KUSA – Once Pat Bowlen and Gil Brandt receive rubber-stamped election on the eve of Super Bowl LIII in two weeks, it will be time for the Pro Football Hall of Fame board of trustees and advisors to reassess their subcategories.
The contributor pool is drying up. The senior players pool is overflowing.
There are 318 Hall of Famers but take away coaches and contributors and there are just 270 players. Only four were pure Broncos: John Elway, Floyd Little, Shannon Sharpe and Terrell Davis. Gary Zimmerman, who had five terrific seasons with the Broncos in his 12-year career, makes five.
With all due respect to the invaluable contributions of good scouting, Randy Gradishar is more deserving of the Hall of Fame than Bucko Kilroy. Even if Kilroy does deserve his share of credit for helping to start the Patriots’ ongoing dynasty, there are several players who deserve the distinction of football immortality to every one contributor.
For the past five years, the HOF has rotated its contributor and senior pools so that the contributor group gets two finalists one year; one the next, while the senior player group gets one finalist one year, two the next. And so on.
I propose a different rotation: Three senior player finalists one year; two the next, and so on for at least six years. A 3-2-3-2-3-2 grouping, or 15 forgotten player greats for election in the next six years.
The contributor category, meanwhile, skips every other year with one finalist. 0-1-0-1-0-1. Three contributor finalists in a six-year period.
Kilroy, George Young and Steve Sabol would still get their due. But so would Gradishar, Louis Wright, Karl Mecklenburg, Lionel Taylor, Cookie Gilchrist, Alex Karras, Roger Craig, Drew Pearson, Gino Cappalletti, Dave Grayson and Cliff Branch, among others who are deserving.
Here are 9 Bronco players who just because their time on the modern-era ballot expired doesn’t mean they’re not worthy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
Randy Gradishar
LB, 10 years, 1974-83
One of the most eregious Hall of Fame crimes is not one member of the famed 1977 Orange Crush defense has had their bust bronzed. Gradishar was the best player on one of the best defensive units in NFL history.
Let’s say Gradishar didn’t average an astounding 205 tackles a season in his 10-year career – as the Broncos’ media guide says he did but influential Hall voter Paul Zimmerman used to contend. Go ahead, take 25 percent off his tackle totals. Gradishar would still have averaged 154 tackles a season – which would have led or finished second in the NFL each of the past five years.
And there is no doubting his 1978 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award – the only Bronco so chosen as even Von Miller has been unable to capture the top honor. And Gradishar’s 20 interceptions – a phenomenal total for an inside linebacker – can’t be disputed. A two-time, modern-era finalist before he joined the senior pool in 2009.
Karl Mecklenburg
DE/OLB/ILB, 12 years, 1983-94
The second-best Broncos player during the Elway-Reeves era. Wade Phillips said it best. Mecklenburg was the only player Phillips had ever seen play inside linebacker on first and second down and edge rusher on third down.
Phillips has been coaching in the NFL since 1976. Versatility should be awarded, not penalized. Yet, because Meck didn’t have as many tackles as other pure inside linebackers or as many sacks as pure edge rushers, he never made it to the final 15 Hall voting. He was a top 25 semifinalist eight straight years, but he is now bumped to the senior pool after not making it in this year’s election.
Louis Wright
CB, 12 years, 1975-86
Do you know how much money a 6-foot-2, five-time Pro Bowl cover cornerback would make in the NFL today? At least the $15 million a year average that Josh Norman is getting. Norman was no Louis Wright, who never made more than the $400,000 salary he received in his final season of 1986.
“Ahead of his time,’’ Tom Jackson of Wright in the book, “The 50 Greatest Players in Broncos History.” “Ahead of his time not only in his skill set, but his size, his speed, his ability to cover. As complicated as the Orange Crush was, we went into a game with, ‘You 10 guys have to be totally coordinated with everything you do -- Louis you take their best receiver. You take Lynn Swann, you take Steve Largent, John Jefferson and you shut him down and we’ll win.’’’
Tom Jackson
OLB, 14 years, 1973-86
ESPN Commentator, 29 years, 1987-2015
The ultimate “combo candidate.” I talked to several Hall of Fame voters after John Madden was elected in 2006 say he only got in on the merits of his coaching. Bull. Madden did have an incredible 103-32-7 record with the Raiders. But he only coached 10 seasons and won just one Super Bowl.
It was Madden’s color commentating work that made him the league’s biggest celebrity for 20 years and put him over the top for Hall election.
Jackson, too, was a terrific linebacker in his own right, making the Pro Bowl three straight years during the height of the Orange Crush era. But he and Chris Berman were the faces of the NFL for nearly three decades.
Billy Thompson
S, 13 years, 1969-81
“Bronco Billy” was the team captain of the Orange Crush defense. More remarkable than the 891 tackles he had as a safety were his 61 takeaways (40 interceptions and 21 fumble recoveries) and seven defensive touchdowns. He also is the only player in NFL history to lead the league (AFL) in kickoff returns and punt returns as a rookie (1969).
No safety in today’s game makes the kind of big plays Thompson delivered on a consistent basis.
Lionel Taylor
WR, 10 years, 1959-68
The first receiver ever to have a 100-catch season. And Taylor did it during the 14-game season of 1961. He led the American Football League in receiving five seasons. Lance Alworth led for three seasons. Taylor is the AFL’s all-time leader with 567 catches. Don Maynard is second with 546. Alworth and Maynard have long been Hall of Famers.
And Taylor did almost all his damage in the six-year period from 1960-65, when he averaged 85 catches, 1,071 yards and 7 touchdowns – unheard of numbers even by the wide-open AFL standards in a 14-game season.
Dennis Smith
S, 14 years, 1981-1994
Mecklenburg said it best.
“If Dennis Smith had a memorable name he’d be in the Hall of Fame,’’ Mecklenburg, who got a hero’s sendoff with Smith in the final game of the 1994 season, said in the book, “50 Greatest Players in Broncos History.”
Smith was a versatile defensive back – he played nickel corner early in his career – who was also a ferocious hitter and an incredible athlete who cleared 7-foot-2 in the high jump. In high school.
Some long-time Bronco followers say Smith was a better safety than Steve Atwater, who is a modern-era top 15 finalist for the second time this year. This group includes Atwater himself.
Smith’s problem as it regards to the Hall of Fame is the Broncos probably had more great players at safety than any other position.
Rich “Tombstone” Jackson
DE, 7 years, 1966-72
Now here is where the late Dr. Z knew what he was talking about. He put Jackson on his NFL All Century defensive team, which Sports Illustrated published in 1999. Jackson joined Reggie White and Deacon Jones at the defensive end position.
Tombstone is a Terrell Davis-like candidate in that he only had four consecutive healthy seasons before a knee injury robbed him of a magnificent career. He did have 31 sacks in the three-year span from 1968-70: 10 in 1968, 11 in 1969, 10 in 1970.
Jackson is also credited with pioneering the “head slap” and “Halo Spinner” pass-rush moves, although Jones is more commonly associated with the “head slap” that was such an effective technique it was eventually outlawed.
Austin “Goose” Gonsoulin
S, 8 years, 1960-67
An original Bronco, Goose started his professional career with two interceptions in his first game; four in his second. Six picks in his first two career games and first two games in Broncos history. He finished his rookie season with 11 interceptions (in only 14 games), which stands nearly 60 years later as the Broncos’ single-season record.
Through his first six seasons, Gonsoulin had an incredible 43 interceptions, easily the most by an NFL-AFL player in that span.
“Goose played center field and he played the ball really good,” said receiver teammate Lionel Taylor. “And he was a big safety; he could hit, too.”
Unfortunately, all those hits started battering Gonsoulin’s body and he missed four games in 1966. Between injuries and a move from roaming safety to cover corner, he didn’t get another interception for the Broncos or in the AFL. Still, Goose was a four-time All-AFL selection and played in five AFL All Star games.
Others: Riley Odoms, TE; Bud McFadin, DL; Paul Smith, DL; Rick Upchurch, returner.
Note: Bronco players like Rod Smith and Tom Nalen are still eligible on the Hall of Fame modern-era ballot and are not included here, although they, too, deserve considerably more consideration than they've been getting. Until another day.
