"Why Isn't One of the NFL's Best Pass Defenders, not in the HoF?"

[Essex Johnson]

(07-01-2020, 06:59 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: The real answer?

It's because he played in a small market, and he never won a ring.  Had he played in NY, or had won a couple rings, even with the same exact stats, skill level, and play then he'd be a shoe-in.

Being in small market was definitely a much bigger issue back in the day.  Unless he was playing on Monday Night no one got to see him play. And how often were they putting small market teams on National TV back in the day? A.) Not as often as bigger markets.

There was no watching a game at 1, watching and an out-of-market game at 4 and then tuning into Sunday night football.  There was no Thursday night football.  There was no ESPN or highlight clips and talking heads dominating the airwaves. There was no internet.  You had 3(?) channels, radio and the newspaper.

Had he played a more stat driven position (QB, RB, WR) then maybe he could've overcomed this. But as a DB he's getting shafted.  Not enough people saw him, and there aren't clear benchmarks to say, yeah this guy has HOF numbers.

It's a shame, because he clearly deserves being in.

I understand the idea of a small market but in the 70s especially with Paul Brown running the team.. the Bengals got a good amount of press plus they won alot in the 70s so I don;t think it was that simple... St. Louis is not that much bigger than Cincy and they were not very good in 70s , never went to a Super Bowl and they have Roger Wehrli which was Riley's time.. I think also Parrish and Riley were both very good but that took away from each other.  I do agree the 70s teams of Pitt, Oakland, Dallas, Washington, Miami, Minn. overshadowed many teams not just Cincy though... Lets just hope with the articles being written it puts heat on the Senior Selection to honor Anderson and Riley