I don’t why Monk was not in the HOF earlier or not. I don’t know what the stanndards are for the football HOF. In baseball fans tend to have fairly solid standards for HOF (3000 strike outs, 300 wins, 500 HR’s, 3000 hits etc.,) however football has to be different for each position. Maybe some sportswriters associate him with the end of Howard Cosell’s broadcasting career. (Coselll referred to MOnk as a “little monkey” on Monday Night Football once)and they hold that against him for some reason.
Monk was, for whatever reason or reasons, never a media favorite. I’ve never figured out why, except that he wasn’t much of a quote factory, like a Deion Sanders or Michael Irvin.
That wasn’t Monk that Cosell referred to as a “little monkey,” btw. It was another Redskins receiver, Alvin Garrett.
}:-)4
Your question about Hall of Fame induction and different positions is a good one. Tight ends, for example, have historically had a hard time getting into the Hall of Fame -- probably because the nature of that position has changed so much over the years and it's hard to compare players from different generations.
I suspect it took so long for Monk to get into the Hall of Fame for two major reasons:
1. The records he set didn't stand for very long, as the peak of his career came just before the 1990s when rule changes in the NFL made 100-reception seasons more common among wide receivers.
2. Even though he was a great wide receiver and played for many years in the NFL, he was always overshadowed by other receivers and was never really considered among the top 2 or 3 receivers in the league. Top WRs in the NFL earlier in his career included Steve Largent, Roy Green and James Lofton . . . while guys like Jerry Rice, Michael Irvin and Sterling Sharpe (who I believe was the best wide receiver in the NFL even during Jerry Rice's best years) were dominant in the early 1990s.