Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Shannon Sharpe, Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter and NFL Films founder Ed Sabol were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for 2011.
The go-to comment whenever Sanders’ name is brought up is that he didn’t want to tackle. That’s true, but the man could cover. In fact, I still don’t think anyone could shut down an entire half of the field like he could. And back then, it wasn’t like today where guys stay away from top cornerbacks and threw to different options. Deion would lock onto Jerry Rice and it wasn’t like Joe Montana would stop throwing to his top receiver. (Unlike when Peyton Manning only threw one pass to Reggie Wayne in the playoffs this year because Darrelle Revis was covering him.)
Many people didn’t like his bravado and arrogance, but nobody can deny that “Neon” was electrifying. He was the present-day Devin Hester in that teams didn’t want to punt to him in fear of looking stupid. He was a playmaker in every sense of the word and one of the last true man-to-man corners to play the game. Outside of maybe Darrell Green (who didn’t mind tackling), nobody was better than Deion and he deserves his place in the Hall.
Sabol was well-deserving as well (the entire 2011 class was). The work he’s done with NFL Films is second to none. He developed a way for fans to have front row seats to the action on the sidelines between players and coaches. We also got to see hits and hear sounds that a regular TV broadcast couldn’t show. Every time I watch the playoffs I’m reminded of when Bill Parcells told some of his Giants players that were sitting on the bench during a game, “That’s why you lift all of those weights. That’s why you do all of that sh*t.” We’ve all scene that clip and it’s because of Sabol’s work that fans are given the chance to get that close to the action.
Congrats to the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
