Special case: Ray Guy's Canton shutout indefensible
Prisco: Big new legs pushing limits
When you talk to punters they generally acknowledge Buffalo's Brian Moorman and Oakland's Shane Lechler as the two best in today's game. Yet I could count on one hand the number of times you hear their names mentioned in a season.
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| Ray Guy: The best punter ever, many say. (US Presswire) |
Try finding a punter there. You might as well go looking for El Dorado. There isn't one, which is an affront to Ray Guy.
He wasn't just the best punter of his generation; he was the best punter ever. Yet the Hall of Fame refuses to open its doors to him because voters are predisposed against specialists. In fact, one voter said as much before I suggested that, if that were the case, he should evict Jan Stenerud from Canton.
Stenerud was a kicker. Ray Guy was a weapon. So are Moorman and Lechler. If you don't value them then you don't value field position. I think the last time I failed to hear a head coach talk about field position was roughly the last time Tom Brady lost, which should tell you something about a punter's value.
So why isn't he recognized? Why don't we hear more of Moorman or Lechler or San Diego's
"It all comes from the origins of the league," said Larry Pasquale, former special teams coach and now an analyst for the YES network. "The first special teams basically got a minimum of coaching, and they were usually offensive coaches. So the history of the league is to treat special teams as a very small non-entity."
In the minds of some persons, it's still there.
As Pasquale pointed out, special teams occupy a small portion of coaching staffs. Let's look at the New England Patriots. They list 13 assistant coaches on their payroll, with one devoted to special teams. That's not a criticism; it's just an attempt to explain why some people outside the game pay scant attention to punters.
Now let's look at weekly awards. Every Wednesday during the season the NFL acknowledges its AFC and NFC Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Week. There have been 20 special teamers rewarded this season. One was a punter.
"The punter," Pasquale said, "should belong to the defense because, basically, he's part of the defensive package. You think of what he does, and he's as important as a great pass rusher."
Not to Hall of Fame voters he's not. A few years ago I was seated next to a former Washington Redskins' offensive lineman who heard me talking about Ray Guy and how he belonged in the Hall.
