I have always wondered...do people consider Frank Gore a Hall of Fame RB? Been around for a long time.
I think he will be IN because of his rushing yards.
But players who have better prime deserve more to be rewarded than players who have big stats because of very long longevity.
I think player like James Harrison who had an incredible prime (2007 to 2011) but we are not sure it will be enough.
3009 yards away to be in the top….
I didn't know he was still playing. He's got to be 36 - 37?
Wow. I don't think I'd be wanting to take hits from these young guys at that age...lol.
I've never turned on the tv on sunday and thought that I really needed to watch Frank Gore play because he was such an impressive back. He is just consistent and healthy. I honestly think if Fred Taylor and the Jags played against Frank Gore and the 49ers, I would have been more impressed with the game Fred Taylor had.
I think there's a lot to be said about a guy who keeps playing this long, especially at the RB position, considering your average workhorse RB peters out after what 5-6 years if that. Plus he does have 9 1,000 yard seasons, 11 seasons going at least 4 ypc, and over the course of over 3,500 carries, a career ypc average of 4.3 (that last one may not be in the elite category of career ypc, but I imaging maintaining that kind of career ypc over that many carries is hard. Also the only RBs with more carries have similar ypc; Emmitt Smith at 4.2 and Walter Payton at 4.4). He may not be as flashy or the best in his era (I'd at least put LT and AP over him for 21st century RBs), but he has remained steady and productive over a long career. I think he definitely belongs in the HOF
Gore is probably one of the most (if not the most) under-appreciated players the league has ever seen. He hasn’t done anything flashy, he doesn’t do anything bad, he’s just very consistent and very dependable. While players take turns being better than Gore, gore has always been consistent. I don’t think he’s hall of fame talent and if you wrote out the story of the NFL, you could do it without mentioning Frank
Gore once...but I come from the camp that if Terrell Davis is in, Frank Gore should be in.
Gore has had one hell of career. It's amazing how he has held up, especially since he was injury prone during his college career(two torn ACL's)
Last edited by BlackAndGold; 05-05-2020 at 07:48 PM.
1. Graham Barton, C, Duke 2. Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida 3. Maason Smith, DT, LSU 3. Max Melton, CB, Rutgers 4. Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame 6. Tommy Eichenberg, ILB, Ohio State 6. MJ Devonshire, CB, Pittsburgh
See, this is where I am conflicted. So Gore is #3 all time on the list, but has only rushed for more than 1,300 yards in one season. Terrell Davis had seasons of 1,500 yards, 1,700 yards and 2,000 yards rushing.
You are correct that you can tell the story of the greats of the NFL and talk Walter Peyton, Barry Sanders, Jim Brown, Eric Dickerson, Franco Harris, …. and not have to mention Frank Gore. I still think Frank Gore is in the Fred Taylor class and it has become a hall of very good.
If guys like Riggins and Bettis belong in there, so does Gore.
And as far as the "Hall of Very Good" is concerned, that boat has long since sailed - there are already a TON of players in there who are borderline HoF-worthy cases at best (and even that is being charitable). Putting a guy with Gore's credentials in the HoF isn't going to delegitimize it all of a sudden.
Personally, I think the best way to differentiate the truly all-time great players from everyone else anymore is that the best of the best go in as first ballot selections and everyone else gets to wait a while. Gore will be one of the latter.
I used to believe in the HOF until I heard of a guy named Peter King who had an agenda to not want a Steelers wing in the hall. Funny thing is his beliefs were supported by other voting members and is complete bs. Just like the top 100 players of all time these things are voted no by a so called panel of "experts" who have their own biases and/or agendas. These experts have no problem saying Landry was a better coach than Noll even though Landry never beat Chuck in a meaningful game. I like it when our players get vindicated but I also realize it is a flawed system.
All this stuff is so subjective that it does make it hard to get it right.
The stuff about Peter King is what fries me. Not because it's about Steelers players, but because someone placed in a position of power makes God-like decisions to screw over people from receiving the ultimate honor as the culmination of a lifetime of work. In my opinion, any voter that claims to not vote for a player because the organization has too many players, or decides not to vote for Troy Polamalu because he wanted to give that vote to someone that he believes needs it more to get in....should have his voting privileges removed.
I know it's not a perfect system no matter what they do, but some of this obvious bias and stupidity needs to be eliminated.
Joe Namath is in the HOF on one guarantee, Terrell Davis has 4 good seasons in a system where Mr. Magoo could rush for 1,000 yards in and he gets in. Yeah, Frank Gore probably should be in
Not to mention Emmitt "Smiff" spending a good chunk of his career behind arguably the best offensive line in NFL history. Hell, I probably could've gained 1,500+ yards a season behind the offensive line Dallas had for roughly the first half of the '90s.
If you want to talk about overrated RBs, one really needs to look no further than the NFL's current career rushing leader.
It reminds me of the Rock’n’Roll HOF debates.
Do “one-hit-wonders” deserve your be in? I mean, the Macarena isn’t a Bob Dylan ballad, but every person knows it.
Likewise, Nirvana was more talented than 99% of the bands out there, but Nirvana didn’t have nearly the record sales of some other bands have had. So, how important is the dollar figure?
Conversely, you have bands with staying power. They are good, but not great... yet, have put out records for decades. Again, is that worth more that what Nirvana brought to the table???
SUMMATION:
What defines “greatest ever”?
Oh... and...
OJ = Michael Jackson
IMO, the R&R HoF is an even bigger farce than the NFL HoF has become. Jethro Tull is still on the outside looking in. Chicago, the Moody Blues, Rush and Black Sabbath all waited at least a decade longer than they should have to get in. And...Run DMC and the Beastie Boys? Really? They're not even Rock and Roll.
And as far as Nirvana is concerned, I just never saw in them what everyone else raves about, but then, I think '90s music (and beyond) in general was and is essentially unlistenable garbage, so I guess I'm not the one to ask.
But this also underscores your main point - it's a very subjective thing.
Gotta agree with you on most of this, especially about Nirvana. In my eyes, the only good thing they did was pop the hair-metal balloon. The metal genre was becoming a joke unless you dug deep into it.
And, on football, I think Gore might get in based on being a good running back with fantastic longevity.
Agree 100%. It’s why I feel there should be more to the vote than just some dopey writers. Former and current players and coaches should get a vote. Very limited number of writers should get a vote and a very low percentage of a public vote should count. When I say low, I mean in the 1-5% range. Players and coaches should be in the 30-35 range...making that 70%. Writers get 25-30 and then the rest goes to public.
In no way should this be a writer only thing. A guy like Aaron Smith (who I don’t think belongs in) is a non-flashy, humble, guy but his impact on that team was immense! It’s guys like that that will never get the recognition they deserve...but coaches and players know.
Rock Hall of Fame...LOL! What a joke! I mean, Abba is there but, Grand Funk Railroad isn't! The Rock Hall should be renamed the Music Hall of Fame.
On a side note.... the company I work for built and installed all the speaker towers around the Rock Hall. We laughed every day at some of the bands on the back covers of the towers.
Gore's career track reminds me of Curtis Martin if he had played longer. Martin's in the Hall of Fame, so there's a precedent for it.
A lot of Gore's accomplishments also came while he was playing for a bad, and I mean fuckin' AWFUL team the first half of his career. He EARNED every bit of the 4.6 or 4.7 yards per carry he was getting then.
I also think that kind of longevity is remarkable in its own right. You don't play for 16 years and start for most of them if you suck. That should work in his favor, not against him.
See you Space Cowboy ...