NFL Hall of Famers

#1
crusse10

crusse10

THIS MAN IS A PERVERT
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#1
I have a problem here. I was wondering how Tennessee had done in terms of the amount of HOFers. It turns out we have had 2, Atkins and White. Sure, Peyton will be there, but for now, it's 2.
Even scarier, however, is the amount that the SEC has total.
Alabama notwithstanding, the SEC has 14 NFL HOFers. That's sad. With Alabama, we are at a respectable 21. The Pac 10 has 33. Without Southern Cal, their leader, they have 22. The Big 12 has 19. The scary one, though, is the Big 10. They have 46 HOFers.

Big 10 - 46
Pac 10 - 33
SEC - 21 (22 including Emmitt in 2010)
ACC - 20 (21 including Deion in 2011)
Big 12 - 19
Big East - 13

This is upsetting to me. While we always talk up our NFL credentials, the NFL doesn't seem to agree with who we (as a conference) put into the league. Our league has history. Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia, LSU...Yet we our history hasn't done much for elite NFL talent.
 
#2
#2
If you have the talent to be an NFL hall of famer you're going to be fine going anywhere. The SEC puts more players in the league. That's what's important. I think guys are going to college with more of a mindset toward making it to the NFL. I doubt anyone is going to pick Ohio State because they think the Buckeyes would give them a better chance of being an NFL stud for a decade plus in order to get in Canton.
 
#3
#3
No one really cares. As long as you are a NFL factory in recent history then you are fine. Kids don't care about the guys from the 50s and 60s doing well. They want to see the players this decade who they see playing on TV. The number of NFL hall of famers from the SEC will rise exponentially next decade. It's a numbers game. More you have now will increase the probability of having Hall of Famers 10-15 years from now. In the end, the kids don't care as long as you have the numbers now. We do.
 
#4
#4
Historically speaking, you're talking about a smaller number of prestigious universities 50-60 years ago than we have now, you're talking about less scouting resources and collegiate parity, and you're talking about a smaller pool of players being "professionals" who would have a chance to become that elite talent to join the HoF.

Though it's shallowed a little bit, just scan NFL 53-man rosters nowadays. You're still going to see a bunch of University of Tennessee names. Atkins, White, Manning....these guys don't come around every season even in other programs. Just because USC has won a couple of National Championships this last decade, does that mean (as it stands right now anyway) that Leinart, Bush, White, Booty, Mike Williams, and others are on a course for the HoF?

Right now I'd say there's little shot of any of them getting in. Even Carson Palmer is going to have to step it up to start getting in those discussions.

But as a program, we can still point to Manning. Albert Haynesworth. Gibril Wilson. Jerod Mayo. Jason Witten. Jamal Lewis. John Henderson. Deon Grant. Shaun Ellis.

None of them have been slouches in the NFL, and are earning decent paychecks. That's what a recruit is going to care about initially. Ten years into their NFL career, maybe the HoF creeps into their mind a little bit, but I guarantee you it's not as important of a measuring stick as it seems.
 
#5
#5
Future HOF from Tennessee?

Witten, Manning, Haynesworth

ERIC BERRY - did you guys already forget about him? :matrix:
 
#6
#6
I wasn't saying this in regard to bringing in new people. You misunderstood my meaning for this thread.
I am saying that we have always prided ourselves on producing top-level NFL talent, yet it is shown by this that the top NFL talent hasn't come from the SEC. I wasn't using this in a recruiting standpoint, I was just using it to say that, historically, the SEC has not produced the top tier athletes like we say we do.
 
#7
#7
crusse10 said:
I wasn't saying this in regard to bringing in new people. You misunderstood my meaning for this thread.
I am saying that we have always prided ourselves on producing top-level NFL talent, yet it is shown by this that the top NFL talent hasn't come from the SEC. I wasn't using this in a recruiting standpoint, I was just using it to say that, historically, the SEC has not produced the top tier athletes like we say we do.
Click to expand...

Your pouints are well taken. But...
Hall of famers played many many years ago. Things will change in the future. The distribution of talent has shifted. The best are largely playing in the South, and that has been the case for the past 10-15 years. It take an additional 10-15 years from now to see that translate into NFL HOF.
 
#10
#10
Manning is a future HoF, and if Witten continues to be one of the most dominating TEs in the NFL, he will be too. I don't know about J-Lew, he had a couple of bad years in Baltimore but does have that ring.
 
#12
#12
for the first fifty years of the nfl it was a predominately northern league and they drafted the players who they saw every week...the big ten also quite frankly was better than every other league back then because football was played at a much slower pace...in thirty years these numbers will be evened out because most of the great sec players are either in the league now or are still waiting to be voted in.
 
#14
#14
Honestly, I think Al Wilson is a stretch for a shoe-in. He only played 8 seasons and didn't set records. Yes, he was a Pro Bowl-er, but he never won a Super Bowl. I don't see him getting in, unless the class appears to be less-than-stellar that year.
 
#15
#15
VOLfrombama said:
If jamal gets 10,000 yards plus he'll be in
Click to expand...

hall of fame voters take alot more into account than mere statistics...as much as i love jamal as a player his off the field issues, and several down years will probably keep him out of the hall
 
#20
#20
How Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds isn't in there is a travesty...He had a super pro career.
 
#22
#22
one thing you've got to look at is, the SEC (usually) puts faster guys and skill players into the league and it's harder for these kind of players to make it to the hall. the real place to look to see how the SEC stacks up is the pro-bowl rosters. i haven't looked at one recently and compared it with the college conferences, but i'd be willing to bet that every season, the SEC is at or near the top of that list.
 
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