He carried Ne to a SB in 1996 and was effective in the SB but inxplicably only got 11 carries. He was great against jax for us but only go 13 carries against Den(and they didn't open up the tiniest hole), his other playoff performances have been ok.
12 years as a RB is a long time especially since his last full year he won the rushing title. Monk won 3 rings but was invisible in 3 of 4 SBs, Wash would ahve won 3 w/ or w/o him. monk wasn't even the best WR on his own team in most of his years.
I called 5 of my buddies who are not Jet fans just to see if we are all a little biased...each one said he deserves to go in as soon as hes eligible without even thinking about it
When C-Mart retires, who is in that first year of voting? Does anyone have a list for 2012/2013 eligible HOFers?
Curtis is a 1st ballot lock into the HOF. When you finish your career #4 on the all-time rushing list there is no way you are not a 1st ballot lock.
The only thing that would keep Curtis Martin out of a first ballot win would be anti-Jets bias. The lack of Super Bowl wins isn't going to erase the fact that he was consistently among the best rushers of his time. The HoF voters like the lunch-pail players who show up on every down and produce. Curtis is going to get a lot of votes based on that alone. BTW, I believe that the Jet's status as one of the best teams in the NFL at the time he becomes eligible will work in his favor also. The voters are definitely influenced by franchise continuity.
This whole thing with Championships is really stupid. Consider....Let's just say Peyton never wins another title. According to the media he has cemented himself as an immortal legend because of last Sunday. Now take Dan Marino, and take the fact that he's a Dolphin and we hate him.....put that aside for a sec.....let's say Peyton and Marino have comparible #'s after their careers. They both got to a SB. Peyton won, Marino lost, so therefore Peyton is a much much better QB than Marino? Does the fact that when Marino got there Joe Montana, Bill Walsh, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott were there waiting for him, whereas when Peyton got there Rex F*cking Grossman was there standing in his way. Does that factor into it at all?
curtis is a lock, but mainly just b/c in 5 years...when voting..there is noone outside of LT(if healthy) and edge(who i dont think will)...who will have gotten the yards needed to knock him out of the top 5 of in alltime rushing yards which makes his longevity impressive b/c it held for 5 years after
Excellent point. LT will have knocked Curtis out of the top 5, but nobody else will be even close to approaching him. As you point out James will be retired at that point and well short of the mark. The only thing that I think might work against Martin is he will be up the same year as Jerome Bettis. They might even work against each other by splitting some votes off. Of course the Bettis supporters are thinking the same thing about Martin. And of course, with both of those guys being lunch-pail team first type guys there is a really good chance they both just skate in on the first ballot.
The lack of championships thing is getting out of hand. Now this is applying to a RB too, and not just a QB? 4th career all-time rushing yardage and not a lock? That would be a travesty if he does not get in on first ballot. I remember watching something at the start of the season on Sportscenter when they were talking about Martin. The anchor asked John Clayton if he thought Martin would get in and he said he wasn't sure, because he and the other voters vote on who they would include in a book about the history of football, and they might feel that they don't have to put someone like Curtis in. How the HELL did these voters get their job?
It's close. I always thought they were very similar runners, but Curtis was much more durable. Plus, Freeman had Johnny Hector to split time with so he didn't roll up the numbers like Curtis did.
If Martin hangs it up now, does the 2006 season count as year one of his five year wait? Thus, he would be four years away from being on the ballot.
