Canton Lacking

"As long as Cris Carter is outside the Hall of Fame, Canton will be lacking"
                                  -me

On a Monday night in 1995 I was sitting in Candlestick Park watching a late season game between the Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers. The game was a mismatch on paper. The 49ers were the defending champions. The Vikings struggled to make the playoffs each year. When they did make it they usually left the party early. To me, this game was a battle between Vikings receiver Cris Carter and 49ers receiver Jerry Rice. It was beautiful to watch. In my opinion, Carter and Rice are the best to have ever played the position. This game was close because of Cris Carter. The 49ers jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Carter pulled the Vikings back into the game. The 49ers led 27-20 at the half. The second half was a push and a 37-30 49ers win.

From a stastics point of view, Jerry Rice was out of control in this game. 14 receptions for 289 yards. He even had a ten yard run to close in on 300 total yards. Three receptions went for touchdowns. Rice's skill and dominance has never been in doubt. He's the best football player at the position to have ever played. One of the best at any position to have ever played. It's Cris Carter's impact on the Vikings and football that has been questioned. I just don't understand it. In this Monday Night game, Carter had 12 receptions for 88 yards. He scored two of the touchdowns in the second quarter that turned a blowout into a game. His impact on this game is one that had to be seen rather than counted up at the end. It felt like Carter had more like 150 yards. I was actually surprised when I saw that he had 88. Its not often that you see a receiver put a team on his back and carry it. Carter did it that night and he did it often in the '90s. He was a leader. No receiver ever got open and caught the ball better than Cris Carter. Those are the two most important requirements for a receiver. No one ever worked the sidelines and endlines better. All of these are skills that need to be seen rather than looked at on a stat sheet. An incredible eight yard reception on the sideline that moves the chains and stops the clock late in the game can be the difference between a win and a loss. Its simply an eight yard catch in the books. Statistically, it fades in comparision to those 60-yard touchdowns in a blowout.

Its not like Carter doesn't have the statistics to merit induction into the Hall of Fame. His 1,101 receptions for 13,989 yards and 130 touchdowns are among the best in history. Some of the idiots that vote on the Hall of Famers worry that today's passing game will make all these receiving statistics obsolete. That's ridiculous. That's like saying that Jim Brown doesn't deserve to be in Canton because Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders and Walter Payton zipped past him. Its also an indication that the voters rely too much on statistics to do their jobs. If they are the keepers of the Hall they have to actually do some work. They have to look beyond the statistics. They have to see how the players played the game. They have to see the impact they made on their team and on the game. You can't always find that in statistics.

Carter's impact on football has continued long after he retired. He helped receviers like Randy Moss and Larry Fitzgerald become better receivers, better football players. He showed many, all who hoped to become better, that the football doesn't stop at the end of the season. He showed them the importance of offseason workouts. Rice worked incredibly hard in the offseason but he did it by himself. Carter will impact generations of receivers as Fitzgerald continues to pay it forward by helping Sidney Rice, Eric Decker, Victor Cruz, Antonio Brown and whoever wants to get better. Few football players have ever worked to help others get better like Carter.

Of course, this is personal to me. Cris Carter was the best receiver that I ever saw play the game. Jerry Rice may have been a better football player but Carter was the better receiver. From getting open to catching the ball, no one ever did it better than Carter. He became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2007. He's missed that final cut four times. That's four times too many. Each successive time has been a greater crime. Winning the Super Bowl is the ultimate goal for every football player. Absent that, the Hall of Fame is the greatest validation of a special career. Carter deserves that. He deserved it in 2007. He was a once in a lifetime receiver. Many have said that his absence is okay because he'll get in eventually. That's ridiculous. Each year he's not in is another spit on his career. Its time for the spitting to end. The Hall of Fame is lacking until Cris Carter is in it.