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Above, from left: John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, Ken Stabler, Below: Charlie Conerly, Jim Hart.

The 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony is coming up soon, with 2 slam dunk picks for the hall, Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith, going in this season, among others. There is always a debate about players who belong in Canton who can’t seem to get in, and I’d like to highlight some of these players over the next few days, starting with quarterbacks today. The measuring stick for quarterbacks seems to be something that’s tough to get your arms around. Winning championships carries a lot of weight – that’s why Joe Montana, Otto Graham, Bob Griese and Terry Bradshaw are undisputed choices. Statistics count heavily also – Fran Tarkenton, Dan Marino, Sonny Jurgenson and Dan Fouts are examples of QBs getting in with big numbers but no titles. Using the “winning championships” argument, a case can be made for 2 former Oakland Raiders, Jim Plunkett and Ken Stabler. The Raiders being the bad boys of the NFL, and owner Al Davis constantly feuding with the league, seems to affect the Hall voting for one. Plunkett’s early-career perception of being a top draft choice bust while playing in New England works against him also, but he guided the Raiders to 2 Super Bowl titles and had a decent enough career after his Patriot debacle to warrant inclusion in the Hall. Stabler also had a reputation of being a rag-tag type of player in his time, but no one can dispute the winning he did while quarterbacking the Raiders. “The Snake” is a member of the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1970s, but isn’t good enough for the Hall? Two former New York Giants also fit this category. Charlie Conerly was a Giants’ mainstay in the late 1940s and 1950s, guiding the G-men to 3 NFL title games, beating the powerhouse Bears in 1956 to win it all. He was rookie of the year in 1948, league MVP in 1959 and a 2-time Pro Bowl selection, yet is not in Canton. Phil Simms was underappreciated his whole career, and this continues now as he has not gotten serious consideration by Hall voters either. Part of Simms’ problem is he was highly touted as a high draft choice and early in his career struggled to meet expectations. But once he figured it out, Simms was a key reason why New York won 2 Super Bowls (even though he was injured and didn’t play in one, he was instrumental in getting the team there). His career statistics are comparable to Griese’s, and he still holds the Super Bowl record for completion percentage. Frank Ryan, who quarterbacked the Browns in the 1960s, was a top signal-caller of that decade but lost a lot of playing time due to injuries. He led the Browns to the title game in 1964  and 1965, winning in ’64, but battled injury after that. He still compares statistically to Joe Namath, but lacks the flash and “legend” that Broadway Joe rode into Canton. Some forgotten players who had great careers but were stuck on losing teams include Ken Anderson, John Brodie, Jim Hart, John Hadl and Archie Manning. Anderson was the QB in Cincinnati when the Bengals offensive guru at the time, Bill Walsh, was tweaking Sid Gillman’s mad passing attack offense into what would become the “West Coast” offense, and rang up great numbers in that system. There is a groundswell of support for him and he may get in at some point. Brodie and Hart battled hard in the 1960s on mediocre teams in San Francisco and St. Louis respectively, and their lack of winning has worked against them. Hadl is an interesting case. Most of his work was done in anonimity in the American Football League, where he orchestrated Gillman’s wide open offense. Near the end of his career he had an MVP season with the L.A. Rams, leading them to a 12-2 season, and is a worthy HOF candidate, but it’s rare when players whose careers were mostly in the AFL get elected. Manning  had the bad luck of playing most of his career with an expansion team, the New Orleans Saints, and even though he is still appreciated and beloved in the Big Easy, he may only get to Canton to see his sons Peyton and Eli get inducted.