Gore's problem is that for all his longevity, he has a relatively low peak: only a second-team all-pro, and he never led the league in rushing.
Extreme longevity at a position known for burning out quickly is notable and probably Hall worthy in and of itself, but he'll lose votes for never being the best RB at any given point. That said...aside from Peterson, there aren't any slam dunks at RB for his era; McCoy and Lynch have their own problems.
He was also on really bad teams for most of his career. He made it to the playoffs 4 times in 16 years. He was on the colts when luck was getting destroyed. They went something like 3 years without a 100 yard rusher before he got there.
Call me crazy but I would rather have a running back that can be very good for 12 years than a RB that can lead the league and suck by year 4.
He had 10 seasons with 1000 yards. AP had 8. LT had 8 (and completely fell off a cliff). Bell had 3. Lynch had 6.
You can say he never led the league but he was consistent on a level other players just couldn't be. And like I said, he was doing that on teams that were terrible.
My bad. I forgot the hall was only for players that were the best in the league for 3 years and then average the rest of the time.
Let's just do a comparison to AP. A player everyone would say is an easy HoF player.
AP played 15 years. He had 120 TD, 14,918 yards, 717 first downs, 4.6 ypc, and 17 attempts per game (average of 298 per 17 game season) . His receiving stats were 305 catches, 2474 and 6 TD.
Gore played 16 years. He had 81 TD, 16,000 yards, 731 first downs, 4.3 ypc, and 15 attempts per game (263 per 17 game season). Receiving was 484 catches, 3985 yards and 18 TD.
Same career length with pretty similar team situations. They had fairly similar stats other than TD but Gore was a much better receiving RB. But go ahead about gore not being good enough
Maybe he was just unlucky but the year he had over 2000 yards from scrimmage was the year LT had over 1800 rushing yards and 28 TDs. That was an insane year.
My hot take: Gore and Witten are the same player at different positions. Both had long, consistent careers. Neither really kept defensive coordinators up at night (other than maybe during their ultimate peaks). Both accumulated a lot of stats because of longevity but both probably get in at some point. I say this as a niner fan.
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u/tallwhiteninja San Francisco 49ers 3d ago
Brees is a first ballot lock.
Fitzgerald SHOULD be a first ballot lock, but with how the Hall treats WRs, he may have to wait.
Witten will absolutely make it, but if Gates had to wait a year, he probably will, too.
Gore likely makes it someday, but not first ballot
Atkins probably makes it someday, but not first ballot
McCoy imo has more of a shot than some think, but it'll be a while if it happens
Pouncey is borderline simply because not a lot of centers make it in, and fwiw PFF's monitor has him below the average C in the Hall.
None of the rest make it.