Bill Polian Says T.O. and Randy Moss Don't Belong in the Hall of Fame
Bill Polian says Terrell Owens and Randy Moss are not Hall of Famers. https://t.co/BwkTAPiRkX
— USA TODAY Sports (@USATODAYsports) February 28, 2017
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USA Today – Terrell Owens and Randy Moss are arguably two of the three greatest wide receivers in NFL history. The former has been eligible for the Hall of Fame for two years and is still waiting to get the call. The latter could face a similar fate if voters remain consistent in their apparent dislike of the diva receiver archetype.
If Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian has his way, the two will never make it to Canton. …
“First of all, here’s my position: [I want players who] contribute both individually and to the team,” Polian told the Talk of Fame Network, via Yahoo.com. “T.O.’s situation, T.O.’s temperament, his ability to contribute to the team was well known up front. He was going to be a problem. We did not want to deal with problem children. Others may. We didn’t.
“That’s number one. Number two, every year in Indianapolis we said the following: ‘The price of admission is 100 percent effort all the time in everything we do.’ Well, how can we take Randy Moss when we make that statement? It’s that simple.”
I wasn’t one of the people flipping over cop cars and throwing Molotov Cocktails when Terrell Owens didn’t get into the Hall of Fame a few weeks ago. But not because he doesn’t deserve to get in. Only because the pro football hall is the weirdest of all the Halls of Fame to get into. They do that system where writers get together in a room and argue out their picks like in “12 Angry Men.” Which semi makes sense because the game doesn’t lend itself to the proverbial “back of the baseball card” for most positions. I get it. And I just assumed T.O. will get in over the next couple of years.
But I’m not so sure. Because Bill Polian can’t be the only doddering old fool who thinks like this. Who’s taking a break from yelling at clouds just long enough to argue that two of the most productive players of their generation don’t belong in Canton because they were mercurial nutjobs.
If the Multiverse model of the cosmos is to be believed, there are an infinite number of parallel universes existing at the same time. And in none of them do Terrell Owens and Randy Moss not belong in the Hall of Fame. In career receiving yards, Owens is No. 2 all time, Moss is third. In receiving touchdowns, Moss is second, T.O. is No. 3. And these aren’t just cumulative numbers, compiled over a long, only-pretty-good career like Bert Blyleven. Both of these were guys you had to gameplan for. Who had defensive coordinators popping Xanax by the fistful the week before facing them. I’ve said before and I’ll say it here: Wide receiver is the most overrated, overvalued and overpaid position in all of sports. But Owens and Moss were difference makers.
The football Hall puts a bigger emphasis on championships and big moments than the others do. And I agree with it. Baseball absolutely should start taking into account when guys come up huge in the World Series and put the likes of David Ortiz, Curt Schilling and Jack Morris in there. Even by that standard, Owens and Moss belong in Canton. Granted, neither won a ring. But in Super Bowl XXXIX against the Patriots, Owens crawled off the injured list to be the best player on the field for either team, with 9 catches for 122 yards. In the Super Bowl That Shall Not Be Named, Moss caught a go-ahead touchdown with under 3 minutes left in the game. The Hall is lousy with guys who got in without ever producing in the clutch like that.
But in the world of Bill Polian and the fossilized remains of a few football writers, they don’t belong because they were divas. Even though Diva Wideout has practically been an official position in football for the last 40 years or so. Even though if you took all the moody, egotistical narcissists out of Halls of Fame you’d end up with about 12 guys in each. And even though Canton is already has men like OJ Simpson, Lawrence Taylor and even Polian’s own receiver Marvin Harrison, who somehow beat the rap on a fatal mass shooting at the car wash he owned. They’re in, but there’s no room for T.O. because he did crunches in his driveway or Moss because he gave wacky press conferences. Got it. But then again, maybe being in the HoF isn’t all it’s cracked up to be if they’ve got dopes like Bill Polian in there.