Larry Brown – Hall of Fame Candidate?

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July 5, 2024

By Noonefromtampa

You may or may not be following on X (formerly known as Twitter) the campaign of Larry Brown (@LarryBrown43) to be considered for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He picked up the endorsement of Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame linebacker Willie Lanier, who asked selectors to review Larry’s career. The question is whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame and where he stacks up against players already there.

Background

Brown was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the 8th round in the 1969 NFL Draft from Kansas State. He started his college career as a blocking back for Cornelius Davis but by his senior season he had more carries and yards than Davis.

Brown’s first head coach was Vince Lombardi. Washington had a prolific passing attack with wide receiver Charley Taylor, tight end Jerry Smith and quarterback Sonny Jurgensen. However, Lombardi wanted a power running game to go with the offense like he had in Green Bay. And Lombardi liked what he saw in Brown

There are two time-honored stories by Brown’s rookie year. The first was that Lombardi noticed Brown was late off the ball. They discovered he was hearing deficient in one ear, and Brown became the first NFL player fitted with a hearing aid after being approved by the NFL league office. The second was that Brown had a fumbling issue in training camp. He was forced to carry a football everywhere he went, and it better never get knocked out of his hands, lest he get additional laps or fines. The veteran players had a lot of fun with that.

Brown ended up leading the team in rushing his rookie year, rushing 888 yards which was the rookie team single season rushing record at the time. He became the first 1,000 rusher in franchise history in 1970. In the 1972 Super Bowl year, Brown led the NFC in rushing with 1,216 yards, was second overall in the league behind O.J. Simpson, and he was named League MVP.

Contemporaries

The rules and structure of the NFL change over time, which makes it difficult to compare players of different eras. Here are the career stats for Brown and five of his contemporaries who made the Hall of Fame: Gale Sayers, Larry Csonka, Leroy Kelly, O.J. Simpson and John Riggins.

Stats Larry Brown Gale Sayers Larry Csonka Leroy Kelly OJ Simpson John Riggins
Seasons Played 8 7 11 10 11 14
Years Played 1969-1976 1965-1971 1968-1974, 1976-79 1964-1973 1969-1979 1971-79, 1981-85
Games 102 68 146 136 135 175
Rush Atts 1,530 991 1,891 1,727 2,404 2,916
Rush Yds 5,875 4,956 8,081 7,274 11,236 11,352
Rush Y/A 3.8 5 4.3 4.2 4.7 3.9
Rush TDs 35 39 64 74 61 104
Rush Yds/Game 57.6 72.9 55.3 53.5 83.2 64.9
Recs 238 112 106 190 203 250
Rec Yds 2,485 1,307 820 2,281 2,142 2,090
Rec Y/R 10.4 11.7 7.7 12 10.6 8.4
Rec TDs 20 9 4 13 14 12
Rec Yds/Game 24.4 19.2 5.6 16.8 15.9 11.9
Off Yds/Game 82.0 92.1 61.0 70.3 99.1 76.8
Punt Rets 0 27 0 94 0 0
PR Yds 0 391 0 990 0 0
PR TDs 0 2 0 3 0 0
Kick Rets 0 91 0 76 33 0
KR Yds 0 2,781 0 1,784 990 0
KR TDs 0 6 0 0 1 0
Awards
Hall of Fame No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Championships 0 0 2 1 0 1
Pro Bowl 4 4 5 6 6 1
All Pro 2 5 3 4 5 1
AP MVP 1 0 0 0 1 0
AP Off. PoY 1 0 0 0 1 0
UPI MVP 1 0 0 0 3 0
SB MVP 0 0 1 0 0 1

Looking at three statistics, rushing yards per game, receiving yards per game, and total offensive yards per game, Brown is fourth in rushing yards per game, first in receiving yards per game and third in overall offensive yards per game.

In terms of awards and accolades, Brown also compares favorably, racking up Pro Bowl, All Pro and MVP honors like the other Hall of Fame players.

Therefore, the question becomes what is possibly keeping Brown out of the Hall of Fame. From that era, other Washington players in the Hall of Fame include Sonny Jurgensen, Charley Taylor, Chris Hanburger and Ken Houston. Hanburger came in through the senior candidate route, which is very limited and where Brown would now have to get nominated from. It is the hardest way into the Hall of Fame. Only three Seniors candidates can be nominated per year, requiring 80% of the 12 member Seniors Selection committee to be nominated and the 80% of the entire selection panel to get elected into the hall.

One of Brown’s negatives is the length of his career. Only Gayle Sayers was shorter, and Sayers was an electrifying return man on kickoffs and punts, and had 8 return touchdowns. Brown has no comparable marker in his career like that.

Brown also did not have the same “star power” level cachet of the other Redskins elected to the Hall of Fame. The other players had more significant careers over a longer time period. Those are the sort of things on the minds of the selection committee members.

Summary

Doing this review, I re-discovered how good of a receiver Brown was out of the backfield. Here is a classic clip of him:

While Larry Brown had a career worthy of a Hall of Fame nomination, securing one will be a difficult process. Getting elected to the Hall of Fame is a remote possibility now, despite the fact that Brown had an excellent career in the early 1970’s. For Washington fans, he will be on the list of players who deserve to be there but probably never will be, along with Jerry Smith, Gary Clark, Joe Jacoby, Brian Mitchell and London Fletcher.