Floyd Little comes up for a big vote by the selectors of the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, and if all is right and just, he should be selected.
There are no guarantees, but beyond the extraordinary hold that he still has on the hearts and minds of Denver Broncos fans, his body of work screams for induction.
The statistics have been gone over and poured over time after time, but there are a couple of other facts to consider in “out of the box” thinking regarding Floyd.
He was the heart and soul of the Broncos and the Mile High City at a time when pro football was growing here and the team was lousy, to be very, very kind.
He was the kind of person who was selected team captain by his teammates nine years out of nine.
I was a young radio reporter during much of Floyd’s career, in addition to spending three years with the Denver Bears at that time, and I was a Broncos season ticket holder.
So I saw virtually every game he played, and knew him well. I still prize his friendship.
You had to see him, and you had to know him, to understand the command he projected and the leadership which he gave to the team and to the community.
And he carried the team on his back, make no mistake about it.
His nickname was The Franchise, never a more accurate one in the history of pro football.
He is the only running back in the history of pro football to lead the league in rushing while playing for a last place team.
He was on an all-decade team – again, while playing for a last place team. Just think about it, and it staggers the imagination.
In Floyd Little’s career he only played behind three linemen who ever made any kind of all-star team, Larry Kaminski, Mike Current, and George Goeddeke, one time each, and I’ll bet many people reading this never heard of any of them.
Let’s take a look at several Hall of Famers and see what kind of blocking they had.
Jim Brown, regard as the greatest back in pro football history, wore number 44 at Syracuse before Floyd. Brown played behind eight different linemen who made a combined 20 Pro Bowls, and three of those blockers went into the Hall of Fame.
Jim Taylor was a cornerstone of that great Green Bay Packers team, and he ran the ball behind four players who made a combined 16 Pro Bowls, with two of them making the Hall of Fame as blockers.
Joe “The Jet” Perry – yes, I realize you never heard of him, but he was a stud, believe me – was a great back for the 49ers and Baltimore for 14 years. Perry played behind 11 men who made a combined 17 Pro Bowls, and three of them made the Hall of Fame.
O.J. Simpson ran to glory behind three players who made a combined five Pro Bowls, and two were elected to membership in Canton.
LeRoy Kelly had a great 10-years career with the Cleveland Browns, and his line included four players who made a combined 13 Pro Bowls, with Gene Hickerson making the Hall of Fame.
John Henry Johnson played for 13 years and in his time had 12 different linemen who made a combined 16 Pro Bowls, with two earning Hall of Fame induction.
For Floyd Little, no blockers who ever made the Pro Bowl, three who made the AFL all-star game once each, and no Hall of Famers, certainly.
For the other six, 42 combined offensive linemen who made a combined 87 Pro Bowls, with 13 who made the Hall of Fame.
Really, let’s be serious.
Floyd Little was one of the greatest players in the history of pro football.
Plus, he passed the “eye” test. If you saw him play, you knew what you were watching.
Let’s cross our fingers and hope these figures make sense to the selectors this Saturday.
The Franchise, one more time.
Tags: Floyd Little, Hall of Fame
MarshMelo15, no one on this blog said they want Cutler, as per your handle, take the clue and mellow out, LOL.
I want Cutler…..want him to FAIL!!! LOL!!!
Ohhh man, that was pretty harsh huh.
Sorry Jay!!
brian, maybe you were a little too young to have been affected by the NFL strikes of 1982 and 1987, but I wasn’t, I was in the prime of my football fan career, 28 in 1982, LOL. It is a tremendous let down no doubt, so bad that I even watched the games in 1987 with the replacement players, that about says it all. But the real losers in a strike to me are the players, not everyone is making multi million dollars each season, a lot of them play for the league salary’s minimum, which even so is substantial can really hurt if it stops coming. The players therefore have to come to some agreement before a strike is imminent, labor day 2011. They may chose to go down all the way to the deadline to get the most concessions possible from the owners, but in the end I don’t see a work stoppage, because the owners will have no problem organizing a league with replacement players and a good share of the fans will still pay to watch. In the end, whether people like it or not, the players have to step up to the plate more so than the owners, that’s why ownership is sitting back for now, they hold a better stack of cards than the players do. Things that absolutely need to be changed, drastically reducing the outrageous contracts given to players in the draft who haven’t proved a thing yet in the NFL, and establish an adequate fund to take care of all the retired NFl players based on a years served type of thing.
I don’t care about Cutler anymore at all, we got what we wanted out of him this year, a good draft pick with the Bears poor record, from now on the only time I will root against him is when we play against him. Now that the draft pick is set, even so we still need the coin flip, his career from now on means very little to me. Rest easy Cutler, the heckling is now over, at least from me, until we play against you of course, then it will be fierce!!! LOL.
baylinorcrush: Yeah, you’re right, I was unaffected by those earlier strikes as I am only 26. You have a really good point. A lot of the players are playing for the league minimum. As with any job, when the money stops flowing in, it really hurts.
I definitely think there should be a some kind of “rookie cap.” Players are always renegotiating their contracts anyway, so why not have a rookie cap, and if you excel and the franchise thinks you deserve a pay raise fine, renegotiate then. You’re right it is getting pretty crazy. I just read that the Colts owner wants to sign Manning to the “largest contract.” Manning is a great QB, but does he really NEED the largest contract. He’s not going anywhere. He’s not going to go to the Colts and say pay me or I’m walking. He’d take a “fair” contract, what is “fair” is always debatable. I hear ya!
I cant believe all this talk about Manning or Cutler. They are my top two despised players. These guys are basically responsible for inflicting the most pain and heartbreak for our beloved Broncos. Big whoop, Peyton won 1 superbowl. I still think if Orton was allowed to play in that game, the Bears would have won. Suckler…I dont even need to go there. He just threw another red zone pick while Im typing this sentence. Ok, I went there.
As for the CBA, American greed at its best. Or worst. Depending on ones outlook. The owners will lock the players out before they can strike. In my honest opinion. So if it comes to replacement players (who remembers the Denver Gold?!?), does that mean the coaching staff still coaches? Or are there replacement coaches as well?
Cant wait for tomorrows vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think you have McD as the guy that is basically responsible for inflicting the most pain and heartbreak for our beloved Broncos.
So far the decisions(Cutler trade) McD has made have benefited the team. We cant be sure that letting Nolan go is going to bring the team down. I for one Im looking forward to the team McD is building.
A couple of ILB names to throw out for you guys:
Karlos Dansby 28
DeMeco Ryans 26
Barrett Ruud 27
Derrick Johnson 27 – remember the guy who had 2 pick sixes against us
Kirk Morrison 28
Any thoughts?
@codybleedsorangeandblue: Are all those guys FA?
yes but i think the bottom 4 are RFAs though
cody, on your list I believe only Dansby would be an UFA if there is no cap. And he is probably the top rated ILB available this year so he will require mucho mula. I think we have to start spending our money up front for NT and a D lineman or two in FA. The draft seems to be better stacked up for ILB. Just my opinion.
There are a lot of good LB’s in the draft this year,same as last year.Too bad we didn’t get one .Orakpo,Cushing,Mathews,etc.etc……Ayers will come around this year,I think he needs to be a starter.IMO
McClain and Spikes for starters who should both be available if we get a nose in FA and we want to go ILB with our first pick.
I think we need to work on aquiring a NT. Then I wouldl like us to get an ILB that way we can move D.J back to OLB where he can be most effective. I know this seaon he was good at ILB, but he is just a natural at OLB.
I do agree BeastFromEast92, Ayers does need to start.
I agree Baylin,we need to get some big DL to keep the OL off our LB’s.
NT,DL,and LB should be top priority.IMO
brian_schneider,DJ would have more room to roam at OLB,and could improve our defense at that position.
Agree 100%
Only bad thing about that is Ayers is an OLB also.It would be hard for him to move to ILB considering he is used to being a DE in college,much like Doom.
That’s true. Maybe they move him to DE in our 3-4???? I don’t know if that would work well or not.
On a different note, we were talkin’ about power backs, does this Lance Ball guy that we have on our reserve/future, is he a power back. (Even though I still would like to see Hillis)
Oh and I saw we have Mitch Erickson on our reserve/future, I had an engineering class with him at SDSU. Not that anyone cares, but I thought that was kinda cool.
WE’ll just have to wait and see what happens in FA,who we lose and who we get,will determine what positions we need to address in the draft.
Call me stupid, but I truly think we should build our team the correct way, from the trenches up. I don’t see the point in getting skill players before we build up the lines that will allow them to succeed, both side of the ball. I truly hope this is the direction we will go this year, D line and O line first and foremost, I am tired of us getting pushed around, time has come to put things back into order of priorities in our football team, shore up the trenches and when you have done so expand to the rest of the team, this doing it the other way around has brought us nothing for so long, it’s just an exercise in futility. A bunch of flamboyant skill players and hardly anyone worthy of handling the dirty work in the trenches, all it does is gives us the pleasure of seeing great individual plays once in while and in the mean time watching us being manhandled on the lines and amassing average ugly records, NO MORE!
Ayers is kinda small to be a DE in a 3-4,but it’ll all workout,McD probably won’t move DJ back to OLB anyway.
Baylin,you hit the nail right on the head my friend.The trenches is where it is won,the guys that don’t get all the glory are the true heroes of this sport.IMO
Hey stupid, I mean baylinorcrush LOL!! You said, hey, hey, I know but YOU said. LOL!! Nah, I’m just joshin’ ya.
We have no choice but to beef up our big uglies. Since we’re moving to the power blocking scheme and since our big uglies on D I think got wore down later in the season. We need them to so we can play good D late in the season so we don’t have those late season slides. I see we’re aquiring some linemen on the reserve/future. Maybe we find a diamond in the rough, who knows.
Yea Ball is a power back he’s like 220 I think.
Yeah, it’s not glamorous, it’s down in the dirt nothing but hard labor type of work, but it’s the foundation, man, for so long we have had this great looking house that’s built on cheap stilts, and when the smallest of hurricane comes around we are wiped out…
Why is everybody so big on Itaupi?-OL,he didn’t play very well in the senior bowl,got pushed around a lot,hope he’s not the best OL in the draft this year,if so pretty sorry crop.IMO
BFE92, you are correct about the lack of talent in the O line this year in the draft, we will have to look at FA for help there.
Itaupi and Pouncey are the only 2 OG in the draft that are even worth lookig at,so I think you are right we’ll have to look at FA to fill our need there.
On the other hand there are plenty of talented DL in this years draft,hope we can land 1 or 2.
Do we just need a LG to take Hamilton’s spot? Kuper at RG seems pretty good sized and I think has the ability to make the switch to the PB scheme.
Yeah, NT and O line in FA and D line in the draft would make sense to me, so McD will probably go WR in the draft and TE in FA, lol.
Anybody wanna guess what McD will do about our RB,s when we start running the power game,I know Moreno will still be here,but I don’t know much else about who will leave and who will come in besides maybe Ball.
LMAO
I swear if he uses Lamont Jordan I will probably lose it.
brian, agreed with Kuper might be ok, so definitely need LG AND Center.
BFE92, we need Toby Gerhart as power back with our 3rd or 4th pick.
Not to change the subject,but we have a pretty good pass protection when Harris is healthy,Cutler was sacked 12 times in 08,I don’t know how many times Orton was sacked(a lot more than that i’m sure) maybe he’s holding the ball too long or his release is much slower,whatever it is we need to work on that in the offseason.
You think Gerhart will still be there at 3rd or 4th pick????because if he is that would be a steal.IMO
Yeah, we have great O tackles, it’s the middle where we have problems, remember short and one? LOL.
Our 3rd will be an early third, I believe Toby will be available then, yes, not sure about 4th though.
We have had great centers in the past,but they all have been undersized,guess it’s time to bulk up.
I konw we need line help on D and O but if we are going to power scheme,and gerhart is there in the 3rd round we have to take him.IMO
know
I don’t know much about Gerhart, is he kind of similar to Hillis? He seems like it as far as physical size, I haven’t ever watched him play so I don’t know about speed and hands and all that good stuff. Just by looking at some of his stats, seems like he has descent hands.
We need help in these areas:
1.NT
2.DE
3.OG
4.LB
5.TE
6.RB
7.WR,if we lose Marshall
Not necesarily in that order.
Gerhart 6’1,235 lbs-rushed for 1871 yds and 27 tds last year,pretty damn good #s.