On February 2nd, as the football world buzzed about numerous Super Bowl storylines, another storyline played out. Darrell Green, who has been considered a shoe-in for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for years by consensus opinion received the call on Saturday afternoon that he will be inducted on his first try. Here is where it gets interesting, Cris Carter, who most people thought would be inducted on his first try, known as a wide receiver who could get down the field with relative ease and catch the ball for six points quite often, failed to get the same phone call that Green got. Instead, that phone call surprisingly went to Art Monk, the very same Art Monk who has been denied induction for seven straight years despite setting records for being the first wide receiver to eclipse 900 receptions for a career (broken during his last season in the league by Jerry Rice), retiring with the single season record for receptions (106), and having the most consecutive games with a catch (183).
Darrell Green, who may be one of the most beloved sports figures in his city of all-time was known as the Washington Redskins’ undersized “shutdown” cornerback. During his hey day, he was considered the NFL’s fastest man, making up for his diminutive stature with unbelievable speed, speed that made some opposing quarterbacks unwilling to even test the side of the field he patrolled for numerous seasons during his illustrious career. Green was drafted by the Redskins as the final pick in the NFL Draft’s first round back in 1983. He earned the nickname “The Ageless Wonder” from his teammates and media in recognition of playing a young man’s position at a very high level even during the twilight of his career that spanned 20 seasons, all 20 for the Washington Redskins. Many consider his greatest moment to be 1987's NFC Division Championship game against the heavily favored Chicago Bears where he returned a punt for a go-head touchdown just before halftime and pulled a rib muscle during the run back, the Redskins would go on to win that game and Superbowl XXII. Saturday’s announcement that he will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility did not come as that much of a surprise to many, he has the statistics, was always an interesting interviewee for the media, and is known for his charity work in the area, which seem to be what the majority of the committee take into consideration when voting.
Art Monk, who just based on statistics alone should have been inducted by now, finally will be, this being his eighth year of eligibility. Monk has mentioned in the past how he constantly gets phone calls every year that apologize for him not receiving enough votes for enshrinement, sadly, while still appreciative of the honor probably sees this more so as a relief than a reward. Honestly, how could he not? Monk contributed to four Redskins Super Bowl teams, losing XVIII, winning a championship in XXII and XXVI, and XVII although he did not play in the actual Super Bowl game due to injury. Many football fans, some Pro Football Hall of Fame members, and members of the media have been outraged by Monk’s exclusion from the Hall. The two biggest reasons he has been excluded more than likely can be attributed to his soft spoken and shy demeanor and the fact that he did not catch the ball in the endzone as many times as some offensive players got it there. Monk is admittedly a very modest guy, even that is being modest, who was better known for his charity work in the area than he was for providing memorable sound bites to the media, which hasn’t done him any favors among most non-Washington area media when it comes to voting discussions. He was considered Joe Theismann’s favorite offensive weapon during his time as the Redskins’ quarterback, but did not catch the ball in the endzone as much as most sports writers would have liked because of the team he played on. Joe Gibbs’s philosophy was to pound the ball in with the running back when the team approached the redzone during his years, most of those handoffs going to offensive “monster” John Riggins during his tenure with the team.
Many of Monk’s supporters encouraged him to do more interviews and send in tapes to help protest his constant exclusion from the Hall in recent years. He did not want any part of that though, he believed the time he spent on the field was the time to protest that he deserved such recognition for his career. He was pretty sure that he wanted to be taken out of consideration for induction before the vote last year but did not go through with it, he was positive that if he wasn’t inducted this year then he would definitely take himself out of consideration for a future induction.
Many were surprised that this was the year that Monk went in, much less with former teammate Green. It is not often that teammates make it in together, but Monk was ecstatic to go in with Green because both are so close that they consider each other family, they work together in charity ventures, go on vacation together, and their kids consider each other cousins. In fact, they were not the only Redskins to go into the Hall of Fame this year, former Chiefs’ cornerback, Emmitt Thomas, served as the secondary coach for the Redskins under Joe Gibbs and later Richie Petitbon at one time.
As the Redskins faithful celebrate the induction of their players on August 2nd, in Canton, Ohio, many sports fans and writers should be wondering what will happen with future wide receivers when it comes to voting as they watch Monk speak? The wide receiver position has not traditionally gotten a lot of love from voters over the years, and that will be interesting to consider when it comes to players like Jerry Rice soon becoming eligible, and today’s greats entering the twilight of their respective careers, like Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, and Marvin Harrison. You would like to think if there ever were a wide receiver who should be inducted into the Hall of Fame it would be Jerry Rice, but in today’s Pro Football Hall of Fame voting rooms, the majority of the voters tend to focus on trivial matter like interviews instead of statistics like voters in presidential elections focus on charisma instead of the issues, so who knows? Marvin Harrison is 35 years old and has Pro Football Hall of Fame statistics, however, he may end up finding himself as this generation’s Art Monk because he isn’t a prolific scorer like Moss or Owens, and definitely does not have much more to say than Monk did, makes you wonder if it will take him eight years to make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well?
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