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The Senior finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame was just announced.
It’s a great choice, too — Johnny Robinson. He’s extremely old, but still alive to enjoy the honor. Also extremely deserving, arguably among the top five most deserving snubs. Has a fine postseason honors profile (6/7/allAFL) and reportedly looks great in film study (scores second highest at Ken Crippen’s film study site, for one, behind only Don Hutson). Was screwed over when he was a regular candidate because of anti-AFL bias back then. Really can’t argue with this choice at all. Congratulations!
The Senior finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame was just announced.
It’s a great choice, too — Johnny Robinson. He’s extremely old, but still alive to enjoy the honor. Also extremely deserving, arguably among the top five most deserving snubs. Has a fine postseason honors profile (6/7/allAFL) and reportedly looks great in film study (scores second highest at Ken Crippen’s film study site, for one, behind only Don Hutson). Was screwed over when he was a regular candidate because of anti-AFL bias back then. Really can’t argue with this choice at all. Congratulations!
YES!
I can name many other AFL players who are deserving to go into Canton and are not in. The HOF selection committee gave short shrift to the AFL as a league and that's a fact. Robinson should have gone in a couple decades ago, like Jerry Kramer and Robert Brazile did this past January.
Regarding his stats--- what makes that even more impressive, and only the people who followed that league from its earliest beginnings can tell you, is that in Robinson's first two seasons he was the wide receiver opposite Chris Burford.
He also was a backup running back in both of those years, in 1961 he had 98 rushes for 458 yards for 4 touchdowns. He made the switch to defense easily in 1962 as he was a 2 way player with LSU. In 1962 he got 4 picks. He totalled 57 picks for his career.
He didn't get big press from the media when he got drafted because defensive safeties don't score touchdowns, or not enough to be considered a Heisman candidate. The NFL damn sure knew who he was as he also was the #1 draft choice of the Detroit Lions. It's about time he was recognized.
Agreed, Double H. There are several old AFL players who have reasonable HoF arguments not in:
Walt Sweeney
Ed Budde
Jim Tyrer
Winston Hill
Art Powell
Lionel Taylor
Earl Faison
Tom Sestak
Houston Antwine
Larry Grantham
Mike Stratton
Dave Grayson
George Saimes
Heh, a couple thoughts on Kapp. I remember the 1969 NFL Championship game well. I know that Cleveland Brown linebacker Jim Houston doesn't remember the last quarter and a half. Kapp took off on a run and literally ran over Houston, knocking him out of the game. Houston wasn't an average player, he was cleveland's best linebacker, a 4 time pro bowler. 27-zip Vikings who then advance to SB-IV.
Getting back on topic, I know Kapp remembers Johnny Robinson. And Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Jerry Mays, Emmitt Thomas, etc., etc.
While I wouldn’t put Joe Kapp in the PFHoF (his NFL stats are awful even adjusted for era, and he didn’t exactly throw a perfect spiral — more like a wounded duck), he was reportedly a tough customer especially for a QB. Didn’t know about the Jim Houston story, Double H, thanks for sharing.
I think he’s in the Canadian Football HoF, though.
Last edited by DOUBLE H; 08-21-2018 at 07:15 PM..
Reason: one word correction
While I wouldn’t put Joe Kapp in the PFHoF (his NFL stats are awful even adjusted for era, and he didn’t exactly throw a perfect spiral — more like a wounded duck), he was reportedly a tough customer especially for a QB. Didn’t know about the Jim Houston story, Double H, thanks for sharing.
I think he’s in the Canadian Football HoF, though.
Kapp is! He played 8 years in the CFL, mostly with the B.C. Lions. But in the NFL, he is a part of one of the most noted league records-most touchdown passes in a game. He hung 7 on the Baltimore Colts early in the 1969 season. One thing to note about that. The Colts had a down year after suffering the 16-7 loss to the NY Jets in SB-III. And that blowout loss to the Vikings only underlined the fact that Don Shula's days were going to be contentious, at the very least. Kapp earlier had won 2 Grey Cups while with the CFL, and IMO he really wanted to play in Minnesota as Bud Grant was a former CFL head coach, replacing Norm Van Brocklin. Having said all this, I do keep in mind that Kapp wasn't a pinpoint passer, but the guy was tough as nails. I loved the guy myself!
One more note on Kapp- he was the head coach at California when Cal played the Stanford Cardinals and then the marching band took care of the blocking patterns as Cal scored that td with all the laterals. The qb who put that last td on the board to set up the Stanford kickoff? John Elway.
With Robinson nominated to the seniors ballot, it is unclear whether a second name will appear later. Some years they induct two, like they did with Jerry Kramer and Robert Brazile. Some years it's only one. I don't get the inconsistency, but that's the topic for another thread.
While I wouldn’t put Joe Kapp in the PFHoF (his NFL stats are awful even adjusted for era, and he didn’t exactly throw a perfect spiral — more like a wounded duck), he was reportedly a tough customer especially for a QB. Didn’t know about the Jim Houston story, Double H, thanks for sharing.
I think he’s in the Canadian Football HoF, though.
With Robinson nominated to the seniors ballot, it is unclear whether a second name will appear later. Some years they induct two, like they did with Jerry Kramer and Robert Brazile. Some years it's only one. I don't get the inconsistency, but that's the topic for another thread.
They’ll only have one Senior this year, but two Contributors. They’ve been alternating two in one category and one in the other for the past several years now. I think the object was to focus more heavily on the Contributors and get more emphasis on them, especially since GM types and owners and folks like Steve Sabol and Art McNally were languishing far too much. They’ve gotten more caught up in this category recently.
The two Contributors should be announced sometime Thursday. Scuttlebut I’ve been hearing suggests Pat Bowlen and Gil Brandt are likely, but we’ll see.
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