Why Joe Jacoby Should be in the Hall of Fame – and What You Can Do About It, part 3
September 27, 2019
By Steve Thomas
The quest to get Redskins legend Joe Jacoby into the Hall of Fame continues. We originally started writing about Joe’s case for enshrinement back in 2015 after we interviewed him on show for the first time (listen to the interview by clicking here) and have been trying to help ever since then. Because Joe was not selected last year, he’s now been moved to the Senior Committee.
The process for election through the Senior Committee is different than the regular modern era process. This committee, which is comprised of 9 members of the full voting body, holds an entirely separate nomination vote from the rest of the modern era candidates. In a normal year, the list of players eligible through the Seniors Committee is reduced by the 9 committee voters to 15 semi-finalists, and then again to 10 finalists. At that point, the Seniors Committee voters then select one or more candidates for presentation to the full voting body for consideration along with modern era candidates and the nominee(s) from the Contributors Committee. The Seniors Committee candidate needs to get 80% of the votes from the full voting body in order to be selected for enshrinement. Selection is therefore technically not automatic, although history suggests that the candidate(s) to come out of the Senior Committee essentially always make it. So, the key to Joe’s enshrinement is to get through the Senior Committee.
The NFL announced some time ago that 2020 is going to be a special year, because the 2020 class of Hall of Fame enshrinees is going to be much larger than normal in recognition of the league’s 100th anniversary. Up to 10 senior committee nominees will be enshrined next August, so this year is most likely Joe’s best shot at enshrinement.
This means that this is the year for Redskins fans to go all out to make sure Joe is elected.
Steve, I agree, but what can I do about it?
Your only role is to contact the Senior Committee voters and tell them how you feel. These writers can be swayed. Think back to Art Monk’s selection – remember how many years it took for his selection, despite his having the greatest wide receiver stats ever when he retired? The reason was that there was a group of writer-voters who held steadfast in their personal beliefs in spite of Art’s obvious worthiness and held up Art’s selection for years. For example, noted Washington Redskins hater Peter King was staunchly against Monk for many years, and wrote about it almost every year from 1999 to 2005. In 2006, he started to change his mind after receiving years of complaints from fans and NFL insiders alike, and ended up supporting Art’s candidacy in 2006. King’s journey from “anti-Monk” to “pro-Monk” is documented here: https://artmonk.wordpress.com/hall-of-fame-voters/peter-king/.
These are the 2020 Senior Committee voters:
Dan Pompei, The Athletic (Chicago Bears voter)
Twitter: @danpompei
Website: https://www.danpompei.net/
Rick Gosselin, Talk of Fame Network (Dallas Cowboys voter)
Twitter: @RickGosselin9
Website: https://mavensports.io/talkoffame/
Jeff Legwold, ESPN/ESPN.com (Denver Broncos voter)
Twitter: @Jeff_Legwold
John McClain, Houston Chronicle (Houston Texans voter)
Twitter: @McClain_on_NFL
contact at: Click here
Ron Borges, Talk of Fame Network (New England Patriots voter)
Twitter: @RonBorges
Frank Cooney, The Sports Xchange, Maven Sports (Oakland Raiders voter)
Email: fcooney@sportsxchange.com
Ira Kaufman, JoeBucsFan.com (Tampa Bay Buccaneers voter)
Twitter: @IKaufman76
John Czarnecki, Fox Sports (At Large voter)
Contact info unknown – if anyone knows how to contact him, let me know
Ira Miller, The Sports Xchange, Maven Sports (At Larger voter)
Contact info unknown – if anyone knows how to contact him, let us know
Contact each voter multiple times, as many as you can. You can either cut and paste the email below or write your own message (if you write your own message, please be respectful to the writer; rudeness and snark will not help the cause and will likely get you ignored):
Dear __________:
Please vote for Joe Jacoby to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Joe was a revolutionary left tackle who led his team to 4 Super Bowl appearances, including 3 Super Bowl victories, blocked some of the greatest pass rushers in the history of the game, was the leader one of the greatest offensive lines in NFL history, The Hogs, and led a feared running game that put a running back into the Hall of Fame himself. The story of the National Football League cannot be told without Joe Jacoby. Please vote for him to be enshrined this year.
Here’s a suggested Tweet:
Please enshrine @JoeJacoby66HOG in the @ProFootballHOF. Joe was the most important member of the #Redskins famed offensive line, The Hogs, has 3 Super Bowl Rings, & was on the 1980s All-Decade Team. He deserved enshrinement years ago.
Get started, folks – let’s finally get Joe in this year!!
The Case for Joe Jacoby’s Hall of Fame Enshrinement
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: it is a crime against football that Joe Jacoby, No. 66, was not enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame a long time ago. After The Hog Sty had the honor of speaking with Joe on the podcast, we realized that he is a humble guy and a team player who is not going to toot his own horn and tell everyone about his greatness, or even the team’s greatness. He and the rest of The Hogs let their play on the field and the Super Bowl victories speak for themselves, and leave the praise to others, even to this day. These are quiet, proud, “working class” football players. The problem, of course, is that this works against them when it comes to convincing media members to vote for them for the Hall of Fame. We therefore decided to try and do something to help. I could spend a whole lot of words debating why the voters have snubbed Joe thusfar, but personally, I would rather tell you why they have been making a mistake.
What do you think of when you think of Joe Jacoby? Most likely, The Hogs, rushing excellence, Super Bowls, dirty, grass-stained uniform, right? All of that is accurate, but there is quite a bit more to his career and place in football history. The preliminaries are well known: undrafted free agent out of college, 13 years in the NFL (1981 – 1993, all with the Redskins), four Pro Bowl selections, 3 All-Pro selections, and named to the 1980s All-Decade team. All of those honors, by themselves, should merit his enshrinement. It is the unquantifiable and intangible, though, that really shows why Joe is a Hall of Fame player and why it is such an oversight for voters to refuse him thusfar. He was the leader of an offensive line that created one of the most feared running games in the league in the early 1980s, blocking for Hall of Famer John Riggins in two Super Bowls, then Timmy Smith – a guy who was otherwise barely an average NFL player – to a record 204 yards in the 1988 Super Bowl, and Ricky Ervins and Earnest Byner in the 1992 Super Bowl. He was the leader of an offensive line who blocked for three separate Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, something that is unique in NFL history. All of that is well known, though, and while by itself is reason enough to enshrine Joe, his candidacy is about much more than that.
Please understand that Jacoby holds a special place in the development of the NFL left tackle. He was one of the very first of a new breed of left tackles who had enormous size as do the tackles of today’s game (which was just flat-out not the case prior to Joe), but was also agile. A player like Joe was unheard of prior to his arrival. Michael Lewis, in his 2006 book, The Blind Side (which was made into an Oscar-winning motion picture about the life of former NFL tackle Michael Oher), wrote about Jacoby, stating that the Redskins first gave Joe the left tackle job because, at 6’7” and 315 pounds, plus strength and mobility, he was “more like left tackle of the future” – in other words, he was a singularly unique talent. Joe was 3-4 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than the average left tackle of his day (Jackie Slater? 6’4”, 277; Dan Dierdorf? 6’3”, 275; Ron Yary? 255 lbs; Anthony Munoz? 278 lbs.), but moved like a much smaller man. According to Lewis, the Redskins brought Joe in specifically to stop Lawrence Taylor – yes, the guy known as probably the most feared pass rusher ever. Incidentally, the most glaring play by Taylor against the Redskins, which was the November 18, 1985, game where Taylor infamously broke Joe Theismann’s leg, took place without Jacoby on the field due to a knee injury; that in and of itself tells you something about Joe’s value. Joe was the leader of a football revolution that recognized the value of the left tackle, specifically because of what Jacoby, at his size and weight, did against the fearsome, hall of fame pass rushers in the NFC East in Philly, New York, and Dallas like the aforementioned Taylor, Reggie White, Randy White, and Harry Carson. Joe successfully battled all of those players twice a year every season. Yes, Joe was that good. How is that not Hall of Fame-worthy?
Do you want a “hall of fame-worthy moment”? I’ll give you two. The first was John Riggins’ famous 43 yard touchdown run on January 30, 1983, that gave the Redskins the lead over Miami in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XVII. The play call was I-right 70 Chip, and the lead blocker who opened the hole for Riggins was Joe Jacoby. Watch the play again (Click here), and pay attention to the gigantic hole on the left side of the line – yes, it was #66 who sprang Riggo out to the second level. The play was the deciding play of the Super Bowl and likely the greatest single play in franchise history – it can’t get much bigger than that for an offensive lineman. The second moment is the 1991 season: does everyone remember that The Hogs surrendered a grand total of just 9 sacks over the 16 game season? Nine – that’s it. That is a truly remarkable accomplishment, particularly in the NFC East with an immobile quarterback like Mark Rypien, and it was led by the big tackle who faced every team’s best rusher – from Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White on down the line. All Redskins fans know, of course, that this offense was one of the most prolific in NFL history. It is pretty tough for an offensive lineman to have any “moments”, but Joe Jacoby’s career was full of them.
Thirteen offensive tackles who played from 1976 to the present have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame: Larry Allen, Dan Dierdorf, Walter Jones, Bruce Matthews, Anthony Munoz, Jonathan Ogden, Orlando Pace, Willie Roaf, Art Shell, Jackie Slater, Rayfield Wright, Ron Yary, and Gary Zimmerman. The honest and objective analyst knows that Joe is clearly and easily a leading member of that group of tackles. How many of these players accomplished more in their careers than Joe? Is there even one? How many of these players had Joe’s combination of size and mobility? Maybe one at most. How many of these players can claim to be the leader of a nickname-worthy offensive line known as one of the most accomplished in the history of the game? Zero. How many of these players were leaders of four Super Bowl teams, including three wins? Zero.
Here’s the bottom line: in an age where the left tackle was undervalued and undersized, Joe Jacoby ushered in the new breed of tackles who are now heralded as the cornerstones of an offense. There is a reason why, in today’s game, the left tackle is usually the second-highest paid player on the field – the success of The Hogs showed teams the value of an elite, athletic left tackle who was outstanding in both run and pass blocking. Joe Jacoby, specifically, was at the forefront of a seismic change in offensive line play. To me, the test of whether a player is Hall of Fame-worthy is whether the story of the game of professional football can be told without that player. For Joe Jacoby, the answer is a clear and definitive no: any complete summary of the game must mention Joe’s contributions. As great as Hall of Famer Russ Grimm is, I am sure that Russ would be the first to tell everyone that Joe was key to the success of The Hogs and those “golden era” Redskins teams. The Hall is incomplete without his bust.