Four Former St. Louis Rams on Preliminary 2015 Hall of Fame List
The NFL announced the preliminary list of first-year nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, and the group included four former St. Louis Rams, all of whom were part of the “Greatest Show on Turf” era and participated in Super Bowls XXXIV and XXXVI. Among the nominees were quarterback Kurt Warner, wide receivers Torry Holt and Issac Bruce, and left tackle Orlando Pace.
The widespread belief among Rams fans is that all four players deserve to be Hall of Famers, though in reality only Warner and Pace have a realistic chance at being inducted on the first ballot.
There will be some debate about Warner’s credentials for the Hall due to the fact that he didn’t achieve success in the NFL until age 28 and endured a six-season stretch during the middle of his career where he shifted between starter and backup duties and had his fair share of struggles. The fact remains, however, that Warner led two different organizations who had been historically terrible to Super Bowl appearances, as he took the Rams to two of their three Super Bowls and got them their only win, while he also led the Cardinals to their first and only appearance in the big game.
He’s seventh all-time in career passing yards (which is pretty amazing considering that he only started a full 16 games three times throughout his career), and he led the league in completion percentage for three straight seasons from 1999-2001. And while it technically shouldn’t have an effect on the selection process, the fact that Warner has perhaps the greatest rags-to-riches sports story of all time, going from a training camp castoff who bagged groceries to a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, certainly can’t hurt his cause.
Pace is widely regarded as one of the greatest left tackles of all time, and the historic offensive success that the Rams had in 1999 and the early 2000s would not have been possible without his spectacular play. He was a seven-time Pro Bowler, and at a position that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to durability, he held up very well during a 13-year career that lasted from 1997 to 2009. With Walter Jones, a similar talent, having gone in on the first ballot this past year, it would be surprising if Pace was not elected this coming January.
Holt and Bruce, meanwhile, are victims of the position they played during the era in which they played. Both players were part of the NFL during a revolutionary era of passing success, and they’re probably going to have to pay their dues and wait until Tim Brown and Marvin Harrison, two other greats who have already been on the ballot and not been elected, ultimately get in. We’ve seen this happen with several other receivers in recent years; Michael Irvin, Andre Reed, and Art Monk all had to wait before receiving their calls to the Hall.
The unfortunate aspect of the situation for Bruce and Holt, however, is that there will be so many other great receivers following them in short order. Terrell Owens, second all-time in career receiving yardage, will be eligible next year, and it’s only a matter of time until Randy Moss and Tony Gonzalez, two others near the top of the list, will also be on the ballot. But with Bruce being fourth all-time in receiving yardage and Holt 12th, both figure to make their way to Canton at some point, whether it’s next year or six or seven years down the road.