Brian Mitchell was the best pure UL football player I've seen at Cajun Field. He deserves to be in HOF but I have my doubts for sure he will ever get in.
He deserves it when you combine production and longevity, but no, I don't think he ever makes it in. Special Teams aren't very well represented in the HOF. It took Ray Guy, generally regarded as the best punter to ever play, almost 30 years to get in. MAYBE later on as a Senior Committee nominee. With Guy and now Morten Andersen getting in, maybe we're seeing a softening on the hard stance against special teams guys.
I agree with this. At least they now recognize a special teamer on the Pro Bowl rosters, but the reality is that most of these guys are back ups on offense or defense. A strong argument could be made that had guys like Barry Sanders or Jerry Rice returned kicks, they would have put total yardage numbers up that would likely never be touched.
And yes, Brian had the most total yards at one time, but return yards are nowhere near the same as yards from scrimmage. Before they moved the kickoff up, like when Mitchell was returning kickoffs, you got 15-20 yards each time before you even had a defender near you.
They are very much a part of the game but you and I don't vote...their peers do. I think the overall feeling of a locker room in regards to special teams guys is that you aren't good enough for first or second string so you go get hurt on special teams while we save our "good players" for the game. Those guys doing the voting think "imagine if i played special teams, I'm a hall of fame LB or RB, I was too good to risk playing special teams but if I did, I'd be way better than that guy"
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