Tag Archives: The Hall Of Fame

Harrison agrees with Law about the NFL HOF and says the media are Haters

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Monday Rodney Harrison will be inducted into the Patriots HOF. But right now it seems like the color of the jacket is the main topic.

Recently Ty Law, who is about to go into the Pro Football HOF, talked about Patriot players from the early 2000’s being overlooked. He may be right. But when you take a hard look there may not be many to follow him.

Here’s Ty Laws take on The HOF

Ty Law was a great player and is well deserving of the gold jacket, and he thinks there is a reason for the lack of Patriot players: The media. Ty said “It’s like we are looked at as a team, that’s it…Like there’s no players worthy of the HOF, at least from the media perspective, when it comes to the Patriots. It’s Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and everybody else, you know what I mean?”

Law isn’t completely wrong about this. Nationally, when it comes to the Patriots dominance, it comes down to the HC and QB. The Patriots machine has kept rolling for two decades, and the two constants have been Tom and Bill. That doesn’t mean Law thinks any less of his old teammate and coach. He blames the media. “You pretty much know, Tom Brady is the Greatest of all time,” Law said. “There’s no doubt about that. There’s no question about Coach Belichick. When you hear about our team, it was like to me, we have a hell of a lot of players out there who can play. You can’t do it with just two guys.”

Rodney agrees with Law

Harrison expanded on Law’s thoughts about the Patriot prejudice in the media. He talked about Patriots fatigue, and anti Patriots bias in the HOF.

“People don’t think we have ballers.” Rodney says “Ty Law was the greatest defensive back I’ve ever played with. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. Richard Seymour, Willie McGinest, Troy Brown, Kevin Faulk, these were bad, bad dudes. They weren’t just system guys.”

He added to Law’s thoughts on Bill and Tom, and how the media gives them all of the credit. “People don’t want to elevate us, or recognize, or acknowledge how great we are, because they’re such haters. Everywhere I go, people hate on the Patriots. So we don’t get credit. All I hear is Tom and Bill. But that’s such a lazy analysis. They don’t see what a team really is, and that’s really frustrating because a lot of guys get cheated and don’t really get the recognition they deserve.”

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get more from Rodney as he receives his red jacket

Harrison came to New England as Bill Belichick sent Lawyer Milloy to the Bills. The team didn’t like the move one bit. But once they saw Rodney’s work ethic and leadership he was quickly embraced as a captain. Tomorrow afternoon Harrison will be inducted to the Patriots HOF, and he seems to be happier than anyone before him going in. We will have you covered with the ceremony and behind the scenes interviews you can only find here. I will do my best to see who Rodney thinks is next in line for a Gold jacket.

Monday in Gillette stadium at 4:30, it’s free to the public. Rodney Harrison will be recognized and celebrated for his amazing career as a Patriot. So come on out, or you can wait to see everything in tomorrow’s article. You’ll only get to see the behind the scenes action right here, so make sure to check it out. Let’s Go Patriots!


Vote Roger Clemens Into The Hall Of Fame

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When we pull out the winter coats and see our heating bills rise, the Baseball Hall of Fame announcement is soon to follow.  This year is year 7 of 10 for Roger Clemens.  This is a man with 7 Cy Young awards and 354 wins.  So why isn’t he in the Hall Of Fame right now?

We all know the answer to that question.  His PED use.  Or his alleged PED use.  That story is so overdone and convoluted I’m not going to dive into it here.  Instead, I’m going to go through a Red Sox fan’s journey to acceptance of The Rocket.

The Red Sox Rise & Fall

Roger Clemens started on the Red Sox in 1984, but he burst onto the scene in 1986.  He went 24-4 with 2.48 ERA and won the Cy Young and MVP.  The list of pitchers that have done that is small.  Through 1992, he continued his greatness.  He won 17 or more games 7 times and averaged a 2.90 ERA.

But then 1993-1996 happened.  Clemens appeared to pack it in.  Over those three years, he averaged 10 wins and a 3.78 ERA.  That ERA is good for most pitchers, but not for The Rocket.  His decline famously led Dan Duquette, the Sox GM at the time, to say it was the twilight of his career.

Betrayal

So Duquette allowed him to sign with the division rival, Toronto Blue Jays, and all of a sudden he was revitalized.  He won two straight Cy Young awards, averaging 20 wins a year and a 2.35 ERA.  He even had the best strikeouts per 9 innings of his career, a measure of a pitcher’s ‘nastiness’.

And then he went to the Yankees.  If he had done nothing else, that would’ve been enough for me and the rest of Red Sox nation to hate him.  But of course, he continued to pitch well, including another Cy Young and 2 World Series wins with the hated Pinstripes.

This turned our unrequited love towards him to ash.  Clemens had turned the place of our escape from everyday turmoil, the game and the local nine, into another place of hurt and pain.

Perspective

But hate is no way to go through life.   In time, Jose Canseco has been proven right: Everyone juiced.  Batters, starting pitchers, relievers, part-time players, Hall of Famers, everyone.

Sure there have been many clean players, but so many juicers, they were all shoulder to shoulder in the PED wine pit.

And Clemens was still head an shoulder above most of them.  He ended with 7 Cy Youngs, the most in history.  He’s the 9th winningest pitcher in MLB history.  Yes, there is plenty of taint on those records.

But Jim Bouton, in his seminal Ball Four, speaks of PED use by pitchers, mainly himself and Whitey Ford, in the 1960s.  The bottom line is there’s been a lot of ‘looking for an edge’ going on throughout baseball history.

To summarize: Yes, Roger Clemens probably cheated, but so did a lot of others, and on performance alone, he would’ve been a first ballot Hall of Famer.  As it is, the writers have made him suffer for 6 years so far, and the rules were even changed because of him and Barry Bonds.  It used to be players had 15 years on the ballot to get in, that’s how long it took Jim Rice and Tim Raines.  But now it’s a 10-year limit.

I don’t think anyone is going to forget his probable PED use.  But I believe we should move towards forgiveness.  So what are his chances?

Roger Clemens Hall of Fame Voting

To get into the Hall, 75% of the vote is required.  Thanks to the intrepid Ryan Thibodaux, we can track Clemen’s voting percentages.   Since Thibodaux’s tracking started, Clemens has gone from 39% in 2013, up to 61% in 2018.  In the old system of 15 years of eligibility that is a track that eventually leads to the 75% threshold.

But Clemens only has three years left.  The theory is that younger voters are voting for him.  Let’s hope they can persuade their cranky obstinate brethren, and get him voted in.