You could lower your blood pressure by a large percentage if you just turn ESPN off. It's a shadow of a joke of an informative station at this point.
i find ESPN as a whole rather good. They have many varying opinions which makes them watchable. It's just those few idiots who make it worse like jason whitlock (the one who said the comments). most of the other ESPN analysts would consider martin a slam dunk hall of famer with a better career than bettis.
Martin: Among the league's all-time top 50 Rushes: 3 Rushing yards: 4 (Smith; Payton; Sanders; Martin) Rushing TDs: 10t Yards from scrimmage: 7 Rush/Receive TDs: 16t They are morons. The only thing that hurts Martin is that for whatever reason -- if you had to rattle off the best rbs of all time (and you are NOT a Jets fan) -- he is going to be behind a bunch of guys.
I would be shocked if Martin is a first ballot HOFer. He will certainly get it, but first ballot is reserved for superstars. At a glance, these are the guys that appear to be first ballot guys: Troy Aikman Marcus Allen Raymond Berry George Blanda Mel Blount Terry Bradshaw Jim Brown Dick Butkus Earl Cambell Eric Dickerson Tony Dorsett John Elway Dan Fouts Forrest Gregg Jack Ham John Hannah Ken Houston Deacon Jones Jim Kelly Walt Kiesling Jack Lambert Jim Langer Steve Largent Bobby Layne Bob Lilly Ronnie Lott Dan Marino Hugh McElenny Joe Montana Warren Moon Ray Nitschke Leo Nomellini Merlin Olsen Jim Otto Jim Parker Walter Payton Barry Sanders Gale Sayers OJ Simpson Mike Singletary Bart Starr Roger Staubach Ernie Stautner Jan Stenerud Lawrence Taylor Emlen Tunnell Johnny Unitas Gene Upshaw Randy White Reggie White Larry Wilson Steve Young Sorry, but Curtis does not belong on that list. DbJ
Paul Warfield getting glossed over once again. He's the #3 wide receiver of all time in my book. Otherwise, you might have 'em all. If nobody beats me to it, I might post the correct 1st ballot HOFers list tomorrow, if there is anyone else you missed. (EDIT- list is complete below.)
I don't think he was first ballot. He retired in 1977 and was part of the class of 1984. I was using Wikipedia as a reference. One that surprised me was Namath not being first ballot.
other first ballot Hall of Famers: Lance Alworth Chuck Bednarik Willie Brown Joe Greene Franco Harris Ted Hendricks Gino Marchetti Ollie Matson Anthony Munoz Jackie Slater
If Franco Harris is a first ballot guy, Martin is an automatic. The man is in the top ten rushers of all time fer cryin out loud!
Rome has always had a beef with Martin, because Martin would not go on his show. Martin has always said he wants to do positive interviews, and Rome is the Jerry Springer of sports.
Absolutely. Also, Martin was definitely a better player than Long, Slater, Moon, Kelly, and Allen, in my opinion. There are several others you can argue about. Also, Walt Kiesling does not belong on the list. He did not get inducted on the 1st ballot as a player. 1938 was his final season as a player. He coached the Steelers till '56. He was inducted in '66.
Actually, on the way home from work yesterday, I was listening to ESPN RADIO, and they talked for over 20 minutes about how Martin is a definate Hall Of Famer, then they were comparing him to Marshall Faulk. They said Martins post season numbers were outstanding, while Faulks left something to be desired. So I wouldn't put any stock in anything Rome has to say. He's the Jerry Springer of talk radio.(notice I wouldn't even say "sports" talk)
Long wasn't first ballot. (retired 1993, HOF 2000) Slater played for 20 years. Moon gets credit for CFL play (remember it is Pro Football HOF) Kelly - 4 straight SB appearances. Allen - SB win and long career and lots of TDs If Martin won a SB, he would be first ballot, but I think he is just not a large enough national presence to get in first ballot. There was never any point in his career where he would have been considered the best RB in the league or even among the top 10 players regardless of position.
I wish the team could've won a ring.....this issue wouldn't even be worth discussing then. Championships change everything. I'm a big fan of Cmart, but one thing they said on the show did make sense. They said 15 years from now, if we go back to look at football from the late 90's to few years past 2000, you don't really need to discuss C-Mart. Reliable-yes. Durable-without question. Game Changing Playmaker-not really Cmart. He was always good at not losing the game with ability to hang on to the rock/good pass protection/not dropping passes...etc. But for a back his size, he was never a burner nor did he have alot of jaw dropping, ankle breaking moments (he did have some though). It comes down to what type of player they want as a 1st ballot HOF'er. If there looking for a great ambassador of the game, a real class act that was reliable year in year out for over a decade then Cmart will get in early. I still think between his numbers and his personality he will still be 1st ballot, but they made some valid points on the show that any un-biased football fan could see and agree with.
