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LB Randy Gradishar (All B1G, All-American, CFB HOF, NFL Defensive POY, NFL HOF)

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Just announced today that our man Randy has made the final cut to the HOF Finalist list again this year. He has been eligible the longest of the players that are not senior nominees (20 years) and considering he was the center of one of the most feared defenses of his day, let's hope he finally achieves the honor this year.

Go Randy!
 
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Jan 23, 2008 9:10 am US/Mountain
Gradishar Now Has Best Chance To Get Into Hall
Gary Miller DENVER (CBS4) ―

This year is former Denver Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar's last chance to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a modern player. Observers say it is probably he best chance to get in.

"It just feels a little different," Gradishar told CBS4 Broncos Insider Gary Miller. "There is a lot of personal excitement going on, a lot of great anticipation, but you still have to wait until that day comes and they actually make the selection."

Gradishar will find out the day before the Super Bowl if he's been elected. Rocky Mountain News sports writer Jeff Legwold will present Gradishar's case.

"I think one of the easiest things to do is to remind people how productive he was throughout his entire career, beginning to end," Legwold said. "He had no lulls, there were no dips, he was a consistent performer from beginning to end."
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cbs4denver.com - Broncos' Gradishar Now Has Best Chance To Get Into Hall
 
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I've been to The Hall. It's something every fan should do once.

I will do it again at some point in the future to see the busts of former Buckeyes that weren't there the first time I visited (in the 70s).

If Randy Gradishar is inducted, my next visit will be this year. He was my favorite Buckeye when I was growing up.
 
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Well, the last time I saw him in person, he had rather long hair and looked quite a bit different. I am surprised how much he matured to have a bit of a Jack Nicklaus look.

As someone said in this thread, it is a mockery that he is not in the NFL Hall of Fame. He was not only one of the top linebackers of his era, he led the top defense of its time. And his actions were good for the game off the field.

Good luck, Randy!
 
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Randy's accomplishments as an NFL player have been well documented, but there is one fact above all others that boggles my mind (and I realize this was not an official stat until more recently).

Randy averaged a reported 14 tackles per game. No one else is close. Butkus reportedly averaged 12 tackles per game. Ray Lewis is in that range. Singletary averaged less than 10. Lambert and Ham weren't close. This doesn't even reflect the role that Randy played on short yardage plays or on 3rd downs.

Randy's not being in the Hall of Fame is like the defensive equivalent of the most productive offensive player in the last 40 years not being in the Hall of Fame (think Smith or Payton, Rice, or one of the greats not in the Hall -- it wouldn't make any sense). It makes a mockery of Canton.

The Hall of Fame voters need to correct this and will hopefully do so this year.
 
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lostbuckfan;1074598; said:
Randy's accomplishments as an NFL player have been well documented, but there is one fact above all others that boggles my mind (and I realize this was not an official stat until more recently).

Randy averaged a reported 14 tackles per game. No one else is close. Butkus reportedly averaged 12 tackles per game. Ray Lewis is in that range. Singletary averaged less than 10. Lambert and Ham weren't close. This doesn't even reflect the role that Randy played on short yardage plays or on 3rd downs.

Randy's not being in the Hall of Fame is like the defensive equivalent of the most productive offensive player in the last 40 years not being in the Hall of Fame (think Smith or Payton, Rice, or one of the greats not in the Hall -- it wouldn't make any sense). It makes a mockery of Canton.

The Hall of Fame voters need to correct this and will hopefully do so this year.
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I'd never realized the extent of that gap and thought I'd do some quick double checking. Gradishar had 2049 tackles in 145 games, (14.1 TPG). To put that in perspective, Jessie Tuggle, who was a tackling machine for mostly lousy Falcons defenses had 2065 tackles in 209 games (9.9 TPG). Granted, teams did run the ball more in Randy's day, but still . . .

The "words" "traveshamockery" was invented for a beer commercial, but more accurately describes Gradishar not having been in the HOF years ago.
 
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KRIEGER: Gradishar victim of geography
By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Monday, January 28, 2008

In the long and colorful history of the old AFL and its successor, the AFC, the San Diego Chargers have won two titles - one AFL, one AFC - and no Super Bowls. Five players and one coach from those teams have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Kansas City Chiefs/Dallas Texans won three AFL titles and one Super Bowl. They have been rewarded with seven Hall of Famers.

Over the same span, the Denver Broncos have won six AFC titles and two Super Bowls. One representative of these teams, John Elway, has been elected to the Hall of Fame.

I could go on. The Detroit Lions comparison is especially entertaining. They've never even seen the inside of a Super Bowl but have three times as many Hall of Famers as the Broncos since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.

In other words, the biggest obstacle to former Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar being elected to the Hall of Fame on Saturday in his 20th and final year of eligibility has nothing to do with Gradishar. It has to do with an institutional blind spot in the Hall of Fame's board of selectors.

"I certainly have heard that for years," Gradishar said last week. "I don't know who has not heard that. The political issue, the lack of respect, how the process has been set up, you probably know more about that than I do. I know that that's an issue. I know that they've added more people to possibly help in that scenario, but your guess is as good as mine."
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Gradishar played 10 seasons, from 1974 through 1983, all for the Broncos. In nine of them, he led the team in tackles, exceeding 200 six times. He never missed a game, playing 145 in a row. He appeared in seven Pro Bowls.

During those 10 seasons, the Broncos surrendered the second-fewest rushing yards in the NFL. The defense carried the 1977 Broncos to the Super Bowl despite a mediocre offense.

"I've never seen a more gifted and talented athlete than Randy Gradishar," said former Broncos coach John Ralston. "He had incredible natural talent. He could have played any position - a great tackler, great range, could intercept the ball, run with the ball. He could do it all. One of the best to ever play the game."

"One of the four best linebackers I've ever seen," said Ralston's successor, Red Miller.

"Randy Gradishar was as good a linebacker as I have ever been around, and I have been around some of the great ones," said Miller's successor, Dan Reeves.
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KRIEGER: Gradishar victim of geography : Columns & Blogs : The Rocky Mountain News


KRIEGER: No. 53 still has leader's passion
By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Saturday, January 26, 2008

It's not often you get a column to be continued, so think of it as a souvenir. Or, possibly, a test of your attention span.

The occasion is Randy Gradi- shar's 20th and final year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. If he doesn't make it this time, he gets thrown into the bottomless pit that is the veteran's committee, from which escape carries roughly the odds of the lottery.

For just the second time in those 20 years, Gradishar has made the list of 15 finalists. A week from today, in a Phoenix hotel ballroom, 44 voters - 42 of them from time zones other than Gradishar's - will decide whether he gets what he has always deserved.
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Gradishar spent the past three Super Bowls in the Middle East, meeting and greeting the troops as part of USO goodwill tours.

"I started in Iraq," he said. "We went to Baghdad in '04. In '05 we ended up in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Kabul, Afghanistan; and then over to Qatar. And then this last trip we went to Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia. Each trip, the intent was always going back to Baghdad, where we first started."

Baghdad, as you may have heard, got a little dicey during this period.

"This has been a life-changing experience for me," Gradishar said. "A year after the war started, we're at Saddam's palace where we're signing autographs as NFL players. Jerry Glanville, Deacon Jones, Bud Grant, Matt Blair, myself - a bunch of old guys. We can't sing or dance or play any music. We just meet and greet, and we did that for 10, 12 hours a day. They would take us to various bases."

Even 20 years removed from his playing career, Gradishar found the response overwhelming.

"Every soldier would say how much they appreciated us sacrificing our time to come over and visit them. It just meant so much. For my first trip, I never really could understand that very well. But then, as I continued being involved with our soldiers, whether it's in Denver or Colorado Springs or over there visiting them, it's very sincere.

"They've been called. They've signed up. That's what they wanted to do. That's what they are doing. From a civilian's standpoint, I can just say, 'Hey, thank you, God bless you, thank you for your sacrifice and what you are doing to allow us to continue to have our freedom and our democracy and our safety here in the United States, having our meetings, having our football games, having our parties, having all that, and we just want you to know how much we and the people in Colorado appreciate that.' "
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KRIEGER: No. 53 still has leader's passion : Columns & Blogs : The Rocky Mountain News
 
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Grit was calling card for Gradishar
Former Broncos assistant says he's 'worthy' finalist
By Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, January 31, 2008

Seventeen years ago, Stan Jones was alone in his New England Patriots office when the call came that caught him by surprise.

At nearly 60, he had been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"I was the only one in the entire building," said Jones, who just had joined the Patriots as an assistant coach. "I couldn't even find the janitor to tell him."

The feeling, nonetheless, was one of great excitement, one former Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar hopes to experience Saturday.

"He's certainly worthy," Jones, a former Chicago Bears lineman and Broncos assistant, said of Gradishar.

"There's no question in my mind that he was one of the best that I've ever been associated with, and I've played with some Hall of Famers (Bill George and Sam Huff) and I've seen a lot of great linebackers."

Gradishar, who went to seven Pro Bowls in his 10 seasons with the Broncos from 1974 to 1983, couldn't say where he would be Saturday when the Class of 2008 is announced.

After spending three of the past four Super Bowls in the Middle East on goodwill tours to visit soldiers in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Afghanistan, he'll at least be in the country. And hoping for that phone to ring.

"If it rings, that will be great and that will be a whole different set of emotions and feelings," said Gradishar, 55, who is in his 20th and final year of eligibility on the modern-era ticket. "If the phone does not ring, there will be some sense of disappointment but knowing there will still be some opportunity."
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Grit was calling card for Gradishar : Broncos : The Rocky Mountain News
 
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Gradishar hopes for a phone call
Champion native again a Hall of Fame finalist

By ARNIE STAPLETON The Associated Press
POSTED: February 2, 2008

DENVER ? Randy Gradishar simply won?t allow himself to ponder what it would be like to get a phone call today telling him he?s made it to pro football?s Hall of Fame.

He?s been disappointed too many times before.

This is the 20th year of eligibility for the seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker and leader of the ??Orange Crush?? defense that carried the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl after the 1977 season.

??It?s been fun and exciting for me for the last two weeks to think about potentially making it to the Hall of Fame. But if I don?t get a call, I know the disappointment, I know it?s not a good feeling,?? said Gradishar, also a finalist in 2003.

??So, I?m just trying to guard myself a little bit. That?s why there?s some apprehension, some protection. It?s not like I got an acceptance speech and know what I?d be saying in Canton. That?s why I wait for the phone call.??

Again.

Gradishar played at Champion High School and Ohio State.

If Gradishar?s phone stays silent this time, he?ll have to pin his hopes for enshrinement on the veteran?s committee, where the list of names is a lot longer and the odds much slimmer.

??My odds of winning the lotto would be better than my odds of going in as a senior candidate,?? Gradishar told The Associated Press. ??Of course, I joke that I can always go in posthumously, so I won?t give up hope.??
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Gradishar hopes for a phone call | Tribune Chronicle
 
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