I’m hoping to find time to send some pre-Super Bowl football thoughts, but I wanted to put this out there before this year’s Hall of Fame class was announced.
I just wanted to send some positive thoughts to one of the greatest players to wear the Orange & Blue. Sharpe deserves to go in as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.
There’s been a lot of debate in the sports world over whether Sharpe deserves to go in during his first year of consideration. There has been a lot of resistance against Shannon. Their justification is that they don’t consider him a Tight End, but rather a Wide Receiver. Totally disregarding his position, they examine his stats against other Wide Receivers not in the Hall – namely Cris Carter – and justify a vote against Sharpe. That logic is complete crap to me, as Sharpe helped revolutionize the tight end position to become a major offensive weapon. The fact that the position has evolved to incorporate receiving does not mean that all Tight Ends are now wide receivers. Sharpe has been considered a Tight End throughout all of his career, to now be considered a Wide Receiver is pretty shady. I’m also a big fan of Cris Carter, and want to see him in the hall – but not at the expense of Shannon Sharpe.
The other argument against Sharpe is that because he is amongst the first receiving Tight Ends to be considered, he may set a low bar that Tony Gonzalez and other Tight Ends may easily hurdle. Again this fails to realize that Sharpe revolutionized the position and still was the most politic Tight End when he played. Gonzalez may be shattering more of Sharpe’s records, but he’s following down a path that Sharpe blazed. At the end of the day, it comes down to the Rings: Sharpe has 3, Gonzalez has 0.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist that believes that the HoF voters have something against the Broncos, but I do think that it’s an insult to look at Sharpe the way they are. I hope Sharpe gets in this year, but it’s only a matter of time before he’s recognized for his accomplishments.