Throwback Thursday: Class of 2005

The Hall of Fame Class of 2005 is one of my favorites:

Benny Friedman
Dan Marino
Fritz Pollard
Steve Young

Young and Marino made it in their first year of eligibility. Friedman and Pollard had to wait a combined 151 years after they retired for their long deserved induction. Neither was alive when their name was called. In an effort to determine Hall of Fame worth someone once asked "can we write the history of professional football without this person?" It's a pretty question but one that I never really found valid. In today's NFL there's so much talent there will always be another to write that history. If Dan Marino was never around to shatter all of Fran Tarkenton's passing records someone else would have. This takes nothing away from the terrific talents of Marino, Young and so many others. They were all fantastic football players. Among the best of their generation. I treasure every moment that I watched Marino and Young throw. Joe Montana, John Elway, Warren Moon, Troy Aikman, Brett Favre were all around to write the quarterback history of that time. They all deserve their spot and eventual spot in the Hall of Fame. The history of football could have been written without any one of them because the others were there. In my football lifetime, Lawrence Taylor was the one player that truly changed how the game was played. Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick made a similar impact from the sidelines. We wouldn't have a football history to write about if not for Fritz Pollard and Benny Friedman. The NFL was a very shaky outfit in the 1920s. Pollard and Friedman helped the stumbling league through that bleak decade. Both should have been in one of the first Hall of Fame classes. The Hall opened in 1963. They should have been in before we left the '60s. They shouldn't have waited at all. They sure as hell should have been alive for their induction. Maybe racism kept them out. Their impact on the game is without question so it must have been something outside of football.

The Class of 2005 is a special one. Maybe the most deserving one. It's also smaller than most. Perhaps that was planned to better honor two football players that waited far too long. It's easy for me to focus on Fritz Pollard and Benny Friedman because I treasure football history so greatly. Steve Young and Dan Marino do their part to make this class special. Like Peyton Manning today, Marino played quarterback the way that it was always meant to be played. You show his film to any kid that dreams of throwing a football. Just beautiful. Young was more my kind of quarterback. He played like he was lit on fire. Just beautiful. The Class of 2005 was just beautiful.