Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › Warner, Pace, and the HOF
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January 29, 2015 at 11:10 pm #17652
znModeratorFrom the outset, former Rams left tackle Orlando Pace had Hall of Fame potential
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot…cle_189f8e54-d3b1-591b-a5e5-797b33f7186f.html
PHOENIX • Very early in Orlando Pace’s NFL career, Rams offensive line coach Jim Hanifan called Pace into his office.
“I’m gonna tell you something,” Hanifan recalls telling Pace. “This is something I never told anybody else. Fifteen, 20 years from now, you should be going into the NFL Hall of Fame. If you’re not, it’s your fault — not mine. I want you to know that right now.”
That was 1998, Pace’s second season in the league after being drafted No. 1 overall in ’97. Hanifan could tell right away that Pace had everything you were looking for in a left tackle. Great size, great athletic ability. Tremendous footwork and balance.
“It was just a combination of all those things — and he was very coachable,” Hanifan said. “There are a lot of guys that think they know it all, and they don’t.”
Pace wasn’t one of those guys. But part of Hanifan’s message to him in ’98 was that to be truly great in the NFL it took more than physical or athletic skill. It took technique, preparation, a dedication to the game.
And it’s not that Pace was missing any of that. Hanifan wanted to be sure the big fellow left no stone unturned on the quest to reach Canton.
“It was a lot of fun to see him develop into what he became,” Hanifan said.
And now, 18 seasons after entering the league, Pace is on the doorstep of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In his first year of eligibility, he’s one of the 15 finalists in the Class of 2015. A maximum of five modern-era inductees will get in.
The 2015 inductees will be
announced Saturday night on the NFL Honors television show on NBC. The voters will meet early that day — in the morning and afternoon — to select the class.
“My body of work is out there now,” Pace said in a phone interview from St. Louis. “So it is what it is. It’s really up to the voters. It’s such a tough process because everybody’s so deserving. I try not to think about it obviously. I’ve had a really good playing career, and I’m really just excited to be part of it.”
Finalists are flown in for Super Bowl weekend these days, and Pace and his wife Carla are scheduled to arrive here on Thursday. The kids are staying at home. That means Pace is abandoning his post as little league basketball assistant coach for the weekend.
Obviously the squad members, and their parents, understand. In fact, Pace says he has gotten encouragement and well-wishes from all over St. Louis as he goes about his business in his adopted hometown.
“Around town, everybody’s wishing you the best,” he said. “You can’t help but to think about it because everybody else is talking about it.”
The worst part, Pace concedes, will be sitting in his hotel room Saturday in Phoenix, waiting for the phone call.
“I’m sure that time will be a little tough,” Pace said. “A little nerve-wracking just trying to figure out if they’re calling, or they’re not calling.”
On Monday night, Pace was in the “trophy” room at his St. Louis home with his wife looking at all the awards he has won over his storied college and NFL careers.
“I told her this could be my last football award,” Pace said. “But it’ll be the sweetest one. It would put a cap on a pretty good career.”
There’s no doubt that the Ohio State product belongs in the Hall of Fame; it’s just a matter of whether he’ll be a first ballot inductee this year.
As a seven-time Pro Bowler, Pace anchored an offensive line that finished among the NFL’s top five in passing yards for eight consecutive seasons — from 1999-2006. The Rams finished in the NFL’s top 10 in total offense seven times during Pace’s career.
And from 1999-01 — the height of the Greatest Show on Turf teams — the Rams led the league in overall yards, passing yards, and points all three years. On a team full of offensive stars, it’s easy enough to overlook Pace’s contributions. But his teammates don’t.
“I always say about Big O, he’s the one guy that we couldn’t replace on this team,” said wide receiver Isaac Bruce. “You could probably replace T-Holt (Torry Holt) for a couple of games, myself, Kurt (Warner) for a couple games. Marshall (Faulk) for a couple. But if Big O goes down it’s hard. How do you do what you do?”
Bruce answered his own question. “You don’t,” he said. “He’d X guys out.”
Faulk jokingly referred to Pace’s job as boring because he did it so well.
“With Orlando, any time you’re a left tackle and your job is boring, you’re having an awesome career,” Faulk said with a chuckle. “He was just dependable. Never required a chip. Never required help.”
Things weren’t always boring for Pace, who by nature was low-key but had a nasty streak to him as well on the field.
The architect of the Greatest Show offenses, Mike Martz, recalls a home game against Cleveland in 1999 when that side of Pace came to the forefront.
“A guy from the Browns, I don’t remember who it was, made him mad,” Martz recalled. “Orlando picked him up and kicked him all the way across the field. Lifted him out of his shoes, threw him down on his back.
“He chased him all over the field the rest of the game. The guy ran from him. It was the worst beat-down by anybody I’ve ever seen in the league.”
Then there was the 2001 preseason game — that’s right, preseason game — at San Diego. The late Junior Seau, who’s also up for Hall of Fame induction this year, was roughing up Faulk along the sidelines at the end of a play.
Suddenly, there was Pace, throwing bodies out of the way and getting after Seau.
“Him and Marshall had something personal going on or something,” Pace recalled. “He kinda hit Marshall out of bounds and I had to come and protect my running back.”
Simple as that.
Pace, who spent 12 of his 13 NFL seasons with the Rams, played during a golden age of left tackles. Contemporaries Willie Roaf, Jonathan Ogden, and Walter Jones are all in the Hall of Fame. Saturday could be Pace’s turn.
“Oh yeah, he belongs in that group,” Hanifan said. “No question about it.”
“In my mind there’s no question that he’s the best athlete of all of ’em,” Martz said.
January 30, 2015 at 1:03 am #17653znModeratorKurt-in call?
By Jim Thomas
PHOENIX • There are 25 quarterbacks in the NFL Hall of Fame, but there have been no inductees at the position since Troy Aikman and Warren Moon in 2006.
Dick Vermeil has no doubt the nine-year drought ends Saturday with Kurt Warner.
“I’m confident for sure that Kurt will go in,” said Vermeil, Warner’s coach on the Super Bowl XXXIV championship Rams. “It’s almost impossible to leave him out.”
Given his unusual background and the totally unforeseen start in the NFL, Warner’s accomplishments “will never be done again,” Vermeil said. “What other qualification do you need?”
Well, there were the two NFL MVP honors. The gaudy numbers. Guiding a pair of woebegone franchises to the Super Bowl — the Rams (twice) and the Arizona Cardinals (once).
His playoff numbers deserve special emphasis. Warner is the only player to throw for 300-plus yards in three Super Bowls. Included in that trio of games is a record 414 yards passing in that Super Bowl XXXIV victory over Tennessee to cap the 1999 season.
“His playoff numbers, his quarterback efficiency rating, are better than anybody that’s in the Hall of Fame,” Vermeil said. “And if you took all the quarterbacks that are gonna be Hall of Famers in the future and included his quarterback efficiency rating in playoff games, yards thrown and everything, it’s better than those guys. It’s better than Tom Brady’s, it’s better than anybody’s.”
Mike Martz, Warner’s offensive coordinator in ‘99 and then his head coach, feels the same way about his first-ballot chances.
“How could he not?” Martz said. “He’s a two-time MVP. Took two teams, went to three Super Bowls. Won one. How could he not? And you know, the two that he lost were lost on the final play of the game.”
But there are some voters who wonder about the so-called “hole” in his career, specifically the 2004 season with the New York Giants that bridged the time between his Rams’ tenure (1998-2003) and his Arizona stint (2005-09).
Warner began that Giants season as the starter and played OK, but then was benched in favor of rookie and No. 1 overall draft pick Eli Manning.
“That’s been held against him a little bit from rumors I’ve heard,” Vermeil said. “But if that’s true, then my gosh you’ve got to eliminate everybody. Then neither one of the coaches going into this Super Bowl game can go (to the Hall of Fame) because they’ve been fired before. One of them (Pete Carroll) was fired twice.
“And (wide receiver) Cris Carter, who’s all-everything on television now, was run out of Philadelphia for criminy sakes — for bad reasons. And he’s already in the Hall of Fame.
“So it doesn’t make really good sense. There are no legitimate negatives against Kurt going in.”
Truth be told, a chronic thumb injury from his Arena Football League days contributed as much as anything to Warner’s mid-career lull. It worsened over the years and affected his grip — leading to fumbles — and affected his accuracy.
His career revival in Arizona came after he started to wear a glove on his throwing hand, improving his grip on the football.
“Wearing that glove really helped him,” Martz said.
And whether it’s this year, or sometime in the future, deciding to wear that glove will get him in the Hall of Fame. Because as Marshall Faulk said, leading a Rams offense brimming with playmakers to a pair of Super Bowls was one thing. Doing it again with a less-talented cast in Arizona was another.
“What solidified his Hall of Fame career … is when he went to Arizona and took that organization to a Super Bowl,” Faulk said.
Even Warner realizes the success in Arizona, coupled with what he accomplished with the Rams, is a key part of his Hall of Fame resume.
“I take great pride in that part of things,” he said. “Just being able to be a part of two organizations — like you said — the losingest team in the ‘90s (the Rams, until early in the ‘99 season).
“And the Cardinals, the losingest team over the last half century. To be a part of taking them to places that they’ve never been before to me is what puts the stamp on my career.
“Whether that has anything to do with the Hall of Fame or anything, that’s who Kurt Warner was. I think that’s the epitome of it. And I’m gonna always look back at that with great pride.”
The fact that the Super Bowl and the Hall of Fame voting is taking place in his adopted hometown of Phoenix has made this an unusual week for the always-busy Warner.
He’s working here this week as an analyst for the NFL Network. But he’s also “working” at home, which means running his kids all over the place. Waking them up in the morning, getting them off to school.
After his Super Bowl Media Day obligations Tuesday, he also coached a son’s flag football team and played spectator at a youth basketball game.
“That’s kind of the coolest part,” Warner said. “If you’re on the road in a hotel, you’re probably thinking about the Hall of Fame even more. People are asking you about it. You’re doing more media stuff.
“Here at home, I get to kind of be normal. I come do my little media stuff for a couple hours, then I go back to being normal.”
But come Saturday morning, Warner says the anxiousness will set in as he awaits the Hall of Fame verdict for 2015.
“You’re gonna start to realize how much more it means to you when you get to those moments,” he said. “But a key for me is I don’t by any means want Saturday to be a negative in any way.
“If I don’t get the call or the knock on the door — however they do it — I don’t want to look at it like, ‘Oh I didn’t make it!’ Or I was defeated in any way. Because this is a tremendous honor to be right in this place.
“And there’s a lot of unbelievable guys that are up for it this year. If I don’t get in, I still want to celebrate the process and celebrate where I’m at, and maybe more importantly, celebrate those five that go in.”
January 30, 2015 at 2:33 pm #17679
DakParticipantPace definitely should be in on the first ballot.
Warner? He probably will be because of his story.
It would be so cool to see both go in together.
January 31, 2015 at 5:44 pm #17746znModeratorBernie Miklasz joined Kevin Wheeler to talk about who holds an advantage in the Big Game, how much this teams are built alike, the X-factors in the game, and they discussed at length the Hall of Fame and the former Rams chances.
Bernie Miklasz and the gang talk Super Bowl…past and present
January 31, 2015 at 6:27 pm #17747znModeratorfrom off the net
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The-Night-Flier
The votes are in, according to Peter King. Almost a nine hour meeting.
Just have to wait to see if names are leaked before the official announcement.
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