Thoughts on the Pro Football HOF

It was nice to see Dan Marino and Steve Young get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, some buttmunches in the press decided it wasn't good enough to write about their great careers. No, some felt the need to write that neither was as good as Joe Montana. I say crap to that. Joe Montana is the second most overrated quarterback in NFL history after Joe Namath. He won four Super Bowls, but so did Terry Bradshaw. If playoff success is the key, than Otto Graham is the greatest QB of all time. He led his team to ten pro football championship games winning seven. That was in 10 seasons. I think the 49er offense was well designed for Montana, but I'm not real impressed with a quarterback whose leading receivers his first five years were tight ends and running backs. Sounds like he dumped it off a lot. I would personally rather have Marino than Montana. Did he win four Super Bowls? No. He didn' t win any, but I think the personnel around him was a lot worse. The only time San Francisco's defense finished outside the top ten in scoring defense was the strike shortened 1982 when they were 20th. Ironically, the 49'ers went 3-6. The Dolphins were 7th in 1984 when they made the Super Bowl in Marino's second year. In the next 15 seasons, they finished in the top ten twice. They finished 17th or worse ten times. Montana had Wendall Tyler early in his career. Not that well known, but he had been a two time 1000 yard rusher with the Rams (including leading them to the 1980 Super Bowl) before joining the 49ers. Then one of the best all around running backs, Roger Craig, joined the team. In fact, Montana had both Tyler and Craig for four years. Who did Marino have? I would say that Mark Higgs was the best running back to play with Marino, and his best season was 915 yards. In fact, Karim Abdul-Jabbar was the only running back to have a 1000 yard season with Marino, and he only averaged 3.6 yards per carry. At receiver, Montana had Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Freddie Solomon and tight end Dwight Clark. The best receiver Marino had was probably Irving Fryar who he only had for a couple of years. Otherwise it was Mark Clayton and Mark Duper. How many HOF votes do you think they'll get?

As for Young, I think if the roles had been reversed, Young would have four Super Bowls. The biggest reason was the opposition. Young had to face the Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the 90s. This was the last great group of players before the salary cap kicked in. Jimmy Johnson built a great team, and Jerry Jones' money kept it together. Who did Montana's 49'ers have to climb over? The Giants and Redskins won some Super Bowls, but they kept switching their quarterbacks and running backs. Not much continuity there. The Bears had one of the greatest seasons ever when they won the 86 Super Bowl, but then Walter Payton's retirement and injuries to Jim McMahon derailed them. Supposedly, Montana was really clutch in the playoffs. Well, in back to back first round losses to the Giants in 85-86, the Montana's 49ers scored 3 points in each. Plus, the 49'ers of the 90s were not able to keep players together like they had in the 80s. Where Montana had Tyler and Craig, Young had to rely on head-case Ricky Watters (poor man's Roger Craig) for three years. Other than him, Young's 49ers were led in rushing by great players like Derek Loville, Keith Henderson and Terry Kirby. However, the biggest reason that I think Young doesn't take a backseat to Montana is what happened when Montana left. In his first real season as a replacement for Montana in 1992, Young led them to a 15-3 record. He lost one first round playoff game through 1998 (his last real season). In fact, from 1992-98, the 49ers won at least 10 games every year. If Montana was so important, why wasn't there a drop-off in performance, especially when the 49ers started losing their best players due to salary cap problems in the mid to late 90s? Oh, and Montana went to Kansas City in 1993 and led them to 11 wins which was one better than what Dave Krieg and Steve DeBerg took them to the previous two years. Real impressive.