At some point, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow … maybe long after the memory has faded, maybe when the NFL no longer includes any kicking, the NFL will do the unthinkable – it will elect Eli Manning into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This act, which is inevitable, will simply be the latest piece of graphic evidence proving that the NFL HOF (and all other sports halls for that matter) is really just the hall of average.
The reason I know this will happen is because a guy named Kurt Warner is in the NFL HOF and he’s an Eli Manning clone – a few decent seasons, a fluky SuperBowl MVP and poof! NFL Hall of Fame.
The fatal flaw of sports today is that every aspect is based on, every argument is fueled by and every measure of greatness is calibrated using fuckin’ statistics. So if you play long enough and pass through the right statistical gates you shall be crowned great or legend or GOAT or hall of famer. It’s a load of crap.
Great players can play on cruddy teams, so something like number of wins can’t be used as a measure of greatness, and besides, teams win games, not individuals. Being named SuperBowl MVP can’t be the ticket to the Hall of Fame because if it was, guys named Malcolm Smith, Deion Branch, Santonio Holmes, Joe Flacco, Mark Rypien and Dexter Jackson (who?) would be in.
No, what makes a guy a hall of famer isn’t his numbers, it’s the perception of him held by the average fan. When you say the word “greatest,” if someone is truly hall of fame caliber, he will instantly come to mind by a large number of fans. Shit, you could talk for hours about QBs and never mention Eli Manning. He doesn’t even get drafted in fantasy football leagues. If you were to talk about the greatest QBs of all time who would ever say Kurt Warner? Not even his mom would. And therefore, they are not hall of famers.
The ultimate argument in a hall of fame discussion is whether a player is among the very best at his position during his era. So what’s an “era”? Well, a “generation” is typically around twenty years, the time it takes to go from birth to adulthood, but for the sake of this argument, let’s considered an era as a ten-year period.
Eli Manning started playing in 2004, so I looked at the quarterbacks of his era, those who played between 2005 and 2015. Here’s the guys who are clearly better than Eli: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger. All these names get mentioned by kids on the sandlot before Eli Manning. Okay, so here’s a list of guys that are probably better than Eli during his era: Steve McNair, Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, Matthew Stafford, Carson Palmer.
The only guy Eli’s clearly better than is Kurt Warner. Regardless of how many games your team wins, no matter how many fluky, lucky, out-of-your-ass passes you complete in two of the luckiest wins in SuperBowl history, you’re not a hall of famer if fifteen dudes during your era are better than you.
Stop with the fuckin’ statistics already. Greatness can only exist in the minds of the fans. Using comparative stats (current players vs. HOFers) assumes those stats are the absolute gauge of greatness. If Eli was the best of his era then it would be one sorry-ass era, but fortunately, he wasn’t and he isn’t … but Eli’s hall induction will happen … to facilitate anger management I thought it appropriate to provide some advanced warning.
Photo credit: Danny Nicholson on Visual hunt / CC BY-ND