COWBOY BIAS? LINK In the last several years, there has been a lot of grumbling that some of the great players in Cowboys history have been snubbed from the HOF due to some voter biasing. Winning 3 superbowls in the 70s, and losing another couple tight Superbowls to the team of the 70s (Steelers), they have little in the HOF to show for it. This post is not necessarily to argue that I agree with this perspective. I think the Cowboys have a poor showing for their great teams, yes. I think there are a couple other teams that had a good era that are lacking in Canton as well. However, I do have issue with King's article here. I don't criticize his viewpoint as much as his reasoning. Within this article, he uses the list of "Cowboys" as proof that they have their fair share of players enshrined. Here is the list: Cowboys in Hall of Fame Player (Years with Dallas) Herb Adderley (1970-1972) Lance Alworth (1971-1972) Mike Ditka (1969-1972) Tony Dorsett (1977-1987) Forrest Gregg (1971) Tom Landry (1960-1988) Bob Lilly (1961-1974) Tommy McDonald (1964) Mel Renfro (1964-1977) Tex Schramm (1960-1989) Jackie Smith (1978) Roger Staubach (1969-1979) Randy White (1975-1988) Excuse me, but I don't think players like Forrest Gregg earned their trip to Canton by playing for the Cowboys. Many of these players had a meaningless season or two at the end of their career and were marginal starters at best for the Cowboys. Additionally, two are the list are not players. Looking a true Cowboy players that contributed, I would consider Lilly and McDonald from one period, and Dorsett, Staubach, and White from the later 70s period. I'd say that the list is rather lacking to me. I'll give you that a few of these part-timers contributed to their 71 season Superbowl, but 4 legitimate Cowboy players from a team that went to 5 superbowls in 9 years? He knows better than to use this kind of data to prove his point.
Future. Irvin get in Aikman gets in Emmit Smith gets in Deion Sanders gets in Larry Allen gets in Thats 5 sure first hall of famers in the next 10 years.
I agree that listing people who happened to play as Cowboys once is not a good example. Forrest Gregg and Mike Ditka are the two most glaring examples... I also agree with E4L...those five guys will be in the Hall of Fame in the next ten years. The Cowboys will get their due.
The main point was to show that the list of Cowboys is a little unfair. Drew Pearson really kicked this off again, but I think he has other motives, such as selling at autobiography. I think that if Lynn Swann is in, that Pearson should be. However, I'm not sure either should be, especially with Art Monk still missing. I think Cliff Harris, Rayfield Wright, and Bob Hayes from the Cowboys belong before Drew Pearson. For the players of a great team era, this is a big honor for them, especially those that played once upon a time. They were beaten twice by a very good Steelers team in close battles. Besides the 2 titles they did win in the decade, the hall of fame is a nice remembrance of how good they were. The latter does not show how good they were. Same goes for the Vikings of that era. As a fan, I would agree that more Cowboys are coming that are obvious "buys". To the above list, I would also throw in Darren Woodson. As far as the bias discussion goes, it will be interesting to see how they treat some maybes or doubtfulls from the great 90s team such as Jay Novacek, Jimmy Johnson, Moose Johnson, etc. But to include later Cowboys does not make up for past errors.
What about the 49ers. I think they got 3 or 4 guys in the HOF and they won 5 Super Bowls. So the Boys aren't the only guys getting snubbed.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (panthersare#1)</div><div class='quotemain'>can aikman get in next year?</div> I believe he will be eligible. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (porky88)</div><div class='quotemain'>What about the 49ers. I think they got 3 or 4 guys in the HOF and they won 5 Super Bowls. So the Boys aren't the only guys getting snubbed.</div> Maybe so, but who is missing? Rice will be there when eligible. Romo probably wont make it, but isn't even eligible yet. John Taylor? No. Roger Craig? Maybe. Brent Jones? Doubtful. Guy McIntire? Charles Haley? Matt Millen? Randy Cross? Jack Reynolds? Jess Sapolu? Wendell Tyler? All good guys, but no gimmes.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cowboy71)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (panthersare#1)</div><div class='quotemain'>can aikman get in next year?</div> I believe he will be eligible. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (porky88)</div><div class='quotemain'>What about the 49ers. I think they got 3 or 4 guys in the HOF and they won 5 Super Bowls. So the Boys aren't the only guys getting snubbed.</div> Maybe so, but who is missing? Rice will be there when eligible. Romo probably wont make it, but isn't even eligible yet. John Taylor? No. Roger Craig? Maybe. Brent Jones? Doubtful. Guy McIntire? Charles Haley? Matt Millen? Randy Cross? Jack Reynolds? Jess Sapolu? Wendell Tyler? All good guys, but no gimmes.</div> True but the Cowboys don't have any gimmies until Aikman,Smith.Irvin and Allen. When they are eligible but outside of the 90's team. The Cowboys probably won't add anymore HOF's from the other teams.
Why doesnt the cowboys retire anybodys jersey number? They have had some many great players come threw there
[quote name='porky88'][quote name='Cowboy71'][quote name='panthersare#1']can aikman get in next year?[/quote] I believe he will be eligible. [quote name='porky88']What about the 49ers. I think they got 3 or 4 guys in the HOF and they won 5 Super Bowls. So the Boys aren't the only guys getting snubbed.[/quote] Maybe so, but who is missing? Rice will be there when eligible. Romo probably wont make it, but isn't even eligible yet. John Taylor? No. Roger Craig? Maybe. Brent Jones? Doubtful. Guy McIntire? Charles Haley? Matt Millen? Randy Cross? Jack Reynolds? Jess Sapolu? Wendell Tyler? All good guys, but no gimmes.[/quote] True but the Cowboys don't have any gimmies until Aikman,Smith.Irvin and Allen. When they are eligible but outside of the 90's team. The Cowboys probably won't add anymore HOF's from the other teams.[/quote] I would probably start with a couple players from the 70s team that went to 5 superbowls in that decade alone. At this point, I'm not sure how many are worthy compared to newer players that are eligible. However, other teams got players in for less during that era.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (panthersare#1)</div><div class='quotemain'>Why doesnt the cowboys retire anybodys jersey number? They have had some many great players come threw there</div> Its true that they don't retire jerseys. The wiseguy answer would be that they do not because they've had so many great players, they would run out of jerseys. The realist answer is unknown. However, they do not re-issue a lot of jersey numbers, making them unofficially retired. I think the ring of honor basically performs the same function.
The NFL and most teams really frown in retiring jersey numbers. As rosters expand and as teams are allowed to invite more players to camp, it's getting hard for some teams to find numbers for all of their players to use in the early stages of the season. That's when you see receivers running around with numbers like "1." It's lame... I agree with Cowboy71...the ring of honor is a better way to go. (That said, the Packers are going to retire #92 and #4 and they've already retired four other numbers...3, 14, 15, and 66).
The Panthers just retired Sam Mills number in last weeks preseaon game. Sam Mills was our LB and LB coach who just died of cancer
