The Pro Football Hall of Fame is an invite-only crowd that claims to be home to the best-of-the-best football players in history. However, some players deserve the honor of being inducted but have not yet.
Below is a list of players who have been snubbed from recognition. Players who are not in but do not meet the requirements for induction are omitted.
L.C. Greenwood
In the eyes of many, the late Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end is the most deserving player not to be in the Hall of Fame, and this writer would tend to agree. A NFL 1970s All-Decade Team member, Greenwood was part of the vaunted Steelers defense that became collectively known as the “Steel Curtain.”
Greenwood played alongside Hall of Famers “Mean” Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, and Donnie Shell, and he was a four-time Super Bowl champion, two-time First-team All-Pro, and six-time Pro Bowler, including four times in a row from 1973-1976. In his career, Greenwood totaled 78 sacks (which were not an officially kept statistic at the time) and 14 fumble recoveries, and he added 12.5 sacks in 18 career playoff games.
Before his passing in 2013, Greenwood stated that he wouldn’t be upset if he never made the Hall of Fame because the Steelers, who had already been inducted, represented the whole team’s history and accomplishments. Despite Greenwood’s feelings, it is long past when he should have been inducted, though it’s not too late to right past wrongs.
Torry Holt
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The long-time Ram spent 11 seasons in the NFL, and his list of accolades speaks for itself. Holt is a one-time Super Bowl champion, one-time First-team All-Pro, one-time Second-team All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler, two-time receiving yards leader, and one-time receptions leader, and he was named to the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team.
Holt tallied 13,000 receiving yards, 900 receptions, and 74 touchdowns in his career. He won a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams during his rookie year in 2000, and from his second season through his ninth, he tallied over 1,000 receiving yards each year.
As of 2023, Holt has been a four-time finalist for the Hall of Fame, and it is time for him to join his former teammates Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, and Marshall Faulk in Canton.
Hines Ward
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ franchise leader in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns is somehow not in the Hall of Fame despite being retired for 12 years and being on the ballot for seven years. Ward’s resume reads like a grocery list: two-time Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl XL, three-time Second-team All-Pro, four-time Pro Bowler (in a row from 2001-2004), and he is arguably the greatest run-blocking wide receiver in NFL history.
Ward retired with the 11th-most receptions in NFL history at an even 1,000; every player who had more receptions than him is in the Hall of Fame.
Several of Ward’s teammates are either currently Hall of Famers (Troy Polamalu, Jerome Bettis, Alan Faneca, Dermontti Dawson) or will be in the future (Ben Roethlisberger), and it is time for Ward to be enshrined with his teammates.
Ken Anderson
The NFL’s MVP and Comeback Player of the Year in 1981 was also a two-time All-Pro, a four-time Pro Bowler, and he led the NFL in passing yards twice, passer rating four times, and completion percentage three times in his career. The greatest quarterback in Cincinnati Bengals history (sorry Joe Burrow) threw for almost 33,000 yards in his career and had a 197-160 TD-Int ratio in his career.
He was (in this writer’s opinion) the fourth-best quarterback of his generation behind Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, and Dan Fouts, and ahead of Hall of Famers Ken Stabler and Bob Griese. The reason Stabler and Griese are in the Hall and Anderson is not is because of their Super Bowl wins, but Griese was on two of the most stacked teams in NFL history and Stabler was the beneficiary of a great defense and run game; Stabler threw 28 more interceptions than touchdowns in his career, and Griese wasn’t even the starting quarterback on the undefeated Dolphins team that he gets credit for, Earl Morrall was.
Stabler and Griese are deserving Hall of Famers, but there is no rightful way that they should have been inducted before Ken Anderson.
Roger Craig
The long-time San Francisco 49ers running back was the 1988 Offensive Player of the Year, and he is a three-time Super Bowl champion, two-time All-Pro, four-time Pro Bowler, and a member of the NFL’s 1980s All-Decade Team. He is the only offensive skill position player who was part of the 1980s All-Decade Team who is not a Hall of Famer, and he was the first player to gain 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in the same season.
Craig led the NFL in receptions in 1985 as a running back, and during that season he became the first to record 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in a single season; since then, that feat has only been replicated twice, once by Marshall Faulk in 1999 and once by Christian McCaffery in 2019. In his career, he totaled 13,100 total yards and 73 touchdowns, though he did cough up 42 fumbles in his career as well.
Roger Craig was extremely durable, as well; in his 11-year career, he only missed nine games due to injury, and he was still starting games in his final season with the Minnesota Vikings in 1993.
Jim Marshall
Marshall is best known nowadays for his “wrong-way run” in 1964, when he recovered a fumble and returned it the wrong way into his end zone, resulting in a safety for the other team. However, in his 20 years in the NFL, he was also a three-time Second-team All-Pro player and a two-time Pro Bowler, and he owns the record for most consecutive starts (270) and most games played (282) by a defensive player.
Part of the “Purple People Eaters” defensive line which included Hall of Famers Alan Page and Carl Eller, Marshall had 130.5 sacks and 30 fumble recoveries in his career, and he never missed a game during his entire career. Additionally, he made the Super Bowl with the Vikings four times (though he lost every time), and at the time of his retirement, Marshall had played in every game in Vikings history.
Marshall’s longevity speaks for itself, as does his production on the field. Similar to Greenwood, several other players from the defenses he played on have been inducted, and it is long past time for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Andre Johnson
Johnson will likely be inducted into the Hall of Fame at some point in the future, but the fact that he has not been inducted yet is an absolute travesty. Arguably the greatest Houston Texan in the franchise’s short history (the other player being J.J. Watt), Johnson’s career speaks for itself.
A two-time First-team All-Pro, two-time Second-team All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler, two-time receptions leader, and two-time receiving yards leader, Johnson is eleventh all-time in career receptions and receiving yards. He totaled over 14,000 receiving yards in his career and added 77 receiving touchdowns and this was while only having one Pro Bowl quarterback in his career (Matt Schaub, who made two Pro Bowls in 2009 and 2012).
Johnson is one of the best wide receivers in NFL history, but he has yet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame despite retiring in 2016 and being on the Hall of Fame ballot three times.
Patrick Willis
Willis may have only played in the NFL for eight years, but in his short career, he built up a Hall of Fame resume. From 2007-2014, he terrorized offenses, leading to him winning Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2007 and being a five-time First-team All-Pro, one-time Second-team All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler, two-time tackles leader, and a member of the 2010s All-Decade Team despite only playing four seasons in the decade.
In his rookie year, he led the league in tackles with 174, and he continued to put up Pro Bowl seasons until his last when he was injured for more than half the season. In his first seven seasons, he only missed six games, and he missed ten in his final season in 2014.
After that, Willis was done in the NFL. He announced his retirement due to the injury that kept him out of most of the 2014 season, and he became known as a great player with a short prime that could potentially make the Hall of Fame someday. Given the short careers of other players who are considered sure-fire Hall of Famers like Luke Kuechly, however, Willis should be in soon.
Reggie Wayne
The long-time Indianapolis Colts receiver was a Super Bowl champion, a three-time All-Pro selection, a six-time Pro Bowler, and he led the NFL in receiving yards in 2007. He spent much of the first part of his career as a number two receiver behind Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison, but once Harrison retired after the 2008 season, Wayne took over as the Colts’ premier target for Peyton Manning.
Wayne was extremely durable, as he missed three games due to injury in his rookie year of 2001, but he wouldn’t miss another game until 2013 when he missed nine games due to a torn ACL, and he would miss another game due to injury in 2014 before calling it a career. Out of the 224 regular season games he could have played throughout his career, Wayne played in 211, which still stands as the Colts’ franchise record for most games played in a career.
In his career, Wayne totaled over 14,000 receiving yards and 1,070 receptions; everyone ahead of him on both lists is either already in the Hall of Fame or is not yet eligible.
Ottis Anderson
Anderson was a running back for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants from 1979-1992, and while his best seasons were spent with the Cardinals, he still managed to win two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP with the Giants. He also won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1979, Comeback Player of the Year in 1989, and he was a two-time All-Pro and two-time Pro Bowler.
In his first six seasons, Anderson rushed for 1,000 yards five times and was on pace for 1,000 yards in 1982 had the season not been shortened by a strike. He was traded to the Giants after a drop in production during the 1986 season, and he would score a rushing touchdown in both Super Bowls he played in for the Giants; he is one of four players to have rushing touchdowns in two Super Bowls and win a Super Bowl MVP, along with Franco Harris, John Riggins, and Emmitt Smith, three Hall of Famers.
When Anderson retired, he was seventh in rushing touchdowns and eighth in rushing yards in NFL history, two ranks that should have gotten into the Hall of Fame. Even today, he still ranks 19th in rushing touchdowns and 30th in rushing yards in NFL history, with his yards rank ahead of Hall of Famers like Terrell Davis and Joe Perry.
