Gale Sayers - Extremely over rated?

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

He was before my time, so I can't make a firsthand judgment.

I've long been an advocate that I'd rather see a truly dominant player get into the Hall of Fame even if his career was short, rather than a player who compiled a lot of stats by having a long and mediocre career. That said, you have to have enough time that we can prove that you were dominant and not just a flash in the pan.

Sayers effectively played for five seasons, with one of those cut short to 9 games (of 14). His last two seasons don't add to the discussion. In those five seasons, he had one dominant season rushing (1966) and two pretty decent ones (high ypc with relatively few carries in 1965 and 1968). He broke 1,000 yards in 1969, but with a non-elite ypc.

He also had three very dominant seasons as a kickoff returner as well (1965, 1966, and 1967).

So one could say that he really got in because of one fantastic season in 1966 and a very good season in 1965, with three other seasons that had decent to good phases.

On the basis of that, I wouldn't say that he proved himself. But I know that people who saw him play would say that he was dominant enough to be a Hall of Famer even with that short resume, and I think the eye test is important. I'll take their word for it.

Overall, though, I think he's a step above average plodders like Jerome Bettis and Curtis Martin, and he's certainly better than Terrell Davis who only had two good seasons in a cheated salary cap situation, but he's far from the top of the list of Hall of Famers.

I'll allow him into the Hall of Fame, but with a shrug.

It just bugs me that people can look at a player with a short career that had some fairly good seasons and say yeah they belong among the best, but look at Jamaal and say that he wasn't a HOFer. Jamaal had 5 whole seasons as well and absolutely was a force on some terrible teams. They both had 5 years in which they played most all of the season.

Jamaals totals over those 5 years

77 games played/61 games started/1170 rushes/6416 rushing yards/38 rushing TDs/5.5 ypc/8401 yards from scrimmage/55 rushing + receiving yds

JC per season avg during those 5 years

234 rushes/1283 yds/8 rushing tds/1680 yds from scrimmage/11 rush + receiving tds

Sayers totals over his 5 season stretch

64 games played/60 games started/955 rushes/4866 rushing yards/39 rushing TDs/5.1 ypc/6178 yards from scrimmage/52 rushing + receiving yds

GS per season avg during those 5 years

191 rushes/973 yds/8 rushing tds/1235 yds from scrimmage/10 rush + receiving tds

So if Gale Sayers is a HOFer, then why isn't Jamaal Charles? People want to say it's because Jamaal didn't have enough years of playing at a high level, but thats not used against Sayers. Jamaal is probably the best/most explosive RB I've ever watched, but never gets national praise because he played for the Chiefs and some dog shit Chiefs teams. Jamaal is one of the most under appreciated players ever, but he was as dominate of a player as you can have. He almost never got stopped for a loss. I wish things could have went better for Jamaal.