Ben Jones
TideSports.com Staff Writer
Pro Football Hall of Fame voter John McClain has always thought Kenny Stabler was a Hall of Famer. He's never heard any of his colleagues disagree with him.
But to this point, a bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, has eluded the former University of Alabama quarterback who starred with the Oakland Raiders. Stabler died at the age of 69 on Wednesday from complications from colon cancer.
"I never heard anybody go, 'He doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,'" said McClain, a columnist with the Houston Chronicle. "It's just because of the competition. There's so much competition out there."
Stabler has come close to reaching Canton, but his candidacy has faded in recent years. He was among 15 finalists for the Hall of Fame in 1990, 1991 and 2003, but failed to receive the 80 percent majority needed to be enshrined in the hall each time, according to Saleem Choudhry, museum/exhibits manager at the hall. He was a semifinalist from 2004-09 but didn't receive the support needed to reach the finalist stage.
"The thing with the Hall of Fame a lot of times, it's very difficult to get everyone in who's deserving," said Jarrett Bell, an NFL columnist for USA Today who has been a Hall of Fame voter since 1996. "Sometimes what happens is if a guy doesn't get in immediately, as the years go on, there are more and more candidates that come down the pipe and the next thing you know, you're 10, 20, 30 years later saying 'Hey, why isn't this guy in the Hall of Fame?' But I think he's worthy of consideration."
Stabler's candidacy for the Hall of Fame could find new life next month when the Seniors Committee meets to name its nominees for the hall's class of 2016. The Seniors Committee is a subcommittee made of nine of the 46 voting members. It meets in August to nominate one or two players each year whose careers ended at least 25 years ago. Those nominations are brought to the full voting committee when it votes on the next Hall of Fame class on the day before the Super Bowl.
McClain, who covered Stabler in Houston from 1980-81, is a member of the Seniors Committee.
"The voters seem reluctant to reject a senior," said Ed Bouchette, a Hall of Fame voter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It's not a rubber stamp … but there seems to be more and more sentiment to elect those guys if they're a senior nominee."
Stabler, who retired after the 1984 season, falls in a unique category among Seniors Committee candidates. His career ended long enough ago to qualify, but unlike players whose careers took place in the 1940s or 50s, many of the voters remember seeing Stabler play.
Three of five Hall of Fame voters reached by The Tuscaloosa News said Stabler deserved to be in the Hall of Fame; the other two said he deserved strong consideration but were undecided. Stabler quarterbacked the Raiders for much of the 1970s, earning the 1974 MVP award and leading Oakland to a win in Super Bowl XI.
Those Raiders teams included nine Hall of Famers who played a significant portion of their careers with Stabler. A handful of other Hall of Famers had stints with the Raiders in that time, creating a logjam of candidates that may have made it difficult for Stabler to gain the support he needed.
"You look at that team's success and you say, 'Would they have had all that success without Ken Stabler?' Bell said. "They needed all the other parts, too, but you take Stabler out of that equation and the Raiders are not the Raiders that Al Davis bragged about that decade."
Stabler held most of the Raiders' career passing records when he was traded to Houston, but his statistics lost some value as the NFL became increasingly reliant on passing offenses. He retired with more interceptions (222) than touchdowns (194) and now ranks 54th in league history with 27,938 passing yards. But his legacy is more than numbers to those who watched him play.
"If you put a gun to my head and said, 'You have one quarterback who can lead you on the final drive to win,' it would have been him because he would have found a way to win," said Nick Canepa, a Hall of Fame voter from the San Diego Union-Tribune. "He would have found a way to win the game."
He may yet find his way into the Hall of Fame. The Seniors Committee could give his candidacy another chance when it meets to research nominees next month.
"I hate to think Kenny Stabler dying would change our opinion of him as a quarterback," McClain said. "That should have no effect on anybody. I've always thought he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame and I still believe he's deserving."
- See more at: https://www.rivals.com/content.asp?sid=885&CID=1782118#sthash.TBxAsH07.dpuf
TideSports.com Staff Writer
Pro Football Hall of Fame voter John McClain has always thought Kenny Stabler was a Hall of Famer. He's never heard any of his colleagues disagree with him.
But to this point, a bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, has eluded the former University of Alabama quarterback who starred with the Oakland Raiders. Stabler died at the age of 69 on Wednesday from complications from colon cancer.
"I never heard anybody go, 'He doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,'" said McClain, a columnist with the Houston Chronicle. "It's just because of the competition. There's so much competition out there."
Stabler has come close to reaching Canton, but his candidacy has faded in recent years. He was among 15 finalists for the Hall of Fame in 1990, 1991 and 2003, but failed to receive the 80 percent majority needed to be enshrined in the hall each time, according to Saleem Choudhry, museum/exhibits manager at the hall. He was a semifinalist from 2004-09 but didn't receive the support needed to reach the finalist stage.
"The thing with the Hall of Fame a lot of times, it's very difficult to get everyone in who's deserving," said Jarrett Bell, an NFL columnist for USA Today who has been a Hall of Fame voter since 1996. "Sometimes what happens is if a guy doesn't get in immediately, as the years go on, there are more and more candidates that come down the pipe and the next thing you know, you're 10, 20, 30 years later saying 'Hey, why isn't this guy in the Hall of Fame?' But I think he's worthy of consideration."
Stabler's candidacy for the Hall of Fame could find new life next month when the Seniors Committee meets to name its nominees for the hall's class of 2016. The Seniors Committee is a subcommittee made of nine of the 46 voting members. It meets in August to nominate one or two players each year whose careers ended at least 25 years ago. Those nominations are brought to the full voting committee when it votes on the next Hall of Fame class on the day before the Super Bowl.
McClain, who covered Stabler in Houston from 1980-81, is a member of the Seniors Committee.
"The voters seem reluctant to reject a senior," said Ed Bouchette, a Hall of Fame voter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It's not a rubber stamp … but there seems to be more and more sentiment to elect those guys if they're a senior nominee."
Stabler, who retired after the 1984 season, falls in a unique category among Seniors Committee candidates. His career ended long enough ago to qualify, but unlike players whose careers took place in the 1940s or 50s, many of the voters remember seeing Stabler play.
Three of five Hall of Fame voters reached by The Tuscaloosa News said Stabler deserved to be in the Hall of Fame; the other two said he deserved strong consideration but were undecided. Stabler quarterbacked the Raiders for much of the 1970s, earning the 1974 MVP award and leading Oakland to a win in Super Bowl XI.
Those Raiders teams included nine Hall of Famers who played a significant portion of their careers with Stabler. A handful of other Hall of Famers had stints with the Raiders in that time, creating a logjam of candidates that may have made it difficult for Stabler to gain the support he needed.
"You look at that team's success and you say, 'Would they have had all that success without Ken Stabler?' Bell said. "They needed all the other parts, too, but you take Stabler out of that equation and the Raiders are not the Raiders that Al Davis bragged about that decade."
Stabler held most of the Raiders' career passing records when he was traded to Houston, but his statistics lost some value as the NFL became increasingly reliant on passing offenses. He retired with more interceptions (222) than touchdowns (194) and now ranks 54th in league history with 27,938 passing yards. But his legacy is more than numbers to those who watched him play.
"If you put a gun to my head and said, 'You have one quarterback who can lead you on the final drive to win,' it would have been him because he would have found a way to win," said Nick Canepa, a Hall of Fame voter from the San Diego Union-Tribune. "He would have found a way to win the game."
He may yet find his way into the Hall of Fame. The Seniors Committee could give his candidacy another chance when it meets to research nominees next month.
"I hate to think Kenny Stabler dying would change our opinion of him as a quarterback," McClain said. "That should have no effect on anybody. I've always thought he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame and I still believe he's deserving."
- See more at: https://www.rivals.com/content.asp?sid=885&CID=1782118#sthash.TBxAsH07.dpuf
