'Bullet' back on target for Hall
By Vito Stellino
More than six years after his death at age 59, Bob Hayes is running what might be his last race in his bid to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Five years after he was rejected as a senior candidate in a move that caused a firestorm of controversy, Hayes, a Jacksonville native, is the fourth player to be nominated a second time by the senior committee.
Two of the previous players, Henry Jordan and Lou Creekmur, were elected on the second try. But the third, Marshall Goldberg, was rejected in 1979 and last year.
That Hayes, the only man to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring, was nominated for the second time in five years is an illustration that he has passionate supporters on the 44-person board of selectors.
The Hall of Fame fate of "Bullet Bob" will be decided in a vote on Saturday in Tampa, the day before Super Bowl XLIII.
"I keep coming back to the question of, 'Can you write the history of the game without him?' He was a key figure because of his speed and the way he changed defenses," said Ira Miller of the SportsXchange, a member of the senior committee. "It was a grave injustice that he was voted down four years ago."
Hayes virtually revolutionized the game because he was so fast that defensive backs couldn't cover him in man-to-man defenses. That evolution spawned zone defenses.
"He'd still be the fastest man in the game today," said Roger Staubach, one of his quarterbacks with the Cowboys, to the Times-Union this week.
Added Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News, who will present Hayes to the HOF committee: "What is everybody looking for today? A speed receiver. He was the original speed receiver."
Gosselin also said that he once talked to Hayes about whether Deion Sanders, one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history, could have covered him. Hayes said, "Only one of us has an Olympic gold medal."
Hayes won gold medals in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo in the 100 meters and the 4x100-meter relay. His relay split of 8.6 seconds earned him the title of the "World's Fastest Human." He also set a world record of 9.1 seconds in the 100-yard dash in 1963 that stood for 11 years.
Still, he was rejected five years ago. His snub so enraged Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated that he resigned from the senior committee and called the members of the HOF committee who voted him down "assassins."
Zimmerman, who is ill and won't be attending this meeting, said at the time, "The assassins don't say anything. They sit there with mouths shut and wield a poison pen. It's terrible."
Hayes' chances should be helped by the fact that the board has been enlarged from 39 to 44 members, so it will take nine "no" votes instead of eight to deny him enshrinement this summer in Canton, Ohio.
Also, the format has changed. This time, the voting for Hayes and the other senior candidate, defensive lineman Claude Humphrey, will be held at the start of the meeting before the other 15 so-called "modern" candidates are considered.
Back in 2004, when the Super Bowl was held in Hayes' hometown of Jacksonville, the senior candidates were included in the voting with the modern candidates. Hayes made the final six and then was rejected.
Hayes has two hurdles to overcome in his bid to enter the Hall - he caught only 371 passes in his career and lacked a signature game in the playoffs.
The selectors tend to put a lot of weight into statistics, which is why Lynn Swann retired in 1982 and wasn't inducted until 2001 despite his circus catches that helped the Steelers win four Super Bowls. Swann only had 336 regular-season catches, the fewest of any receiver in the Hall of Fame. That number delayed his induction despite the fact he was a major figure in leading the Steelers to four Super Bowl victories.
By contrast, Hayes' teams were 1-1 in two Super Bowls and he caught a total of three passes in the two games. He also played in six championship games, including the "Ice Bowl" in 1967 against Green Bay, and caught only eight passes.
Hayes' detractors sometimes note he lined up in the Ice Bowl with his hands in his pants because he was cold. And he had just three catches for 16 yards in the game in which the gametime temperature was minus-13, with a wind-chill factor of 48 below zero.
But Gosselin noted that Hayes caught a touchdown pass for every 5.1 catches. Jerry Rice was one for 7.8 in his career. And Hayes averaged 20 yards a catch, a sign of his big-play ability. Art Monk, who was elected last year and has more catches (940) than any receiver in the Hall of Fame, averaged 13.5 yards a catch.
Dan Reeves, a running back who played with Hayes, said Cowboys coach Tom Landry didn't feature the pass in those days. Staubach only threw 19 passes, completing 12, in a 24-3 rout of the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
"Coach Landry didn't get stuck on stats the way a lot of coaches do," Reeves said. "It boiled down to winning the games."
Reeves also said Hayes' presence on the field, even if he didn't catch passes, made a difference because defenses had to respect him
"He opened up holes underneath for the rest of us," he said.
Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the New York Giants, was on the Baltimore Colts' staff when they played the Cowboys in Super Bowl V.
"I know we were scared of him," Accorsi said. "We rotated to help out the corner covering him. He scared everybody. I think he belongs because he changed the game."
Hall of Fame defensive back Kenny Houston, who covered Hayes and briefed the senior committee, said, "When I was selected [in 1986], I thought Bob Hayes was already in the Hall of Fame. You had to back up 10 yards and then start running [to cover him]."
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, a member of the senior committee, said, "Of all the people not in the Hall of Fame, he's the most deserving."
Not all agree. Peter King of Sports Illustrated said that while he'll go into the meeting with an open mind, he didn't vote for Hayes last time.
"I am unconvinced that Hayes, although a trailblazer, was a singular player in NFL history. And I'm not sure he 'changed the game' much more than Homer Jones [a wide receiver with the New York Giants] did," King said.
He noted that from 1965 to 1969, Hayes caught 252 passes for 4,888 yards and 49 touchdowns while Jones caught 210 passes for 4,763 yards and 35 touchdowns.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said, "I go in with an open mind and can be convinced, but it'd take a lot of convincing for me to vote for him."
Neither his supporters nor his detractors mentioned his off-the-field problems with drugs and alcohol and his 10-month prison term after pleading guilty to a charge of delivering drugs to an undercover officer in 1979.
Staubach said he believes Hayes was set up. Hayes said in his biography, Run, Bullet, Run: The Rise, Fall and Recovery of Bob Hayes, that the arrest "destroyed my life."
Staubach hired Hayes to work in his company and said that despite his demons, "Those who knew Bob off the field knew he was a good human being. He was a good person who had some challenges in his life, but he was kind and generous and well-liked."
Off-the-field issues are not supposed to be considered in judging a player for the Hall of Fame.
Hayes said in 1999 that he was always bothered by his Hall of Fame snub.
"There's a lot of pain in my heart because what I accomplished was second to none. I'm not losing any sleep, but I do pay attention [to the voting]every year," he said.
He said being left out made him feel, "like an outcast - like I've been left out and forgotten throughout the nation."
His family hasn't forgotten, and hopes that his second time as a senior candidate will be the charm for Hayes. Westine Lodge, one of his five children, said, "We're very excited. This has been a long time coming. This will be his time to get into the Hall of Fame."
More than six years after his death at age 59, Bob Hayes is running what might be his last race in his bid to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Five years after he was rejected as a senior candidate in a move that caused a firestorm of controversy, Hayes, a Jacksonville native, is the fourth player to be nominated a second time by the senior committee.
Two of the previous players, Henry Jordan and Lou Creekmur, were elected on the second try. But the third, Marshall Goldberg, was rejected in 1979 and last year.
That Hayes, the only man to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring, was nominated for the second time in five years is an illustration that he has passionate supporters on the 44-person board of selectors.
The Hall of Fame fate of "Bullet Bob" will be decided in a vote on Saturday in Tampa, the day before Super Bowl XLIII.
"I keep coming back to the question of, 'Can you write the history of the game without him?' He was a key figure because of his speed and the way he changed defenses," said Ira Miller of the SportsXchange, a member of the senior committee. "It was a grave injustice that he was voted down four years ago."
Hayes virtually revolutionized the game because he was so fast that defensive backs couldn't cover him in man-to-man defenses. That evolution spawned zone defenses.
"He'd still be the fastest man in the game today," said Roger Staubach, one of his quarterbacks with the Cowboys, to the Times-Union this week.
Added Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News, who will present Hayes to the HOF committee: "What is everybody looking for today? A speed receiver. He was the original speed receiver."
Gosselin also said that he once talked to Hayes about whether Deion Sanders, one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history, could have covered him. Hayes said, "Only one of us has an Olympic gold medal."
Hayes won gold medals in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo in the 100 meters and the 4x100-meter relay. His relay split of 8.6 seconds earned him the title of the "World's Fastest Human." He also set a world record of 9.1 seconds in the 100-yard dash in 1963 that stood for 11 years.
Still, he was rejected five years ago. His snub so enraged Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated that he resigned from the senior committee and called the members of the HOF committee who voted him down "assassins."
Zimmerman, who is ill and won't be attending this meeting, said at the time, "The assassins don't say anything. They sit there with mouths shut and wield a poison pen. It's terrible."
Hayes' chances should be helped by the fact that the board has been enlarged from 39 to 44 members, so it will take nine "no" votes instead of eight to deny him enshrinement this summer in Canton, Ohio.
Also, the format has changed. This time, the voting for Hayes and the other senior candidate, defensive lineman Claude Humphrey, will be held at the start of the meeting before the other 15 so-called "modern" candidates are considered.
Back in 2004, when the Super Bowl was held in Hayes' hometown of Jacksonville, the senior candidates were included in the voting with the modern candidates. Hayes made the final six and then was rejected.
Hayes has two hurdles to overcome in his bid to enter the Hall - he caught only 371 passes in his career and lacked a signature game in the playoffs.
The selectors tend to put a lot of weight into statistics, which is why Lynn Swann retired in 1982 and wasn't inducted until 2001 despite his circus catches that helped the Steelers win four Super Bowls. Swann only had 336 regular-season catches, the fewest of any receiver in the Hall of Fame. That number delayed his induction despite the fact he was a major figure in leading the Steelers to four Super Bowl victories.
By contrast, Hayes' teams were 1-1 in two Super Bowls and he caught a total of three passes in the two games. He also played in six championship games, including the "Ice Bowl" in 1967 against Green Bay, and caught only eight passes.
Hayes' detractors sometimes note he lined up in the Ice Bowl with his hands in his pants because he was cold. And he had just three catches for 16 yards in the game in which the gametime temperature was minus-13, with a wind-chill factor of 48 below zero.
But Gosselin noted that Hayes caught a touchdown pass for every 5.1 catches. Jerry Rice was one for 7.8 in his career. And Hayes averaged 20 yards a catch, a sign of his big-play ability. Art Monk, who was elected last year and has more catches (940) than any receiver in the Hall of Fame, averaged 13.5 yards a catch.
Dan Reeves, a running back who played with Hayes, said Cowboys coach Tom Landry didn't feature the pass in those days. Staubach only threw 19 passes, completing 12, in a 24-3 rout of the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
"Coach Landry didn't get stuck on stats the way a lot of coaches do," Reeves said. "It boiled down to winning the games."
Reeves also said Hayes' presence on the field, even if he didn't catch passes, made a difference because defenses had to respect him
"He opened up holes underneath for the rest of us," he said.
Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the New York Giants, was on the Baltimore Colts' staff when they played the Cowboys in Super Bowl V.
"I know we were scared of him," Accorsi said. "We rotated to help out the corner covering him. He scared everybody. I think he belongs because he changed the game."
Hall of Fame defensive back Kenny Houston, who covered Hayes and briefed the senior committee, said, "When I was selected [in 1986], I thought Bob Hayes was already in the Hall of Fame. You had to back up 10 yards and then start running [to cover him]."
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, a member of the senior committee, said, "Of all the people not in the Hall of Fame, he's the most deserving."
Not all agree. Peter King of Sports Illustrated said that while he'll go into the meeting with an open mind, he didn't vote for Hayes last time.
"I am unconvinced that Hayes, although a trailblazer, was a singular player in NFL history. And I'm not sure he 'changed the game' much more than Homer Jones [a wide receiver with the New York Giants] did," King said.
He noted that from 1965 to 1969, Hayes caught 252 passes for 4,888 yards and 49 touchdowns while Jones caught 210 passes for 4,763 yards and 35 touchdowns.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said, "I go in with an open mind and can be convinced, but it'd take a lot of convincing for me to vote for him."
Neither his supporters nor his detractors mentioned his off-the-field problems with drugs and alcohol and his 10-month prison term after pleading guilty to a charge of delivering drugs to an undercover officer in 1979.
Staubach said he believes Hayes was set up. Hayes said in his biography, Run, Bullet, Run: The Rise, Fall and Recovery of Bob Hayes, that the arrest "destroyed my life."
Staubach hired Hayes to work in his company and said that despite his demons, "Those who knew Bob off the field knew he was a good human being. He was a good person who had some challenges in his life, but he was kind and generous and well-liked."
Off-the-field issues are not supposed to be considered in judging a player for the Hall of Fame.
Hayes said in 1999 that he was always bothered by his Hall of Fame snub.
"There's a lot of pain in my heart because what I accomplished was second to none. I'm not losing any sleep, but I do pay attention [to the voting]every year," he said.
He said being left out made him feel, "like an outcast - like I've been left out and forgotten throughout the nation."
His family hasn't forgotten, and hopes that his second time as a senior candidate will be the charm for Hayes. Westine Lodge, one of his five children, said, "We're very excited. This has been a long time coming. This will be his time to get into the Hall of Fame."
posted by The Gryphon at 4:34 PM
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