Monday, June 9, 2008

The Original One-Gap Lineman

So Michael Strahan is hanging 'em up. Good for him, leaving while he can still walk.

But in the article there's a line that made me double-take:

"Strahan leaves the Giants as the team's all-time quarterback sack leader and a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer. He also leaves after having donned the Blue and White more than any player in Giants history."

Is Michael Strahan a Hall of Famer period? Is he first-ballot? Is this Jay Glazer starting, on Day One of the five-year wait, to campaign for a friend? Is this me hating all things New York and not being objective? Is this too many questions in a row?

2 comments:

Adam Kadela said...

This is a) NY bias, b) due to his single season record, and c) his ring.

The football HOF makes all kinds of silly decisions. More than any other sport, I think the selection committee obsessess over Super Bowl rings.

Um, there's something to be said for championships, but in the ultimate team sport, I think the SB winners get too much benefit of the doubt and non-winners get the shaft.

Frank Flynn said...

Looking at some of the numbers that have been posted today, Strahan's fifth in career sacks (with the requisite caveats that they weren't an official stat until the '70s and that Deacon Jones got screwed or something). I just never got the impression that he was so dominant as to completely take over a game. All the other guys in the top ten save Rickey Jackson at #10 had more double-digit sack years than Strahan. And while he does hold the single-season record, that's more Brett Favre's doing than his own. But seriously, look at those numbers and tell me he gets in on the first ballot, but do that without laughing so hard you squirt milk out your nose.

I think he gets the major-market boost (in addition to the major-market team being a storied franchise), he gets the Super Bowl boost, and he gets a boost from being a friendly, media-ready guy. I get the impression he's this decade's Howie Long, the guy who's borderline based on numbers but will probably get in because he's always on television.

(As an extra-credit question, look at Howie Long's numbers and make a logical case for his enshrinement in Canton.)