Posted on 01/10/2018 10:45:30 AM PST by nickcarraway
SNIP
But don’t be fooled. Roger Craig is a pivotal figure in NFL history, and the Seniors Committee needs to recognize him for what he was: a game-changer. To borrow a line from Bob Costas: “Roger Craig was a cutting-edge player on a cutting-edge team.”
A central figure on three Super Bowl champions, Craig became the new prototype for how running backs can be used, the template for future dual threats like Marshall Faulk and LaDainian Tomlinson.
Craig was the first back to have a 1,000-yard rushing, 1,000-yard receiving season. The first running back with more than 90 catches in a season (a feat that prompted Hall of Fame receiver Art Monk to jokingly tell Craig, “Stay out of my category.”)
Craig was the first player to make the Pro Bowl as both a fullback and a halfback. The first player to score three touchdowns in a single Super Bowl — one rushing, two receiving.
Walsh made the Hall of Fame largely because of his role of innovator. His creativity worked largely because of Roger Craig.
“We asked our backs to catch, block and run. During that time, a lot of NFL offenses didn’t have the kind of dimensions that we insisted upon at the 49ers,” Walsh wrote in the foreword to Craig’s autobiography.
“There was a period of time when Roger was easily one of the best three or four running backs in all of football. I remember John Madden stating flat out that Roger was the best back in the league. I heard that quite a few times in the mid-to-late 1980s.”
For the decade of the ’80s,Craig’s average season included 946.4 rushing yards and 605.9 receiving yards. He averaged 69.0 catches per season during the decade, just a tick behind some guy named Jerry Rice (69.2).
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
ML/NJ
Damn good tough back. Kind of like Emmett Smith.
Craig is in the top 10 back in NFL history. Perhaps top 5.
And he’s not in Canton.
Roger Craig was the best RB. But he is probably still living off the money he was given to fumble the ball against the Giants in the last minute of the NFC Championship game after the 1990 season.
Put him in Canton. Won’t matter in 5 years when they put Colin Kaepernick in Canton for his commitment to social justice.
He was a good James Bond.
Craig was an awesome football player on an awesome team. He belongs in the HOF.
I checked his stats, and he averaged less than 50 yards rushing per game for his career. It's very hard to make a case for a running back on that basis.
He'll have to make Canton on the basis of a whole lot of intangibles, for sure.
You know who belongs in the basketball HoF? Robert Horry. 7 rings. Countless clutch shots to win.
The last starting pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers Sandy Koufax relieved him
Brooklyn Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies September 29, 1957
‘Didn’t he pitch for the Mets?’
Dodgers and Cardinals too...opening day pitcher for the Mets on that infamous 1962 team...
wasn’t aware he scored three TD’s in a Super Bowl...
‘He was sort of like a combination of a running back and 2nd tight end, so he had neither impressive rushing numbers nor impressive receiving numbers for his full career.’
Saquon Barkley before there was a Saquon Barkley...
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