I cant believe this is even a question..absolutely he will be. Curtis Martin is one of the running backs in NFL history.
Maybe playing w/ a choking playoff QB s hurt him there? Marvin deserves some blame but Peyton does also, until that 2nd half of the NE game he hand't done much in his postseason career. I wouldn't put him up there w/ Jerry Rice b/c Rice got it done on the biggest stage (an dhalf his career was w/ a Mainning-like choker in Steve Young) but he has amazing #s overall and he will go in on the first try.
Slater was never a consensus 1st team All-NFL selection. He was very good for a long time. I am amazed he was a 1st ballot inductee. Was Harris better than Martin? I don't know. I do know, however, that Martin averaged 103.8 scrimmage yards per game and Harris averaged 83.3. I believe Martin was a better blocker than Harris and Martin was certainly tougher.
10 straight seasons with 1,000+ rushing yards, too. TEN seasons! He got screwed, but he'll eventually make it in... right? But being Curtis, he handled the snub with nothing but class. :martin:
They would have voted him in if he didn't play the majority of his years as a Jet. The hatred from the media for this team I've seen over the years is surreal. Had he gotten an SB ring, his chances would've improved.
he's one of the players that got me hooked on the NFL and the Jets(im english), so for me he should of got in. hopefully he'll make it next year
Curtis Martin should be a first Ballot Hall of Famer but with the players he was up against what can be said. He will make it next year.
This is it. Any other year he is in on the first ballot. Unfortunately for him he came up for induction in a year that had some very stiff competition. He will be in next year.
I won't argue that Harris was a better player, but "Fame" is a factor. It's not quite apples-to-apples, but here are the career highlights listed on Wikipedia: Harris: - 9× Pro Bowl selection (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980) - 7× All-Pro selection (1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979) - NFL 1970s All-Decade Team - 4× Super Bowl Champion (IX, X, XIII, XIV) - Super Bowl IX MVP - 1972 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year - 1972 UPI AFL-AFC Rookie of the Year Martin: - 5× Pro Bowl selection (1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004) - 2× First-team All-Pro selection (2001, 2004) - 1× Second-team All-Pro selection (1999) - 1995 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year - Led NFL in rushing yards in 2004 with 1,697 - Fourth-leading rusher of all time And by the way.....at the time Harris retired I believe he was the 3rd all-time leading rusher (might have been second....both he and Payton were chasing Jim Brown's record). And "very good for a long time" is also how a lot of people (outside of the NYJ fanbase) would describe Martin.
c mart is but he will never get the credit he truely deserves because he never caused a scene was shockingly great at one thing and never played on any winning teams so with that said the man was there to play every sunday ran for 1000 yrds for i believe ten straight yrs which is a record and was the heart and soul of his team and 4th all time rusher so like parcells said he should be roller skating in to the HOF. :martin:
Interesting read.. http://www.suite101.com/content/nfl---best-running-back-of-all-time-a279179 Point system they used is subjective, but categories used for measuring RB's are pretty hard to argue: yds per carry yds per game 1000 yd seasons fumble % Brown should still be #1, as 1000 yd seasons a little tougher with an 11 game schudule. This criteria of course doesn't factor the intangibles which these players brought to their teams. Martin would be right up there for that as well. Complete 1st ballot qualifications. The 'fame' factor is just a bunch of bullshit you get when writers talk. It has no bearing on the impact a player had.
Martin has more consensus 1st team All-NFL seasons than Harris. It's only a 2-1 edge, but it's still an edge. The All Decade thing is unfair to Martin because his career was split fairly evenly between two decades. By the way, that 1970s All Decade Team that Harris made also had Earl Campbell, Walter Payton, and O.J. Simpson on it. No distinction was made as to 1st team and 2nd team and all that. In 2005, Sports Illustrated published The Football Book. In the back of the book there were All Decade teams selected by Paul Zimmerman. He is one of the league's greatest historians so I think his selections carry a lot of weight. He had Harris as the 3rd best RB of the 1970s behind Payton and Simpson. For the 2000-04 team he had Martin as the #1 RB ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson and Marshall Faulk. The second edition of the book was published in 2009 or 2010. I did not bother to buy the second edition, but I did look at it in a bookstore. Martin, having retired after the '05 season was no longer on the 2000s All Decade team.
