In America’s four professional sports — NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL — you will find seven former athletes who were responsible for rule changes in their respective sports. Of them, five are Hall of Famers: Bob Gibson, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Martin Brodeur and Mel Blount, all first ballot except Blount.
Check your rearview mirror and you will find the two MIAs: Hines Ward and James Harrison.
Ward has been passed over for nine years, Harrison three. Hopefully I won’t be writing about Harrison being snubbed six years from now, but let’s focus on Ward. He is one of only 15 NFL wide receivers to have 1,000 career receptions, plus he has two Super Bowl rings and a Super Bowl MVP in his trophy case. Yet he has been overlooked, like most of his career, by the NFL Hall of Fame Committee.
These committee members, some of whom seem to be suffering from CTE, have voted for four wide receivers who played in Hines’ era over him since his eligibility. None of them — Isaac Bruce, Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson, Sterling Sharpe — can claim as much hardware as Ward, all owning similar career stats. Ward changed the game with his physicality; ask Keith Bulluck and Ed Reed. Perhaps both infiltrated the Hall of Fame Committee. You could argue Ward is the best wide out to ever dawn the Black and Gold.
In “Hines sight,” hopefully certain writers will realize Ward’s impact on the NFL, and put his smiling bust in Canton.
Joshua McLachlan
South Side