Steve Smith Sr., snubbed from NFL Hall of Fame Finalist list

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Visit the Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. So if you have a 17 year NFL career and you are fourth most all-time in sacks with a hundred and fifty nine point five. And you also have ten double-digit sack seasons, which is the third most all-time behind two other Hall of Famers.

And you're an edge rusher. Sounds like you should be the Hall of Fame, right? Yes, I would say so. Yes, that would be Julius Peppers.

Yes. Without a doubt. Just I hope they have his bust, his statue.

All that's already made. Love some pep. Julius Peppers in the Hall of Fame. No brainer.

Exactly. He's a no brainer. By the way, Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam Gold. This is the Adam Gold show. Victoria producing us as always. Adam will be back in the new year.

I know you guys are probably missing him. Not until 2024. Maybe tomorrow we'll do New Year's resolutions for Adam. We should. We should.

Watch more soccer. Oh, get a camera. I don't think that's the issue. Then he'll never see his family. Exactly. I don't think that's the problem. But we look at the Eddall Hall of Fame finalists.

Okay, so we're of this group of people is going to get whittled down to five. Julius Peppers, Antonio Gates are first-timers. First years of eligibility. They are on the finalists list.

Makes sense. Antonio Gates, one of the best wide receivers of all time. He's right up there in total catches and yards. And he holds the record, I think, for tight ends with 116 touchdown receptions. And I think his number of catches is second behind Tony Gonzalez.

And I think his yards is second behind Jason Witten. And this is all time. Like, yeah, that guy should probably go in. Yeah. That guy should probably go in.

And you know what? First ballot, no problem with it. A guy who's been waiting, waiting for a long time, probably waiting longer than he should have been?

Too long. Tory Holt. Yeah. Without a doubt, that guy should be in the Hall of Fame. I get people are like, whoa, he's part of the greatest show on turf because, you know, there's Kurt Warner was there. And there's Isaac Bruce and they have Marshall Faulk. Like, well, yeah, those guys also got their stats because Tory Holt was also there too.

Like, you had to worry about him. It was a team effort. Really, but we're also looking at what he accomplished individually.

And Tory Holt should absolutely be in there. Then you have Reggie Wayne, the longtime receiver with the Indianapolis Colts. Phenomenal career. Gosh, I loved watching the Colts offense when it was Peyton Manning at quarterback. They had Edgeron James, Dallas Clark at tight end. Marvin Harrison Sr. And then they had Reggie Wayne. Like, that offense was fun to watch.

So good. Then you have some other guys like Patrick Willis, who's a linebacker. Dwight Freeney, who's an edge rusher. Jared Allen, who's an edge rusher. Willie Anderson, Darren Woodson, Devin Hester. Some other first-time guys like Eric Allen and Rodney Harrison who are defensive backs. You had Fred Taylor, who's a running back, played a long time with the Jacksonville Jaguars. I think he played a couple seasons with New England. Offensive lineman Jari Evans also made it. But who would know who I didn't mention as part of that finalist list? Steve Smith Sr. Not okay.

Not cool. Steve Smith Sr. And I know a lot of people are going to say Andre Johnson, who was a wide receiver for the Houston Texans. I know, I think he played his last couple seasons like one year in Indy and one year, I think, as well with maybe with New England Patriots.

Actually, I'm sorry, Tennessee Titans. He played his last two seasons, one with Indy and one with Tennessee. But overall, 14-year career. Great career for Andre Johnson.

Steve Smith, great career as well. So it's like, well, why did one guy be a finalist and the other is not? Now, I think when it comes to finalist voting, I think the voters sometimes like to spread things out over position. Because if you look at it, okay, Holt, Wayne, those guys should probably get in this year into the Hall of Fame.

Or this upcoming year, I should say. Those guys are probably going to be in. It's like, okay, well, we don't want to have four wide receivers on the ballot. So, okay, there might have been a split vote between Andre Johnson and Steve Smith, Sr. And I think Andre Johnson edged him out. But it's like, well, I'm sorry, Steve Smith, Sr. had a better career than Fred Taylor. I know they played different positions, but I'm like, I'm sorry, Steve Smith felt more impactful in his career than Fred Taylor did as a running back. Fred Taylor had some really good seasons, don't get me wrong. That guy had multiple thousand-yard seasons after the age of 30.

So there's like a longevity thing that comes in this. But Steve Smith, Sr. also had some of his best seasons post age 30. Now I get, that's when Cam showed up.

And then when he went to Baltimore, he had Joe Flacco. I get it. Oh, bummer. The holidays are over. But, yay, your weird relatives left. But, no more presents. But, yay, you have your freedom again. But, there are no more desserts. But, there's also no more holiday music, huh?

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See website for details. Those two guys, better than Jake Delone. Not a knock on Jake Delone, it's just what it is. But Steve Smith Sr. also played a ton of his career without him. He did. It was impressive. Early in his career, he had Chris Winky, then Rodney Peet, then Jake Delone. He made something out of nothing for a long time.

For a long, long time. Now I get in Houston, you have Matt Schaub as a quarterback. Matt Schaub, Jake Delone, kind of similar, I guess you could say, in terms of their talent level.

Probably pretty similar. But Steve Smith also had a conservative head coach in John Fox for a long, long time. And he still put up the numbers that he did. So if you're going to ask if this guy was snubbed off the finalists list, yeah, I would say he was. Yeah, I would hate to see someone's position hold them back from being in. Because you're deserving of it, what you did, whether it's, you know, whether there's five wide receivers in there.

Okay, well they deserve it. Yeah, exactly. If you're deserving, you're deserving. Now, there are some things that happen because, again, they're not going to want to put five of one position in at a time. When you have some of these outlier guys, when I say outliers, like these automatic shoe-in guys, like when Terrell Owens became eligible, that guy was a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. That slows down guys like Tory Holt getting in, which then there's the backlog, which slows down Steve Smith and Andre Johnson and Reggie Wayne, these other guys. That's just unfortunately how this works. When Larry Fitzgerald becomes eligible, Larry Fitzgerald is probably going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Rightfully so.

Larry Fitzgerald had a phenomenal career. Well, guess what? Other guys at his position are going to have to just wait another year longer. That's kind of how this works. And then, gosh, when Peyton Manning actually becomes eligible and Tom Brady, these other guys become eligible, well, those guys are first ballot.

Well, guess what? Someone else has to wait another year. They only put in five a season. They only put in five.

That's just unfortunately how this works. And they're going to want to put in Tory Holt before his eligibility runs out. And Tory Holt, again, should be in there anyway. So, yeah, did he get snubbed off the finalist list?

Absolutely. But that doesn't mean at some point he won't be in the Hall of Fame. And I think that's the thing we got to keep in mind is that as long as he gets there, does it matter how long you waited? Yeah, like you get there like, here's the thing for me when it comes to the Hall of Fame. You remember the guys that are like first ballot, like Troy Polamalu, first ballot Hall of Famer, right? First ballot.

You remember those guys. Peyton Manning's going to be first ballot, but once you're in, you're in. That's all that matters. Once you got the gold jacket, it doesn't matter how fast you got it.

As long as you get there. He was put into the Panther Hall of Fame, Hall of Honor, I should say anyway. The Ring of Honor, he and Julius Peppers.

Yeah, all of them were. Rightfully so. Like, he absolutely deserves to be there. And I think something we have to keep in mind when it comes to the Hall of Fame stuff is that, yeah, you might have to wait a few years. Like, Tory Holt has had to wait way too long, in my opinion. The guy should have been there a few years ago.

But he's going to get there, I believe. And once he's in, that's all that matters. You can say Hall of Famer, Tory Holt. When Steve Smith eventually does get there, Hall of Famer, Steve Smith. Once he eventually gets in there, Reggie Wayne.

Hall of Famer, Reggie Wayne. That's all that matters. Once you're in, you're in.

Yeah. Like, yeah, there's the first ballot guy, Ray Lewis. Ed Reed.

First ballot, you're in. So I know a lot of people, again, are doing the comparisons with Andre Johnson. I mean, I'll touch on the comparisons here real fast. If you look at Andre Johnson, the number of 1,000-yard receiving seasons in his career. I think he had seven. He had 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013. He had seven. Steve Smith, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2014. He had eight. He had eight seasons of 1,000-plus yards.

Receiving yard total, pretty similar. Andre Johnson, 14,185. Steve Smith, 14,731. Steve Smith, 81 touchdowns. Andre Johnson, 70. Total number of receptions, Andre Johnson, 1,062. Steve Smith, 1,031.

Pretty similar careers when you're looking at just the overall stats. I mean, Steve Smith, gosh, in 2005 was the AP, like, Player of the Year. If I remember correctly, Offensive Player of the Year. Multiple-time Pro Bowler. I mean, he's been absolutely stellar in his career. So, yeah, if you want to sit there and say he got snubbed, I'm not going to disagree with you one bit. There's no way that he's not going to make it.

You can't. That would be so sad. Just like Rod Brendamore. I know that's totally different. That's hockey, but it's the same thing.

Both of these guys, they need to be in the Hall of Fame. And the fact that they keep getting looked over is just frustrating. But I'm holding out, keeping my fingers crossed. It's probably going to take longer than we want. But I think he eventually will get there. And again, that's what matters. When he gets there, once he's got the gold jacket on, doesn't matter when you got it. Once you're in that Hall of Fame, you can say that for life. And live the Chumba life.