1950 -- New York Giants vs New York Yanks

Colorization of the Day

 

It's Reggie Wayne's Time

By John Turney 

For six seasons after entering the NFL, Indianapolis wide receiver Reggie Wayne sat second chair to pass receiving-virtuoso Marvin Harrison. Now, over two decades later, he's in a similar position. He's in his sixth year as a Hall-of-Fame finalist, sitting second chair to former Rams' receiver Torry Holt.

The two have been finalists dating back to 2020, but only one has momentum ... and it's not Wayne. Where Holt was a Top-10 finisher this year, Wayne was not. Failing to make the first cut from 15, he took a step backward from 2023 when he and Holt each were in the Top 10.

So here's the question: Can Reggie Wayne escape the shadow of Harrison ... or even Torry Holt ... for the Hall's Class of 2025?

He certainly has the credentials. In 14 seasons and 211 games, he had 1,070 receptions (10th all-time) for 14,345 yards (also 10th all-time) and 82 touchdowns. Furthermore, he was first-team All-Pro once, second-team All-Pro twice and named to six Pro Bowls.

In short, he played second fiddle to no one.

However, that's the role in which Wayne was cast after Indianapolis made him a first-round draft pick in 2001, and it's easy to see why. He played opposite Harrison, a Hall of Famer who averaged over 100 receptions, over 1,300 yards and nearly 13 touchdown receptions in the first six seasons the two started together.

Yet, by Wayne's fourth year, he was putting up Pro Bowl-type numbers -- 77 catches for 1,210 yards and a dozen scores. By his sixth year, he joined Harrison in the Pro Bowl and helped take the Colts and Peyton Manning to a 29-17 win over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. And when Harrison missed 11 games in 2007, it was Wayne's turn to be the star ...

-- In 2007, he led the NFL with a career-high 1,510 yards, 104 receptions and 10 touchdowns, was named second-team All-Pro and made his second Pro Bowl.

--  Three years later, in his 10th season, he was first-team All-Pro and went to a fifth consecutive Pro Bowl after catching a career-high 111 receptions.

-- Two years after that, he made his final Pro Bowl on the strength of 1,355 receiving yards, the third time he finished a season with 1,350 receiving yards or more.

That resume made Wayne a Hall-of-Fame finalist five consecutive times, locked with Holt in a logjam of wide receivers until Andre Johnson broke through this year. His election should make Wayne and Holt among the favorites for the Class of 2025, except for one potential glitch.

Momentum.

As I said, Holt has it. He didn't budge this year from the Top 10. Wayne did, moving in the wrong direction. But before counting him out, consider this:

-- His six Pro Bowls are more than Hall-of-Fame receivers Michael Irvin, Charley Taylor, Raymond Berry, Isaac Bruce, Don Maynard, Harold Carmichael, Bobby Mitchell, Cliff Branch, Art Monk, Charlie Joiner, Bob Hayes, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, as well as old-timers Elroy Hirsch, Dante Lavelli and Tom Fears. All had five or fewer invites to the annual All-Star game.

-- His resume as a one-time All-Pro and three first-or-second teams is equal to or superior to Irvin, Carmichael, Tim Brown, Stallworth, Tommy McDonald, Joiner, Isaac Bruce and Andre Reed.

-- He produced a 1,000-yard season eight times and a 100-catch season four times. He had 10 or more catches in a game 15 times and exceeded 100 yards in a game 43 times

-- He caught nine more touchdowns in the playoffs, which is tied for 10th all-time in the postseason -- and that includes a 53-yarder against the Bears in the Colts' Super Bowl XLI victory.

-- Speaking of the playoffs, his 93 receptions are the sixth most and his receiving yardage -- 1,289 -- seventh all-time. Wayne got it done like few others when it mattered most.

"One of the greatest route-runners in history," gushed former New England coach Bill Belichick, who called Wayne one of the NFL's greats of the past two decades. "A true professional who represents every positive attribute a player should emulate."

Belichick's comments were made after the Patriots signed Wayne, then 37, to a one-year contract in the late summer of 2015. However, he never played in the regular season, was released less than two weeks later and retired the following January. For someone who was the 30th overall pick in the 2001 NFL draft, Wayne accomplished nearly everything

At the University of Miami, he set receiving records as a four-year starter. Though he wasn't the biggest (6-0, 198) nor the fastest receiver (4.55 in the 40), he produced like one. A steady performer, he then went on to be part of one of the NFL's best-ever receiver duos.

But he was more than that. Where he began as a complementary receiver, he became a true number one -- a go-to guy -- and he's waited long enough on Canton. It's time Reggie Wayne wins his Gold Jacket and bronze bust.

The man earned it. 

Colorization of the Day: Buddy Young

Buddy Young (who was 5-feet-4 inches) of the New York Yankees vs Brooklyn Dodgers at Yankee Stadium, 1947

State Your Case: Separating Fact from Fiction with HOF Worthy Lomas Brown

By John Turney 

It didn't happen. I'm telling you, it just didn't. 

I'm talking about an unprofessional act that a player confessed happened, but that the film ... OK, the video ... demonstrates did not. Nevertheless, it's cited as evidence when the player's career is evaluated by Hall-of-Fame selectors and was mentioned as recently as last week by a national football writer.

So let's just make this clear: It ... did ... not ... happen.

The player is former Detroit Lions' tackle Lomas Brown (who also played for the Cardinals, Browns, Giants and Buccaneers in his 18-year NFL career), and the play is one where he contends he once intentionally whiffed on a block so that his quarterback -- Scott Mitchell -- would get hurt.

Which, indeed, he was.

"We were playing Green Bay in Milwaukee," Brown told ESPN radio over a decade ago. "We were getting beat, 24-3, at that time, and [Mitchell] just stunk up the place. He's throwing interceptions, just everything. 

"So I looked at Kevin Glover, our All-Pro center, and I said, 'Glove, that is it.' I said, 'I'm getting him out the game.' So I got the 'gator arms' on the guy (my opponent) at the last minute, he got around me, he hit Scott Mitchell, he did something to his finger and he came out the game. Dave Krieg came in the game."

The interview became a big deal in the Detroit media, though the Detroit Free Press only disputed the score of the game when Mitchell exited. It didn't dispute the story but followed by getting the thoughts of Mitchell and former Lions' coaches. OK, fine. Except it did not happen.

Not on that play. Not in that game. Not in that year.

How do I know? The game is available online where you can watch it. In fact, there's a clip on X, which is from the right game, the right year, the right opponent and the right city. There is zero question on what play Mitchell was hurt -- a blitz, with the Packers rushing seven and the Lions in a six-man protection. So someone had to go free.

General pass-protection rules are to protect from the inside out, and that's what the Lions did. Brown took the blitzing inside linebacker, and he did the right thing. The hit on Mitchell cannot be pinned on him. It might be something else, like Mitchell not throwing to the hot receiver or the running back failing to recognize an exception to the inside-out rule on his dual read. But that's unknowable.

What is knowable is that Brown did not get "gator arms," and his opponent did not blast Mitchell with the hit that forced him from the game ... which is what he told ESPN radio.

Brown takes the inside linebacker reading "heels" -- the ILBers' feet were past the DE's heels, telling Brown 

to take him. If anyone might be at fault, likely Barry Sanders who probably had a dual read and could have 

decided that the DE was the bigger threat than the inside guy, but we'll never know that. It would be an exception 

to the 'inside-out' protection rule. In no case, though, would Lomas Brown be at fault on this play.

So why did he say it? Good question. Maybe he imagined it. Maybe there was another play where he didn't give a full effort, and Mitchell wasn't hurt. As I said, all speculation is unknowable.

All we do know is that the story he told isn't accurate.

I wanted to straighten that out because Lomas Brown had a career worth considering for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was the top blocker for one of the best-ever running backs -- Barry Sanders -- who, as great as he was, needed exceptional blockers, just as Jim Brown and Emmitt Smith did. Seven of Sanders' 10 years and over 10,000 of his 15,000 rushing yards were when he and Brown were teammates. 

No, the Lions were not a great team, but they were among the NFL's better clubs. In those seven years, they had four winning seasons, including three with double-digit wins -- producing a 12-4 record in 1991 when they won the NFC Central division. Four times they made the playoffs, but three times they were one-and-done after beating the up-and-coming Dallas Cowboys in 1991.

Maybe the Lions' failure to do more in the playoffs has something to do with Hall voters not giving him more attention. I know that Brown believes it does.

"If I'm brutally honest," he told the Free Press, "I just think it’s the Lions. I just think (voters) didn’t put the respect on our team like the Dallas Cowboys.

"I look at myself, my records or my accomplishments ... and I look at some of the guys that are in there ... and I think mine is comparable to some of the guys that had gotten in. But a lot of it's off the team that you played off of. I know a tremendous amount is off playoff success."

BROWN VS. HALL OF FAMERS

Maybe. But that's not as absolute as he might think. Some of the linemen enshrined recently in Canton did not have much postseason success -- with Kevin Mawae, Joe Thomas, Tony Boselli, Steve Hutchinson and Will Shields among them. Voters today are more objective than those in the past when playing for the Packers or Steelers was a boost to a Gold Jacket. 

But Brown is right on one thing: His career is on par with other Hall-of-Fame tackles. He compares well with his peers. For openers, only one offensive lineman in the history of the game played and started more games, and that's Hall-of-Famer Bruce Matthews. That means something. It means Brown had durability and availability. 

As far as comparisons, check this out:  Brown's career is eerily similar to Jackie Slater, the longtime Los Angeles Rams' tackle. Slater played 20 seasons; Brown 18. Brown played 263 games, with 251 starts, while Slater played 259 and started 211. Both were three-time All-Pros, but Brown was a consensus All-Pro (making the majority of the major organizations' teams) once. Slater never was one. If you extend personal honors to years they made first-or second-team All-Pro, the tally is six for Brown and five for Slater.

Both went to seven Pro Bowls.

There's more, and the envelope, please.

-- Neither were all-decade.

-- Slater was a starter for seven playoff teams and a backup for three. Brown was a starter for six playoff teams -- the Lions, Cardinals and Giants -- and a backup for one, the 2002 Buccaneers.

-- Both started in a Super Bowl, and both of their teams fell short. But Brown returned to the Super Bowl as a backup for the 2002 Bucs, where he won a ring. 

-- Both blocked for record-setting runners: Slater for Eric Dickerson and Brown for Barry Sanders.

But when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration, the similarities end. Slater was a first-ballot selection, voted into the Class of 2001, while Brown has never been a finalist or semifinalist. Heck, he was so far off the radar that there were a couple of years he wasn't even on the preliminary list!

It seems unfair for two players with nearly identical resumes to have two vastly different outcomes ... and it is. Lomas Brown deserves better.

His seven Pro Bowls compare favorably to other Hall-of-Fame tackles. It's the same number that Ron Yary, Gary Zimmerman, Orlando Pace and, yes, Slater, were selected. And it's more than Bob Brown, Dan Dierdorf, Rayfield Wright, Mike McCormack, Tony Boselli, Bob St. Clair and Jimbo Covert.

In terms of first-team All-Pro selections, the 6-4, 282-pounder (at the beginning of his career, anyway) also has similar credentials: His three All-Pro seasons not only match Slater; they're the same number as Boselli and St. Clair and more than McCormack, Covert and Winston Hill.

Other Halls of Fame get it. The Detroit Lions' Hall of Fame (2023) picked him as a member. So did the College Hall of Fame (2020). His alma mater did, too. He was named to the University of Florida Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995. Even the state of Michigan inducted him to its Hall of Fame in 2013.

Along the way, Brown was decorated at every level. He was on the Florida High School All-Century Team and the Detroit Lions' 75th and 100th anniversary teams, as well as the University of Florida's All-Century team.

Yet Canton hasn't called.

An All-American at Florida in 1984, Brown was the first pick of the Lions -- and the sixth overall -- in the 1985 NFL draft, and he became a starter immediately. You already know what he did for Barry Sanders and the Lions' running game, but he was even better pass blocker. 

Quick and athletic for a man his size, he excelled while spending a significant part of his Lions' career in a run-and-shoot offense that often included  '10' personnel, with four wide receivers and a running back. The scheme could send all five eligible receivers into pass routes,  leaving just five offensive linemen to block without help from a tight end of fullback.

That meant Brown was on his own vs. the top pass rushers in the NFL, and he rose to the challenge.

He left the Lions for Arizona in 1996 as an unrestricted free agent and was named to  his seventh Pro Bowl. A couple of years later, he was the starting left tackle on a 9-7 Cardinals' playoff team that beat Dallas, 20-7, in an NFC wildcard game. From there, it was on to the expansion Cleveland Browns for a year, then the New York Giants for two seasons before winding up his career in Tampa.

Perhaps playing for four teams the last seven years of his career may cause Hall-of-Fame voters to overlook Brown when submitting their ballots. I don't know. What I do know is that his time is running out on his Hall-of-Fame candidacy. He has three more years of modern-era eligibility before moving into the seniors' category, sometimes call "the abyss" for the overwhelming number of Hall-worthy candidates who can get lost there.

It's time for Lomas Brown to have his case heard because his body of work demands it. No, he didn't intentionally get his quarterback hurt, but he did play for nearly two decades at an elite level ... for teams that usually were winners ... and with enough success that he was decorated as much ... or more ... accolades as other Hall-of-Fame linemen.

Joe Kapp, Record Holder?

by Jeffrey J. Miller

We here at the Pro Football Journal have always been fans of Joe Kapp, the former star college and CFL quarterback who made a successful transition to the National Football League with the Minnesota Vikings in 1967. Kapp led the purple-and-gold to their first Super Bowl in 1969, and though they lost to the Chiefs, that feat forged Kapp’s name in the pantheon of Vikings legends.   

Kapp enjoyed an All-America career at the University of California (Berkeley), where he led the Golden Bears to the 1958 Rose Bowl. After college, Kapp wound up signing with Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. After two seasons, Kapp was traded to the British Columbia Lions. Though the league’s youngest franchise, Kapp was able to lead them to their first Grey Cup appearance in 1963. A year later, he led them to their first Grey Cup victory.

The American and National Leagues were taking notice, and Kapp eventually signed with Minnesota in 1967. In three seasons with the Vikings, Kapp registed a regular season record of 23-12-3 as a starting quarterback, along with playoff appearances after the 1968 and 1969 seasons and the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl appearance. 

Though a proven winner as a pro QB, Kapp was not known for beautifully thrown spirals or elegant bombs to the end zone. In fact, during that same three-year period in Minnesota when he was winning .657 pct of his starts, Kapp threw 37 touchdowns passes and 47 interceptions. Rather, Kapp’s tenure in Bloomington was highlighted by a tough-as-nails approach to leadership, a man who seemed to thrive on contact and the enjoyment of making defenders suffer as much as he did from brutal collisions. 

As a result, Kapp does not solely hold any NFL passing records (though he does share the record of 7 TD passes in a single game with several other QBs). However, there is one record to which we believe Kapp can lay claim. It’s a record attained not on the field of play, but on the obverse of football trading cards.  You see, Kapp holds the distinction of having the same image (purportedly from his days at the University of California) used on no less than six regular stock issue bubble gum cards between 1960 and 1969, plus one more insert card from the 1969 Topps set giving him an actual grand total of seven card appearances!  Sure, other players have had the same photo used on multiple cards during their careers, but no one we have found comes even close to Kapp’s record.

Congratulations, Joe!

Colorization of the Day—George Taliaferro

 By John Turney 

George Taliaferro playing for the Los Angeles Dons of the AAFC running the ball against the San Francisco 49ers—

Packers Reveal New White Helmet

By John Turney

Well, another white helmet.  This one is called "Winter Warning" but we think it's more WFWS (white for white's sake).

Our question is why did they not put a yellow stripe between the green stripes? 

We suppose it is to be consistent with the gold helmet ... but all we can say is this may have been the better look—

The actual helmet is on the left, and a Photoshopped yellow-striped lid is on the right.

It's not a pass or fail. The white helmet is unnecessary. 

Why?