his way to endear himself to the media. He was gruff with them I really don't care much about who goes in. But Klecko is different, he should be in there and that would truly be a great thing for the fans that saw him play.
You make excellent points as to why this did occur. The way I'm looking at it is if I was starting a 4-3 defense, I would take Klecko at DT before Greene at LB--lots of LB in front of Greene. In fact, in a 4-3, Greene isn't even on the team. In a 3-4, maybe they're even since there's been some great NT's. Taken in sum, plus the fact that Klecko was an all-pro DE, I rank him higher.
