Seeking Your Thoughts -- Simon Fletcher vs. Andre Tippett

WTF is up with that?!? Did he retire as a Cowboy or 49er or Steeler or Raider or Dolphin?

The Pats didnt exist until 2001. Well to most of the Pats fans. They probabaly didnt even know they use to be called the Boston Pats until 1970 or they are the only team to lose to the Chargers in a championship game (63 AFL title SD 51 Bos 10). Or that Stanley Morgan was a WR there before Wes Welker, Moss, Branch, et al. They are one of the most ill-informed fan bases ever. But until 2001 all Pat fans cared about was the Red Sox

that Simon played a few years as DE and apparently hof voters are pretty picky about positions, even arbitrarily re-assigning players to a new position as they see fit (see my FanPost, lol)… so they remove some of Simon’s sacks from his LB’ing total. Confused? Good… seems like the voters way of not getting Bronco players in.

But seriously, you bring up a good comparison. I can’t say I ever remember seeing Tippett play, but its more than a bit strange that Tippett is in the hof and has Simon ever even been a candidate???

You can see another issue here by going onto Wikipedia and doing a search on these two. Tippett’s is like 2 pages long, while Simon’s is around 2 sentences long. Simon was extremely under the radar; if you polled non-Bronco fans, you’d probably get many a “Simon Who?” response. Simon quietly went about his business and collected 12-15 sacks a year… meanwhile never getting any of the accolades he arguably deserved (no Pro Bowl births).

We’ll probably be having this same conversation in 5 years, when Rod Smith is snubbed for the hof.

but not hof worthy, in my opinion. fletcher had a comparable career, and isn’t hof material either, just an excellent play-maker. karl mecklenburg, again, is the most underrated player in the history of sports, period. unfortunately, having no defense in multiple super bowl losses really hurt his case. 1 win, and he’s probably in. same with the rest of the old broncos. unfair, yes, but elway got all of the credit for the sb runs, unfortunately. tippett, i honestly don’t know the politics behind his selection, but there are 10 broncos more deserving than he. sad

Thought I’d start my first ever post with a bit of hopefully good natured disagreement with you good fellows on the other side of the pond!

I don’t care so much for pro bowl selections as they tend to be too populist, but there are a lot of other things you could look at when comparing players.

All-pro picks say a lot to me. Tippet was All-pro LB twice, he was also AFC defensive player of the year once, he ranked seventh on the all-time sacks list, and third among linebackers, at the time of his retirement. He is still 4th.

I loved Fletcher – hey I grew up watching the Broncos during his time at DE – but Fletcher was never a dominant DE like Tippett was a dominant pass rush LB of his era.

To be in HoF in my opinion you need to be the best of your era and of course LT was the man for that in the 80’s. But Tippett was not far behind.

With the offensive bias the HOF committee show towards offensive skill positions + offensive numbers (Warren Moon anyone? ugh!) , I’m just grateful to see any linebacker in there at all!

The exclusions of Mecklenburg and Grandishar are far more galling then Fletcher.

based solely on that awesome handle bar mustache of his. ;)

As a franchise that has been as succesful as Denver has, what other reason could there be? Since the merger in 1970, Denvers winning percentage is among the top 5 in the NFL, and that is still with poor seasons in the early 70’s. I believe it all starts with the AFL. The MSM regarded the AFL as the lesser, weaker Pro Football League. Certainly they couldn’t match up with the NFL. Then when the Jets won SBIII, the country was crazy about the AFL. Question asked: “If the Jets could beat the Colts, who else can win a SB from the AFL?” Answer: “Ahh Duh, mabey the Chiefs or Oakland, or the Bills, those are the only other AFL teams right?”
Reason being, the teams that never did squat in the AFL were considered insignificant and without merit; Which brings up the Denver Broncos. It’s interesting that the Broncos were the first AFL team to beat an NFL team, but they were also the second to do it a week later. Of course as some have said here before, “Denver was just a Cow Town, hell, it probably didn’t even have a Post Office back then.” (I grew up here and the only cows I remember seeing in town were at the Stock Show in January or the meat department at the supermarket)

My point is that the Broncos were never any good in the AFL, so they were never considered as contenders. Not until 1977 when they made their first Playoff appearance and Super Bowl. I believe that perception stayed with many people and still does. But like everything else with the “No Respect” monikers, Denver fans didn’t care. We supported this team inside and out. We knew they sucked, but they were our team and we lived with it, and learned to like it or else deal with it, and if you didn’t like it, then you could ride your cow out of town (providing you could find one).

The original question of Fletcher vs Tippett, is classic of what I just stated. Nobody respected Denver, thus Fletcher never got the pro Bowl nod. Without Pro Bowls and All Star Teams, a player has zero shot at the HOF, which is essentially the same chance as a former Bronco has. Fletcher never once got voted to a pro bowl in 11 years. Whats up with that. He will never even be a finalist.

And another thing while I’m ranting, It irks me when people think the Broncos became popular when Elway got here. The hell it did. Broncomania was alive, well, and kickin long before Elway showed up. He started a new chapter in the franchise, but this town was nuts long before. The Broncos have sold out every game since 1970, and was pretty packed for a lot of games in the 60’s. Elway was 10 years old in 1970, so don’t believe he is everything that the Broncos ever were. Far from it.

I’m going to do a seperate post on the history of the Broncos Pass Rushers, please check it out.