SB Nation User Blog: studbucket

The 11th Hour

studbucket — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:53:48 -0000

The time has come. Tomorrow (the 25th), the Hall of Fame Seniors Committee meets to determine the final 2 Seniors candidates that will be part of the final 17 candidates that the Hall of Fame writers vote on. We desperately want and need Floyd "The Franchise" Little to get a chance at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He means so much to the Broncos franchise today (which wouldn't be here without him) and we want Floyd to get into the Hall of Fame.

If you are new to the efforts of the MHR Denver Broncos Hall of Fame Committee, please go here for an introduction, go here for more about our efforts regarding Floyd, and go here, here, and here to see our previous cries for help.

So we have one more day to hit these writers via email and Twitter, and we want them to know how important Floyd Little is to us as Broncos fans! So use the emails found below, read the links we provided, and get inspiration from our templates, and send out an email to all of the writers!

The Writers

Dan Pompei
- Email: dpompei@tribune.com
Rick Gosselin
- Rick is a great guy and is very knowledgeable about football. We've gotten several responses from him, and you may as well.
- Email: rgosselin@dallasnews.com
John McClain
- Email: john.mcclain@chron.com
Edwin Pope
- Email: epope@herald.com
Ron Borges
- Emails: rborges@bostonherald.com OR info@ronborges.com
John Czarnecki
- Email: john.czarnecki@foxsports.com
Dave Goldberg
- Dave wrote a fantastic article about the Hall of Fame voting process here. I'd recommend reading it.
- Email: dgoldberg@ap.org
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/deegle84 (He definitely gets Tweets)
Len Shapiro
- Email: badgerlen@aol.com
Ira Miller
- Email: imiller@sportsxchange.com

The Guidelines

Treat all of these writers with respect.
Do your research by reading the links above.
Present a passionate, yet reasoned case.
SEND YOUR EMAILS BEFORE THE 25th!

Here's a sample letter if you need some inspiration, good luck, and thanks for helping out with the cause!

Dear Mr. [Sportswriter],

I am writing you today to ask you to please put Floyd Little into the final 2 candidates chosen by the Hall of Fame Seniors committee. Without Floyd Little, there would be no Denver Broncos franchise, his impact was that profound, and that's why he's nicknamed "The Franchise". He carried horrible Denver teams and brought fans into the seats and finished his career ranked 6th all-time in rushing yards. The Pro Football Hall of Fame consists of great players and players who had a great impact on the league and where it is today. Floyd is both of those and I feel that he represents everything that is good and right with the Denver Broncos and the NFL and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Thanks!

[Your Name]

[Your City], [Your state/country]

Help Send Floyd Little To Canton

studbucket — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:47:29 -0000

Help Send Floyd Little To Canton

BroncoMadness was kind enough to interview me about the HoF Committee and write up an awesome article, check it out!

The MHR Denver Broncos Hall of Fame Committee: A Floyd Little Update

studbucket — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:03:51 -0000

via www.rememberdt.com

Earlier this year the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame class was announced, and once again there were no Broncos inducted. There was anger and outrage, it was called a travesty, then it was called a travesty again. It was out of those posts a committee was born. No more weeping and gnashing of teeth, we're taking action. With Guru advising and some help from Zappa, a committee consisting of Jezru, studbucket, and firstfan was formed with the purpose gathering data and opinions to create an organized campaign to get more Broncos in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. To see the first post in this series, go here.

The recent Hall of Fame game, induction ceremony, and a certain article from Zappa have gotten all of us into the Hall of Fame mood again and thinking about the various injustices and grievances we have against the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One of the primary reasons for angst amongst Bronco fans is the exclusion of The Franchise, Floyd Little, from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As you may remember from our first post, Floyd is one of the two candidates we are persuading the voters to get into the Hall of Fame.

So how have we been doing? Will Bronco Nation be appeased? Details and plans around Floyd's candidacy can be found below.

The Seniors Committee

Since Floyd's 15 years of eligibility expired in 1995, he can now only make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame through the Seniors Committee. The Seniors Committee is a subgroup of the 44-member selection committee consisting of eight full-time members and one rotating member. Each year the Seniors Committee whittles down the huge list of candidates to 15 final candidates through a mail-in ballot process. Five of the nine committee members meet in late August to narrow down that list of 15 to a final two candidates. This year those five committee members will be meeting on August 25 in Canton. This date is important for reasons that will be laid out at the end of this message and in the next post (a call to action!).

Below are the nine current members of the Seniors Committee.

Dan Pompei
Rick Gosselin
John McClain
Edwin Pope
Ron Borges
John Czarnecki
Dave Goldberg
Len Shapiro
Ira Miller

The Inquiries

Each of us sent out an email to several of the Seniors Committee members, looking for feedback on the process, committee, and imploring them to get Floyd into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. All of us have different personalities and interests, resulting in three distinctly different types of letters, including a great one from firstfan that can be read in this fanpost, and studbucket's can be found in the comments of that post. These emails and other templates that we provide, will be published by the committee as examples and resources for those looking to email the voters.

The Responses

While all eight journalists were mailed, we only got responses from three of them. However the responses were useful and informative and left us feeling somewhat better about Floyd's chances than when we started out. You can see snippets from those emails below.

Thanks for your note + interest in the process. I'm aware of Little
and have spoken on his behalf in past senior meetings -- and will so
again in the future.

We meet once a year in late August. We're in the process of reducing the field of about 90 candidates to a final 15 that we'll discuss at the meeting. Floyd was on the preliminary list and I'm well aware of his case. Thanks for your interest in the process.

The senior committee meets on Aug. 25 in Canton. We're now in the process of winnowing more than 100 candidaytes down to 15 finalists, a process that will be completed in early august. Five senior committee members will then meet and discuss each candidate's resume, augmented by two hall of famers who will join in the discussion, but have no vote. Two candidates are selected, and they must be voted on at the regular hall of fame selection meeting held the day before the Super Bowl. Hope that helps, and it goes without sayting that Floyd remains an outstanding contender. The bad news is that there are dozens of them, and it's an excruiciatingly tough process. Best.

The meeting to cut the list from 15 semi-finalists to two is next month. I
have long supported Floyd Little and did so again this year. Hopefully he will
make the final 15 and get a full airing in Canton next month. You
are right in saying there are more worthy senior candidates than we have slots
so it is always very difficult.
All the best and thanks for your interest in the Hall.

As you can see, Floyd is definitely being considered by the voters, but we think they might need a little nudging, don't you?

The Future

So what's going to happen next? Floyd's getting in the Hall, that's what's happening! To do that, it's going to take more than three enthusiastic committee members, that's going to take all of MHR and Bronco Country. In the very near future we are going to give out some suggestions, guidelines, resources, and email templates so that you guys can hit the Seniors Committee with all of our collective might, so they might know how important Floyd is to us.

So get excited, get knowledgeable, and get ready to get Floyd into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where he belongs!

The MHR Denver Broncos Hall of Fame Committee: An Introduction

studbucket — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:28:19 -0000

via www.rememberdt.com

Earlier this year the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame class was announced, and once again there were no Broncos inducted. There was anger and outrage, it was called a travesty, then it was called a travesty again. It was out of those posts a committee was born. No more weeping and gnashing of teeth, we're taking action. With Guru advising and some help from Zappa, a committee consisting of Jezru, studbucket, firstfan, and SlowWhiteGuy was formed with the purpose gathering data and opinions to create an organized campaign to get more Broncos in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In this first post we will be giving you an update on the plan, purpose, and progress of this committee, and look for feedback and help from you guys! MHR is far and away the best Broncos community on the web, and I think that by leveraging our passion, intelligence, and numbers, we can influence the voters the way Redskins fans were able to influence Art Monk's induction. We have chosen one current candidate and one senior candidate to focus our efforts on this year, and we've been emailing voters to get feedback and opinions on the candidates. Learn about our candidates and findings after the jump!

The Candidates

via baseballsnatcher.mlblogs.com

Shannon Sharpe - A 14 year NFL veteran (12 with Denver), Sharpe was an 8-time Pro-Bowler and made 4 All-Pro teams while managing to win 3 Super Bowls and block for 2 different 2000 yard rushers. When he retired after the 2003 season, Sharpe was the NFL's all-time leader in receptions, yards, and touchdowns by a tight end. Sharpe was loved in Denver and reviled by opposing fans because of his propensity to have a big mouth and make even bigger plays.

Floyd Little - Little played all 9 years of NFL career in Denver, making 5 Pro Bowls and 1 All-Pro team. Little played for some truly awful Denver teams, never seeing a winning record until his 7th season. However, that wasn't his fault, because of his game-changing ability and the excitement he brought to the game, he helped sell out Broncos games and bring revenue to the team, earning him the nickname "The Franchise". Little retired in 1975 with 6,323 rushing yards, good enough for 7th all-time.

The Feedback

We emailed many of the of Pro Football Hall of Fame voters and got responses from 12 of the voters regarding Shannon Sharpe and current candidates and 2 responses about Floyd Little and the veteran's committee. Below you'll find a section for both Sharpe and Little with a sample of our initial emails and some of the responses from the candidates conveying their thoughts and general attitude toward the candidate.

Shannon Sharpe

Sample email:

Mr. Sportswriter

I'm emailing you because I'm interested in hearing your take on Shannon Sharpe, and why he did not quite make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame of this past year. It's not that I don't feel that the candidates who made it in this past year were not deserving, because they were. It's just that I was surprised to see he did not make the cut after retiring as arguably the greatest receiving TE in NFL history and having blocked for two 2000-yard rushers.

Was it just a matter of it being his first year, while other deserving candidates like Derrick Thomas and Ralph Wilson Jr. have been on the list for a few years now?

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response

Responses
Basically, everyone feels that Sharpe should and will make the Hall of Fame. Some this year, some next, and some just say he will make it at some point. See various responses below.

I realized after my first years voting just how hard it is to select the class because someone deserving is always left out. The veterans on the committee always preach patience, that candidates

I not only voted for him, but I was 1 of 3 or 4 people who spoke on his behalf at our Board of Selectors meeting. Shannon had a Hall of Fame career and hopefully gets his just reward next year. FYI nobody had anything negative to say about Shannon during the discussion. I think he got caught up in the annual numbers game and there was strong sentiment to vote 91 year old Ralph Wilson in while he was still alive.

Those who make it "in the room" for a few years usually get in. Derrick Thomas is a great example. So was Art Monk the year before. In my view Sharpe has very strong credentials and that fact is very widely recognized. ... The fact he didn't get in in year one, in my opinion, is not a commentary on him. There's a backlog of candidates and other guys have been waiting a lot longer. ... Lynn Swann had to wait until his 14th year of eligibility, Don Maynard his eighth, Fred Biletnikoff his fifth, Carl Eller his 19th, I believe, just to name a few, and it's not because the voters said "Make them wait!" it's becuase there are 15 finalists, and none of them stink (which is to say they're all great to one degree or another)

There are a lot of deserving candidates out there. Some have stats, some don’t. If a player belongs in the Hall of Fame, he’ll get in.

Shannon Sharpe will be in the Hall of Fame eventually, probably much sooner rather than later. Right now, all Hall of Fame voters are having trouble struggling to quantify the receiving numbers that are starting to flow in. These numbers are very inflated from previous years and speak more to the trends in the game than individual talents. I can't speak for anyone else but myself, and I will vote for Sharpe in the future. I did not vote for him this year because I felt there were other people more deserving at this time.

As for Shannon, I just think voters favored others. Cris Carter has now missed out for two years. I don't believe the receiver thing was really a factor, because like I said, I'm sure he will get it at some point.

Don't worry about Shannon. He will be in the Hall of Fame, as are almost everyone who makes the finals his first year. I didn't campaign for him because I don't campaign for anyone; I'm a voter. I voted for him on the first ballot and maybe the second; I honestly don't remember. But unless you're someone like Jerry Rice or Emmitt Smith, who will make it next year in their first year of eligibility, there's a certain amount of seniority involved. Shannon may not make it next year either depending on the dynamics of the vote but he'll be in within four or five years.

Shannon Sharpe will get in the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure who we would have left off to get him in this year. All of the guys going in this year are worthy. He's worthy too, and like I said, he will get in. It's a matter of when, not if. A lot of it is timing. Look how long Derrick Thomas had to wait. He was as worthy his first year as he was this year.

On whether the number of receivers in next year's class will affect Sharpe's chances:

I don’t consider position a factor, but I can’t speak for the other voters. I’ve already voted for Cris Carter twice and I wouldn’t hesitate again, even if Rice is a shoo-in next year.

On determining whether a candidate is worthy or not:

Remember one thing. The HOF is forever. We aren't looking for best players in a decade or a generation necessarily. I'm looking for somebody who MUST be remembered...say 100 or 200 years from now because of their profound influence on the game. Yes, that's a high standard. It should be. To lower the bar would devalue the Hall of Fame. We don't want it to be easy. We don't want it to be seen years from now as the Hall of Very Good...

Personally, I go through the process one step at a time..comparing candidates each time ...and the final list is what it is. I don't remember ever voting no on a player who made the final 6 because I think if they made it that far they might as well get in this time rather than clog up the process again another year. But that's me.....There are so many HOF worthy players who are not in.....It's frustrating. I can probably name two or three per franchise who should be in....But I am a soldier and I follow the process and do the best i can.

On whether candidates have a greater chance because of how long they have waited:

I think there might have been some of that with Roger Wehrli a couple of years ago. It was his last chance on the modern-era ballot. I'm just guessing. I don't know that. Maybe this year with Ralph Wilson, too, since he's getting up there in age. But I don't think that's why either of them got in. They got in because they are deserving.

On the small amount of HoFers from Denver:

The small number of Broncos players I realize is an issue in Denver, and the only thing I can figure is the feeling that they had a lot of very good players that made for very good teams, but not a large number of great players that would be Hall of Famers. I think it will be interesting when this Patriots era concludes, how many of their players will be Hall of Famers. It's early, but my sense is there won't be many.

Floyd Little

Sample email:

I am trying to determine the criterion that the senior committee uses to select players for the Hall of Fame. With all of the players who fall into the senior category, I imagine the task can be somewhat daunting. The number of eligible players is growing every single year, and we all want to see some of our old favorites make it in, but with even less media coverage of the senior selections it's hard to know how the process works.

I'm particularly interested in some players from the AFL days, and how you measure them against their NFL counterparts.

If you would let me know what you look for in a player to be selected from the senior committee I would greatly appreciate it.

Responses

As you can see, our email wasn't specifically about little, we were trying to learn more about the senior committee and how it functioned before proceeding with his campaign.

There are nine of us on the seniors committee. We're also on the regular selection committee. Of the nine, five of us go to Canton every August on a rotating basis to vote on the two senior nominees, who automatically become finalists.

In Canton, the Hall of Fame brings in two members of the Hall of Fame to help us go over the candidates. We also have access to everything said in that meeting for the last 30 to 40 years by everyone the Hall has brought in to help the Seniors Committee.

For instance, I know what Tom Landry said about his candidates, Lombardi, Mara, etc.

We have a lot of information, and then we have to vote on the two nominees. I wish those nominees were rubber-stamped for induction by our regular committee, but, unfortunately, they're not. We didn't vote in Claude Humphrey this year to go with Bob Hayes. I felt terrible for Claude.

The thing to remember about players on the senior committee ballot, for the most part, is that there re no slam dunks. If they were a slam dunk, they'd already be in, most probably. So it becomes a matter of degrees, of determining what impact a player might have had, how it has stood the test of time, and occasionally of finding someone who made an impact and was overlooked, like Bob Hayes this year.

I can assure you that there are fans and team people in every city in the NFL who believe they have deserving players not in the Hall of Fame, and, frequently, they will accuse the committee of being biased against "their" guy.

I have a very simple test that I apply on Hall of Fame voting: Can you write the history of the game without the man? If you can't, then you need to look at him very, very closely.

What's Next?

As a committee, we've completed round 1 of the process. We've gathered some initial feedback and tested the waters, and we are ready to move on to phase 2. What will phase 2 entail? We are looking four things:

1) Send out emails to the senior committee members dealing specifically with Floyd Little. Mention his credentials, his importance to the Denver franchise, and see how often his name has come up in discussions.

via www.littleinthehalloffame.com

2) Do more research on Sharpe so we are ready to bring hard-hitting stuff when the candidates are announced.

3) Determine the role of Broncos fans and the MHR community in this effort. At some point an email campaign will be used, but at what time and in what capacity has not been determined.

4) Get feedback from you! This may be the most important one. We posted this here so all of you could be kept apprised of what's been going on, and so we could get some feedback. What do you think of the feedback we have received from voters? How would you move forward? Do you have any questions or suggestions?

We hope that this committee can have a definite impact each and every year and help to get some Bronco greats the recognition they deserve. Our approach will be fine-tuned every year, and we should be able to accumulate a lot of feedback and different perspectives from voters, which allow us to most effectively market our players. With MHR, the Hof Committee, and Broncos fans working together, we can achieve some great things.

You do not mess with Pat Bowlen, and you definitely do not ignore him.

studbucket — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:24:58 -0000

You do not mess with Pat Bowlen, and you definitely do not ignore him.

An acquaintance of Pat Bowlen to Peter King.

A Statistical Look at Coaching Success

studbucket — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:33:31 -0000

Given all of the coaching turnover this offseason (a record 11 new coaches), I wanted to see how coaching hires should be expected to fare with their teams. Are they successful, a failure, or somewhere in between? By looking at trends from the past, I hope to better understand how many coaches from this new batch of 11 we can expect to be successful, particularly Josh McDaniels.

For my data, I looked at every single new coaching hire since 1995. Why 1995? That was Mike Shanahan's and Jeff Fisher's first full season as head coach of the Broncos and the Titans/Oilers. With Mike Shanahan's firing, Fisher is now the longest-tenured coachin the NFL, so starting in 1995 ensures that every team in the league has made at least one hire in my dataset.

Methodology and Data

Using Pro-Football-Reference.com, I gathered information on every coach hired since 1995, specifically name, team, years, wins, losses, and ties. Using this information, I calculated a winning percentage and then classified each coach as 'Successful', 'Moderately Successful', or 'Unsuccessful'. I used some basic guidelines for making these decisions, but there were some cases where I needed some subjectivity to make what I feel was the correct classification. For instance, Dick Vermeil only coached 3 years in St. Louis and had a winning % of .458, which is relatively lackluster. However, Vermeil brought the Rams their first Super Bowl trophy before he retired, and I am willing to bet that most people would consider his tenure in St. Louis to be a successful one.

In general, coaches with a tenure of three years or less are considered 'Unsuccessful' as well as four or five year terms with a winning % of .500 or below. Coaches with 6 or more years or of service with one team are often considered 'Moderately successful', unless they have experienced a relatively large amount of postseason success in their career. Coaches who have won Super Bowls or have long tenures with a team are considered 'Successful'. I am sure some discussion could be had on my ratings, but I believe that they effectively classify the coaches, and would be happy to discuss any of the ratings. Current head coaches also didn't follow these criteria strictly, as some 1-year head coaches, such as Atlanta's Mike Smith, would be considered successful at this point.

To see the table of coaching hires, classifications, and data, please follow this link.

Results

There were 97 coaching hires between 1995 and 2008, an average of about seven new coaches per season. Of those 97 hires, 21 represent current NFL head coaches and 76 represent past head-coaching stints. As you can see in the table below, past head coaches were successful about 21% of the time and had a winning % of .567 and an average tenure of 7 seasons. That's a big difference compared to unsuccessful coaches, who last less than 3 seasons, had a winning % of .356, and comprise 64% of that group.

Past NFL Head Coaches (Hired 1995-2008)

	Successful	Moderate	Unsuccessful
Amount	16	11	49
Win %	.567	.540	.356
Avg. Seasons	7	3.64	2.88
Size (%)	21%	14%	64%

Current NFL head coaches, as expected, have a much higher success rate than past coaches. Most of these coaches still have a job for a good reason, as 90% could be considered at least moderately successful, with only 10% being unsuccessful.

Current NFL Head Coaches

	Successful	Moderate	Unsuccessful
Amount	12	7	2
Win %	.620	.520	.469
Avg. Seasons	4.92	3.57	3
Size (%)	57%	33%	10%

Those two datasets are interesting, and can give us some perspective when it comes to looking at current and past head coaches, but if we want to predict future success we will combine those two datasets so that we can have a composite set to work with. Below are the statistics for all 97 coaching hires:

All NFL Head Coaches (Hired 1995-2008)

	Successful	Moderate	Unsuccessful
Amount	28	18	51
Win %	.590	.532	.360
Avg. Seasons	6.11	3.61	2.88
Size (%)	29%	19%	53%

Seeing this, we can expect a little more than one quarter of NFL head coaching hires to be successful, while a little over half are disappointments.

Analysis and Extrapolation

So how is this useful? How does it apply to 2009? From a strictly statistical approach, we can attempt to predict how many head coaches from this group will be successful, and how many will crash and burn. If we take the above percentages and multiply them by the number of new coaching hires (11), we get some rough numbers: 3.19 successful coaches, 2.09 moderately successful coaches, and 5.83 unsuccessful coaches. Rounding those numbers, we get 3, 2, and 6, which is the approximate number of coaches who will fall into each category if we were to categorize them 10-15 years from now.

It can be argued that the success rate should be expected to be even lower, considering that the teams hiring new head coaches have been relatively unsuccessful in general, and that's due to problems with the organization and talent on the team. While that is true, I feel these ratios are reasonable and that some of the coaches that are currently considered successful may not be coaching in a few years. Examples of this may be Wade Phillips, John Harbaugh, or Ken Whisenhunt. If three such coaches drop from 'Successful' to 'Moderately Successful' or 'Unsuccessful', that will drop the success rate to 43% from 57%, something that should be expected.

Prediction

[Update: This last section was just thrown in for fun and discussion, I spent 10 minutes on it]

So knowing how many coaches to expect to succeed, how would I classify the new coaching hires? See below:

Successful

Raheem Morris, TB
Rex Ryan, NYJ
Mike Singletary, SF

Moderately Successful

Josh McDaniels, DEN
Tom Cable, OAK

Unsuccessful

Todd Haley, KC
Jim Mora Jr., SEA
Steve Spagnuolo, STL
Jim Caldwell, IND
Eric Mangini, CLE
Jim Schwartz, DET

How about you? Who are your 3 successful, 2 moderately, and 6 unsuccessful coaches from this new batch of 11?

Notes From Lombardi: Broncos Breakdown

studbucket — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:23:32 -0000

Notes From Lombardi: Broncos Breakdown

Mike Lombardi of NFP goes over Denver's offseason moves and what he thinks of them all.

The State of The Broncos

studbucket — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:01:45 -0000

The State of The Broncos

National Football Post's Matt Bowen writes an article on the current state of the Denver Broncos.

A HOF Travesty in Numbers - Expanded

studbucket — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:17:26 -0000

Thanks to Jezru for this post in which he gave me the idea for this and got the ball rolling with the statistics.

14 different NFL teams came into existence between 1960 and 1967. Combined they have 17 Super Bowl titles and 82 Hall-of-Famers. The Denver Broncos are part of that illustrious group, but only make a real contribution to one category with their 2 Super Bowl titles. Why do they barely make a dent in the Hall-of-Fame count with two inductees?

The 14 teams to enter the NFL between 1960 and 1967 are Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota, New England, New Orleans, New York Jets, Oakland, San Diego, and Houston/Tennessee.

Out of those teams, only Dallas, Oakland, and perhaps Miami have a list of accomplishments as a franchise that can be considered better than Denver's. All three of those teams have multiple Super Bowl wins, a storied history, and a total of 33 Hall-of-Famers between them all. In fact, after Denver, the next two most storied franchises on that list, Kansas City and Minnesota, both have 9 Hall-of-Famers despite only winning 1 Super Bowl between them (and that came in a game where they played each other).

So now that we've given this some context, let's see where Denver stacks up in six important categories: Winning %, Super Bowls Titles, Conference Titles, Division TItles, Playoff Berths, and Hall-of-Famers.

Statistic	Place	Value	Average
Winning %	5th	.528	.500
SB Titles	4th	2	1.21
Conference Titles	2nd	6	3.36
Division Titles	7th	10	10.07
Playoff Berths	6th	17	16.71
Hall-of-Famers	11th	2	6.07

As can be seen in the table above, Denver is at or above the average in every single category except 1; Hall-of-Famers. The discrepancy is mind-boggling, and I'm not sure what to chalk it up to. For a while, Denver was in the AFL, then they stunk, and they were never on TV because of their lack of quality and their time zone. However, by the mid-to-late 1970s, NFL football was becoming more and more prominent on the airwaves, and Denver was a good football team. So the team has been in the national spotlight for the last 30 years, but has still only managed to get two Hall-of-Famers since then. Sure, there might be an East-Coast bias, but that argument can easily be shot down by pointing to San Francisco, Oakland, Kansas City, and Minnesota.

So I have no good reason why Denver has so few Hall-of-Famers, but I do know they deserve several more. In fact, I think they deserve about four more. That would put them right at that average of 6.07 for the aforementioned franchises, and I think we would all be happy with that.

So which four players should get in? I'll let you decide that, but here's a list of candidates for you broken down by era.

The Dark Ages (1960-1975)
Lionel Taylor, WR
Rich Jackson, DE
Austin "Goose" Gonsoulin, S
Floyd Little, RB

The Orange Crush (1976-1980)
Randy Gradishar, ILB
Tom Jackson, OLB
Billy Thompson, S
Louis Wright, CB

The Reeves Era (1981-1994)
Dennis Smith, S
Karl Mecklenberg, OLB/ILB
Simon Fletcher, OLB/DE

The Shanahan Age (1995-Present)
Steve Atwater, S
Shannon Sharpe, TE
Terrell Davis, RB

Based on their merits, all of those players have some claim to the Hall of Fame, and would merit some discussion. This isn't to say that the current Hall-of-Famers and the most recent class aren't deserving; they are. There are just plenty of Broncos that deserve consideration as well, and simply aren't getting it.

View the images below to see more detailed stats for each of those 14 teams, as well as some ratios.

via www.cover4blog.com

My Advice - A Call To Arms

So what should we do going forward? Well, as visitors to this site, we are armed with 4 things:

A large, passionate, and intelligent Broncos fanbase
The means by which to contact Hall-of-Fame voters
Some example letters, statements, and pleas
Numbers and names to back up our argument

We can take those four things and use them for our own revolution. Like TedBartlett905 said, the 'main stream media' isn't doing anything for us now; the fight is ours. Let's begin a campaign similar to our Ryan Clady campaign (which did have an effect) to get Broncos in the Hall-of-Fame.

My strategy is to choose three Broncos. One who would be selected by the veteran's committee, one who just joined the 15-year window, and one who has been in there for a while. Each month we will post a call to arms for these three candidates, and send out fresh emails, arguments, and pleas to various media members imploring them to vote those players into the Hall-of-Fame. Each of those posts will include nuggets of information on the players that can be used to persuade voters, as well as certain voters or media outlets we should focus on.

So let's start making a difference! By focusing on the accomplishments and achievements of our Broncos, we can propel them into the spotlight, the public's eye, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Javascript Bogging It Down?

studbucket — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:06:16 -0000

Hi, first off, I love SB Nation and the absolutely fantastic blogs that can be found here. The site designs are great and easy to navigate as well.

However, I've noticed my experience get slower and slower over the last 2 months or so, and I was wondering if this was due to new Javascript features that are being put in or something?

It can often take 30 seconds for me to completely load a homepage, which is frustrating because I cannot view the 'My Blogs' dropdown until all of the JS has been loaded. Much of the page content will appear, but the 'loading' cycle will continue for a while, which hints to me that this is a javascript/images thing.

I just thought I'd bring it up because I notice that at least 7 scripts are called upon load (looking at source), and it's been a very recent thing (last few months).

I use Firefox 3 on Windows Vista and Ubuntu 8.0.4 and 8.10. Problems experienced on both OSes.

Thanks!