Boss Hog, et. all

Congratulations to Russ Grimm, he did great last night. Overall it was a pretty good job by the NFL as well. Grimm and Randle gave the best speeches by far, Jerry Rice is clearly a better receiver than public speaker, Rickey Jackson loves his home town, and its good to see that Michael Irvin is still a great person for parents to point to and explain to their children that this is why we do not do drugs. I'm still fairly certain the only Montana that overrated Cowboy is hanging out with up in Canton is Tony. The only low points were as always, Chris Berman, the over-done Cowboys coverage, and Emmit Smith crying so much that he made Dick Vermeil look like John Wayne.


But it was good to see the "captain" of the Hogs, the greatest unit in football since the four horseman of Notre Dame, inducted. I think the NFL dropped the ball and should have put all of them in. If you wanted to further set the sport apart from other team sports, a big bust of a pig with a Joe Bugel head should have been put in one of the wings of Canton. You can put Jacoby, Lachey, and Bostic in separately, but guys like McKenzie, Stark, and Warren will be overlooked. They were the key component to the Skins dynasty of the 80s, and should not be overlooked. Skins fans will never overlook them, but they will never be the over-hyped unit that seems to come to every over-rated player that happened to wear a star on the side of his helmet.


Case in point is Randy White. How this guy made it into the Hall of Fame 16 years before Grimm is beyond me. Yes, like the triplets in Dallas he was bound to make it in at one point or another, but before a great player like Grimm and his cronies is a crime. Grimm thoroughly dominated the guy, as was highlighted numerous times over the weekend in recountings of the 1983 championship game. (Someone needs to get that story right. People say we ran 50 Gut anywhere from nine to eleven times in a row, and either Grimm, Gibbs, Bugel, or Theismann called the play and told the Cowboys where it was going every time. All that matters is the Skins won the game and thus the championship and the "Doomsday Defense" ended up on their butts every time the play was called. But does anyone still have the full tape of the game?)


Its just insulting it took a guy like Grimm so long to get in, and Emmitt Smith was a first ballot guy. He is the most overrated running back of all-time. He broke Payton's records, but he could not hold a candle to Sweetness. Barry Sanders could have run backwards through Wayne Fontes' run and shoot offense and still be considered head and shoulders above the guy. Russ Grimm belongs in the great wing of the Hall of Fame, Smith only belongs in the good wing with his buddy Leon Lett.


Good, as in Priest Holmes good. Lets take Emmitt Smith's best four years, 1992-1995. 1401 att., 6,456 yds, 73 TDs, 4.65 yds/att. Priest Holmes in '01-'04: 1156 att., 5532 yds, 70 TD and 4.71 yds/att. with twice as many receiving TDs in these two spans. You can put those two busts side by side, except for some reason, Priest Holmes is not in the Hall of Fame, because he is not an over hyped Cowboy. I understand there were Super Bowls involved. The Cowboys had a great, not good team, assembled through draft picks obtained by the worst trade in the history of sports. (The Redskins were not allowed to make trades like this. For example, when Paul Tagliabue said that the Houston Oilers traded too many picks for Wilbur Marshall, he cancelled the deal outright.) The Cowboys had many good players that made up a great team that some call a dynasty.


Most call it the weakest dynasty ever. They beat the Bills in two of those Super Bowls. That is like beating your wife and saying you are a boxer. The 90s Cowboys can't hold a candle to the 60s Packers, 70s Steelers, 80s 49ers or Skins, and the new millennium's cheating Pats. (I have always argued that the 49ers and Skins dynasties were the best, as they had to co-exist simultaneously.) In reality, Troy Aikman was an over-hyped Danny White, Emmitt Smith was a poor man's Priest Holmes, Irvin was a coked-up Willie Gault, Leon Lett was just a dumbed-down Daryl Grant, Jimmy Johnson never did anything without a disproportionate glut of draft picks, and Jerry Jones was an opportune huckster who now looks like Bruce Jenner. It was a great sum with good parts, but not great ones put together in the typical Cowboys packaging designed by "Mad Men" type guys at Nike.


I know Cowboys fans will be upset that I say these guys are over-rated, but isn't that the reason you jumped on that bandwagon? I can already see you at sports bars across the country, sauntering up in your Cowboy's jersey, Yankees hat and Kobe Nikes like some John Goodman King Ralph retread. Or the sports world's version of the women who joined the ya-ya sisterhood with their funny straw hats who everyone looks at quizzically, you pick. We will laugh at you for a moment, then go back to enjoying real sports, with real men like Russ Grimm. Guys that got Madden and Summerall so drunk at the five o clock club one time, that Tom Landry would not let them do any pre-interviews with the Cowboys. Great football players, playing for a great organization, celebrated by great fans. Hail to the Skins! God I can't wait for September 12th.