Gale Sayers
Bobby Mitchell
Willie Davis
Herb Adderley
Nick Buoniconti
Jim Langer
Chris Doleman
Fred Dean
Willie Wood
Paul Hornung
Kevin Greene
Don Shula
Larry Wilson
That’s some great football talent. That’s why they’re Hall of Famers.
The entire football world feels the loss of the 13 players but it’s been an especially rough stretch for those close to the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins.
Packers:
Willie Davis
Herb Adderley
Willie Wood
Paul Hornung
Dolphins:
Nick Buoniconti
Jim Langer
Don Shula
Most of the 1960s Packers dynasty and all of the 1970s Dolphins dynasty took place during my lifetime. As a result, neither feels all that long ago. Maybe I’m just arguing with my own age but it’s far too soon for all of these players.
As a Minnesota Vikings fan, Chris Doleman is a tough loss. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with him and his wife at both the 2018 and 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Weekends. I truly believed that he was going to beat brain cancer and the surgery that went with it. I was stunned by his passing months after I’d last seen him in Canton. It felt like seeing him had become an annual thing and I looked forward to the next time. I so wanted it to be an annual thing. Chris Doleman is gone far too soon.
It’s so hard to believe that the Hall of Famers that played in the 1970s have become the Pro Football Hall of Fame “old guys.” It doesn’t feel all that long ago that Red Grange and Bronko Nagurski were still with us. I blink and it’s been 30 years since we lost those icons. Players from the 1950s are now few. Players from the 1960s are thinning. Thank goodness for Charley Trippi.
Way to soon? Kevin Greene. 58 is way too soon. It feels like I just saw those blonde locks flowing from a football helmet. Greene’s lion-maned bust challenges those of Ed Reed, Randy Moss, Sid Gillman, and Dutch Clark for best in the Hall.
My condolences to the family and friends of the Hall of Famers lost.
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