Oakland Raider in the Hall of Fame cut down

Thoughts from the Dark Side

May 16, 2008

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Thank you to everyone who voted in our first poll as to which Oakland Raider should be our choice to unite behind for the Hall of Fame this year. Rob and I both agree that all ten candidates deserve to get the call, but the point is uniting the Raider Nation as much as possible to build a groundswell for one of these deserving candidates.

The next phase in our coalescing around one candidate is the new poll to the right of this post which lists the top five vote getters from the last one:

Ray Guy: He is a member of the NFL All-75 team, and is the only eligible member of that team who has not gotten the call to Canton.

Kenny "The Snake" Stabler: He has numbers comparable to Hall of Fame member Joe Namath. He also participated in several of the most memorable games in NFL history.

Jack "The Assassin" Tatum:� He is the very definition of the phrase hard hitting safety.

Lester Hayes: He had one of the best seasons of any defensive backs ever in 1980. Following that year quarterbacks decided that throwing his way was no longer a good idea.

Jim Plunkett: He is the only eligible quarterback who started and won two superbowls who has not ascended into the Hall of Fame.

All five are very worthy candidates, and we are looking to get one of them in this year with your help. Help us figure out which one to send so we can turn Canton, Ohio Silver and Black.

Tags: NFL, Oakland Raiders, Raiders

Discussion

13 Comments on "Oakland Raider in the Hall of Fame cut down"

Posted by Krow, May 16, 2008 4:59 AM

A punter in the Hall of Fame? C'mon...

Posted by Junior, May 16, 2008 7:36 AM

Krow, why not? Field position is a critical part of football and Ray Guy is a pioneer for the position of punter. There will eventually be a punter in the HOF and it should be Ray Guy.

Posted by Spencer Mills, May 16, 2008 8:24 AM

Has to be Lester Hayes, though I am still partial to Coach Tom Flores.

OakFoSho

Posted by Rob Calonge, May 16, 2008 9:02 AM

I'm all for Guy in the HOF. I think anyone that's NOT a voter and not Krow, thinks that is a no-brainer. My favorite Raider of all time is Lester 'the molestor' Hayes...so I'm partial.

Posted by Adrian, May 16, 2008 10:25 AM

How does a member of NFL All 75 team not in the Hall of Fame? That is a crime. We need to push for Ray Guy to be in before any other Raider.Dont get me wrong all 5 of those players are deserving, but Guy should be in first. He set the standards for a punter.

Posted by azraider37, May 16, 2008 2:10 PM

Ray Guy is the best punter of all time. But since punters have yet to make it into the hall, I'm going Snake again. He's waited long enough. When the voters decide that punter is a position that deserves to be in the hall, Guy will be their obvious choice. Till then, I say lets not waste our support for a punter. Obviously the Hall hasn't deemed it a worthy position.

Posted by azraider37, May 16, 2008 2:15 PM

Good thing to know about Plunkett. Did not know he is the only eligible 2 time champ QB not in. That's a good arguing point since he had pretty good seasons as well, and a mvp in one of those bowls

Posted by Umer Waris, May 16, 2008 10:08 PM

Yeah, Im pretty sure that Hayes is going to be in the HOF in the next two-three years. As far as I know, he was up for nomination this year but it was Darryl Green who got selected in the CB position for the Hall of Fame (Too bad his Redskins got murdered by our defense in that superbowl game, HAHA!). Anyways that guy was definately the CB Al loved to see play; an athletic aggressive man-to-man shutdown corner! He wasnt "The Molester" for nothing. Gotta Love Him!

Oh you cant forget The Snake. He deserves it for all the late game heroics he pulled for us and all those memorable plays/games he was part of in the 70s. He is also on the all-70s NFl team and was the MVP in 1977. Just Beautiful!

Raider Till Death!

Posted by ralph, May 17, 2008 10:46 AM

well its hard to narrow it down here because these guys are all the main prioritys and even partiale existense for being raider fans. (though tom flores should also be in this list) But i'm going for ray guy.

The reason why is because how many punters have actually brought entertainment in punting???? well my history for punters isn't, good but only brian moorman(Buffalo bills), and shane lechler (a great coincedence a Oakland Raider) have actually brought entertainment to punting, and not only that but the punterts today are barely getting avg. that ray guy has. To the exception of brian moorman, and shane lechler.

#10

Posted by Just Win Baby, May 18, 2008 12:59 AM

Guy, for one reason. We want Lechler to have a great year.

The focus on the position will do our special teams good.

#11

Posted by ed nelson, May 18, 2008 11:26 PM

Hands down it's got to be Jack Tatum. Jack put fear into receivers eyes catching a pass. He's the hardest hitter that i've ever seen in football. Ask ronnie Lott who was his hero and who he studied. Jack should have won two Superbowls but because of his hard hitting a miracle came to pittsburgh for an interception which led to the winning touchdown. Jack Tatum was and is the best safety that ever played the game.

#12

Posted by LDizzle, May 19, 2008 10:22 AM

Ralph: Brian Moorman is not even on the radar. He had one good season and I STILL think Lechler deserved to go to the Pro Bowl over him. Even mentioning Moorman is being extremely short sighted. Lechler is the best punter since Ray Guy. And anyone can say that. Even without being a Raider fan. One need only look at the record books.

What made Ray Guy great, and what no one has mentioned yet, was he INVENTED hang time. They did not keep track of hang time until Guy came along. He was the first pure punter. Prior to him, being a punter was in the class of being a holder. They would just use a player at another position and give them double duties (usually QB). The punter position as we know it is because of Ray Guy.

I want all of these guys to get in and i initially voted for Cliff Branch but since he is not on the list. Guy is next.

#13

Posted by sKerry, May 19, 2008 1:12 PM

They are all great and all deserve to be in the HOF. I'm a big Defense fan so I would normally lean to Tatum or Hayes, but I vote for Guy. Besides the arguments others have posted, I submit the following:

Remember how Guy would pin the opposition deep so the D could hammer on them? He may not have been the first to come up with the "coffin corner", but he perfected it for sure.

Isin't Guy still the only one to hit the scoreboard in the Superdome? Didn't he hit it twice?

Remember how they all thought Al Davis was crazy for drafting a punter? And then how Guy made them eat their words? Electing Guy to the HOF would be a reminder to the rest of the league that Al was once a genius, and maybe put some fear into them that maybe he did it again this year.