NFL Hall of Fame Dishonors Game By Not Including Jim Marshall Living legends like number 70 belong in Canton.

Minnesota Vikings’ defensive end Jim Marshall played in 282 consecutive NFL games–as well as an additional 19 playoff games. He lead one of the most prolific defenses in NFL history to four Super Bowls and was considered by his Hall of Fame coach, Bud Grant, to be the team’s one indispensable player. Why isn’t he himself in the Hall?

It’s the easiest thing in the world to pick through the names in the NFL Hall of Fame and the reason why they shouldn’t be there. It’s also not really fair, considering every player that has his bust enshrined in that hall in Canton, Ohio, has worked beyond measure to get there.

But we’re going to do it just once, or maybe twice. And we’re going to prove that the NFL–in this instance–has illustrated their ignorance of what the Hall of Fame should be about.

Former Denver Broncos’ running back Terrell Davis, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017, played in seven NFL seasons. In his rookie year of 1995, he rushed for 1115 yards.

In his next three seasons, Davis rushed for 5296 yards and scored 49 touchdowns, including a 1998 campaign where the running back averaged 5.1 yards a carry and put up 2008 yards.

For those three years, Davis was named a first-team All-Pro and his team, the Denver Broncos, won the Super Bowl twice.

Then his career was over.

After tearing his ACL, Davis averaged just over 3 yards a carry for two more seasons and accumulated a mere 493 yards.

In 2002, he announced his retirement. At that time, Davis was number 55 on the NFL career rushing list with 7607 yards, 16 spots lower than former Vikings’ running back Terry Allen–an athlete a world away from the Hall of Fame.

Just for the record; another legendary Hall of Famer is Chicago Bear Gale Sayers, whose 4956 yards put him in position 143, one spot above former Packer journeyman Dorsey Levens.

The Marshall Plan

Former Minnesota Vikings’ defensive end Jim Marshall played in the NFL–at one of the most physically challenging positions–for 20 seasons without missing a start for 301 games.

Playing his first professional season in the Canadian Football League, then drafted in 1960 by the Cleveland Browns, Marshall was traded to the new NFL franchise in Minnesota in 1961.

Marshall quickly became the leader of the Vikings’ young defense. On the other side of the ball was 21 year-old quarterback Fran Tarkenton, and a tailback/fullback tandem of ancient veterans 30 year-old fullback Mel Triplett and 33 year-old tailback Hugh McElhenney.

In their first three seasons, the Vikings won 10 games and were in the basement of the NFL West, one of two divisions in the league.

But in 1964, at age 27, defensive end Jim Marshall lead a group of youngsters like 22 year-old DE Carl Eller, 23 year-old safety LB Karl Kassulke and 24 year-old LB Roy Winston to the number six defensive ranking in the league and the Vikings’ first winning season at 8-5-1, good enough to place second in the NFL West behind the 12-2 Baltimore Colts.

From ‘66 to ‘68, the Vikings’ became a top ten NFL defense to stay. New head coach, Hall of Famer Bud Grant, both recognized and relied on Jim Marshall to be not only a defensive captain, but a veteran team leader.

Marshall–at age 32–then lead the Vikings to the league’s top defensive ranking in 1969, ‘70 and ‘71.

In ‘69, The Vikings’ won the NFL Championship Game by crushing the Cleveland Browns 27-7, before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.

The Minnesota defense would lead the Vikings’ to ten division titles in 11 seasons and three more Super Bowls, in 1973, ‘74, and 1976. In each year, the Vikings’ defense never fell below a number three rank in the NFL.

You may ask yourself if the NFL–or the NFL Hall of Fame–has a history replete with guys like Jim Marshall. Players that lead on the field and off, never missed starts, played through all injuries and infirmities, and at age 36, 38 and 39 spearheaded a defense that lead a team to the Super Bowl.

No, my friend. It does not.

Purple Heart

But because Jim Marshall does not have a hoard of Pro Bowl badges (his only selections being in ‘68 and ‘69), and was once found guilty of possessing cocaine in 1991, the NFL Hall of Fame has only come to call, obtusely, in 2017, when Marshall was passed over from the Senior committee.

Marshall said upon his verdict: “I was guilty of possessing drugs, and that’s something that I have no choice but to admit. I feel that I should pay the penalty, and I don’t think that I have any other choice. I have to stand up as a man with my own guilt.”

Marshall received a four-year prison sentence for the crime, which was stayed. He completed probation in 1996. He received a full pardon from Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty in 2007.

If this disqualifies him from the HOF, I’ve never heard the names Simpson, Taylor or Sapp before.

In his career, Marshall has 127 official sacks. Considering “sacks” are a stat only recorded from 1982 on–this should mean little. He also has 30 career fumbles recovered, an NFL record.

Jim Marshall played his position at the highest level for a generation. In 1979, at age 42, he retired from the NFL, the last of the “Purple People Eaters” to quit the game.

His coach, Bud Grant, said of him many things, among them: “Jim was the epitome of what a defensive end could do and how the position could change a game. He was a guy who was gifted beyond belief with the ability to play the position. His toughness to play through any injuries and conditions is what people remember the most about Marshall.”

When Grant took over the Vikings in 1967, he made Marshall a team captain for the first time in his eight-year career. Grant knew a natural leader when he saw one.

Marshall rewarded him by filling practices with a singular energy of industry and enthusiasm.

I’d do whatever he said (Grant) without reservation,” Marshall said. “I would do everything he wanted in the way he wanted me to do it. No complaining–and having fun. Keeping everybody happy.”