There are a lot of improbable runs to getting a Super Bowl Ring, but you might be hard-pressed to find a more unlikely one than Cornell Green.

Green was a star at Utah State, but it was in basketball.  He never even played college football, and the Chicago Zephyrs of the NBA drafted him.  The Dallas Cowboys would, however, express interest after hearing great things about his overall athletic ability from the Aggies Head Coach, and he was offered a spot in training camp.  Green thought it was just a chance to earn $1,000 for participating, but he not only made the team; he also started cornerback in his third game and went on to the All-Rookie Team.

Green was a natural football player.  In 1965, he went to what would be his first of five Pro Bowls, and a First Team All-Pro selection came his way on three occasions.  A member of the Cowboys’ first Super Bowl win (Super Bowl VI), Green would ball hawk on 34 times, including a pair of seven-pick campaigns.  While he doesn’t receive Hall of Fame consideration in most circles, would an induction conclude one of the more improbable careers gridiron ever?

It would have to be!

In the 1980s, the Dallas Cowboys had a slew of excellent defensive players, so cracking the main roster as an undrafted Free Agent was not too likely, though that is exactly what Everson Walls did in 1981. 

Darren Woodson arrived in Dallas as one of the Draft Picks acquired in the Herschel Walker trade, and the 2^nd Rounder from Arizona State wasted little time establishing himself as a force in the Cowboys Secondary, even though he was a Linebacker in college.  A member of the All-Rookie Team, Woodson aided Dallas to a win in Super Bowl XXVII and subsequently Super Bowl XXVIII and in the season after he would begin a three-year streak of First Team All-Pros and five year run of Pro Bowls.  This period would also see Woodson win his third Super Bowl (XXX). 

We can’t wait to see this one.

Tony Romo was loved or hated, though not because he was a polarizing personality but because he was a perceived choke artist in the playoffs.  While Romo did not have a great playoff record (2-4) but Romo (as of this writing anyway) he is the career leader in Quarterback Rating in the fourth quarter and in the month of December.  Basically, we are saying that he had a lot of great performances when it counted! 

This was a little unexpected!

Today, we woke up to a major retirement in the National Football League, as Quarterback Tony Romo is calling it a career and joining the CBS broadcasting team.  It was expected that Romo would continue his career and possibly sign with either the Denver Broncos or the Houston Texans and continue his playing career but this move certainly ends that.

Romo lost his starting Quarterback job due to injury to Dak Prescott, but had a very good career in the NFL, playing all of his fourteen seasons with the Dallas Cowboys.  Undrafted out of Eastern Illinois, Dallas signed him as a Free Agent in 2003 and through hard work would win the starting job from Drew Bledsoe midway through the ’06 season, where he would finish up so good that he would be named to his first of what would be four Pro Bowls. 

While he was not able to take the Cowboys to the Super Bowl, Romo was considered one of the better QBs in the league for over a decade and finihes his career with 34,183 Passing Yards with 248 Touchdown Passes.  Romo’s best season statistically was 2014, where he would lead the NFL in Passer Rating and was 97 Yards short of 5,000 for the season. 

This is a good career, but one that may not be good enough to get into him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame it should warrant him a spot on our Notinhalloffame.com List for Hall of Fame consideration.  He will be eligible for the Hall in 2022.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Tony Romo for an excellent career and wish him the best in his new role alongside Jim Nantz at CBS.

Another day, another major retirement in the National Football League.

On his Twitter page, DeMarcus Ware has announced his retirement citing that his “long-term health and quality of life outweigh the spark and passion to play that I once had.”  Ware is retiring at 34 Years old.

Drafted 11th overall in 2005 by the Dallas Cowboys out of Troy, the former two time All Sun Belt Selection won the starting Linebacker job in training camp and would make the Pro Bowl the following year, the first of nine trips.  The following season, Ware would make the First Team All Pro honors, and would earn that accolade four of the next five years. 

Ware would lead the NFL in Quarterback Sacks twice over his career and had eight seasons where he would have double digits in that category.  He would later help the Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50.

Ware retires from the NFL 8th overall in Sacks with 138.5.  He played 178 Games professionally.

While we are not certain whether or not Ware will get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot, he is likely to get in eventually and will certainly warrant a high rank when he is eligible in 2022.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate DeMarcus Ware on a wonderful career and we wish him the best in his post-playing career.

It looks like we have another significant retirement in the National Football League.

Dallas Cowboys Right Tackle, Doug Free has elected to retire at the age of 33.  Free was not an All-Pro Offensive Lineman, but was the emotional leader of a crew considered to be one of the best in the business.

Out of the University of Northern Illinois, Free was drafted by Dallas in the 4th Round of the 2007 Draft.  He would take over as the starting Right Tackle in the 2010 season and would start 114 of his 124 Games in the NFL, all of which were with the Cowboys.

Free is not likely to be considered a Hall of Famer, or even for the Cowboys Ring of Honor for that matter, but had a good career and we wish him the best in his post NFL career. 

Here we are in the National Football League playoffs but for us that it means it is time to discuss the potential class of the 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame.  The Finalists have been announced, and along with regular contributor, Spheniscus, we will go back and forth with each candidate and openly debate as to which player would be a worthy Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.

Committee Chairman: Love him or hate him, there is only one Jerry Jones.  Featured prominently on Awfulplasticsurgery.com, Jones is an owner I really like, mainly because I only want two things from an owner:

The Cardinals franchise has a long, storied history of great players.  Jay Novacek played five seasons there, but it wasn’t until he hit “Big D” that he became a star and was used to his full potential.

The early Dallas Cowboys dynasty featured a Hall of Fame offense of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin.  As good as that triumvirate was, there were many who felt that their Tight End, Jay Novacek, was just as valuable.  Utilized well in Dallas, Novacek used his soft hands and could always be counted on to deliver in short-yardage pass situations.  Cowboys fans never had to worry about that position, and for five straight years, Novacek made the Pro Bowl. 

Jay Novacek’s final game was a five-catch, one-touchdown performance in the Cowboys’ Super Bowl XXX win over Pittsburgh.  Back issues forced him out of professional football, but after six great years in Dallas, he retired happy with what he accomplished.

If the Football Hall of Fame were based solely on excitement, there should be no doubt that Randall Cunningham would have been inducted on the first ballot.  His nickname, the “Human Highlight Reel,” was well deserved, and he was hands down the most entertaining Quarterback of his era.

Randall Cunningham could beat you with his throwing arm or with his legs.  He excelled at scrambling and is the current all-time leader for rushing yards (4,928) for a Quarterback.  This made him exciting to watch but also overshadowed his passing.  Cunningham was an efficient thrower, and as his speed began to wane, he was able to prove to a lot of people in the league that he could throw with the best of them.

Cunningham's scrambling was not always effective, as he was sacked a lot.  He did, however, bring so many weapons (he was also a great punter) to the field that he inspired a new generation of mobile, multi-faceted quarterbacks.  Cunningham never won the AP MVP, but he was a three-time Bert Bell Award winner, and also won a PFWA MVP and NEA MVP.  Doesn't that show how incredible he was?  This should be enough to warrant a look from the Hall, though it hasn’t happened yet, and may never

Regardless of whether Cunningham makes the PFHOF, he is one of the most influential Quarterbacks in Football, and that can never be taken away from him.

You would think that the one-time All-Time Leader in NFL receptions would have at least been a finalist for the Hall of Fame.  Of course, Billy Howton was the all-time leader when he retired in 1963.  He has dropped considerably since then.

Billy Howton was one of the top receivers for the Green Bay Packers throughout the 1950s.  He was a constant fixture for years in every receiving category, and when he became the all-time leader in receptions and yards, he took that slot from the legendary Don Hutson.

A huge force works against him as he was cast off from the Green Bay Packers when the most iconic figure in professional football, Vince Lombardi, arrived in the tundra.  Many speculated that if he wasn’t good enough for Lombardi, he couldn’t possibly be good enough for Canton.  That is a very powerful argument.  While we acknowledge that fact, Howton helped lay the groundwork for today's modern Wide Receivers, and that also can't be dismissed. 

Before the Dallas Cowboys truly became “America’s Team”, they had to establish themselves as a true force in the National Football League.  A big part of that emergence was their defense, in which linebacker Lee Roy Jordan played a key role.

Lee Roy Jordan was an elite linebacker and a tackling machine.  Playing his entire fourteen-year career with the Cowboys, Jordan was a hard-hitting defender who always seemed to know how to strip opponents of the ball.  For a Linebacker, he had many interceptions and had multiple fumble recoveries in his career.  He was a serious contender for the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1973 and reached the Pro Bowl five times.

Jordan was a Hall of Fame finalist in 1988, but that was as close as he ever got.  He is only eligible as a senior candidate now, but it appears the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor recipient will make the leap to Canton.

It may be called the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but for all intents and purposes, it only focuses on accomplishments from the NFL and, to a lesser extent, the AFL.  This is too bad for Herschel Walker, who chalked up monster totals in his first three years of Pro Football but did so as a member of the New Jersey Generals of the upstart United States Football League.

Walker went to the Dallas Cowboys and tried to live up to the PlayStation-like numbers he put up in College and in the USFL.  Walker was still very good and put up good numbers for Dallas in both receiving and running the ball.  He was, however, the focal point of one of the more lopsided trades in NFL history, where the Vikings sent five players and a multitude of draft picks (three of which were Emmitt Smith, Alvin Harper, and Darren Woodson).  Dallas used this to build a dynasty in the ’90s, and Minnesota coaches took their frustration out on Walker, who wasn’t used to his best ability as a Viking.  Herschel was still good, but his stock dropped dramatically. 

That lopsided trade hurt his legacy, but Herschel Walker should be remembered as a great Running Back who contributed in pass and kick return situations.  If he were a rookie today coming out of Georgia, where there is no USFL, would he have had a shot to shatter NFL rushing records?

Sadly, we will never know.

Our long and arduous work in progress of ranking the top fifty players for every North American sports team is underway, but after that is completed we will then take a look how each franchise honors their own in terms of respective franchise halls of fame, ring of honors, retired numbers and statues.

As such it is news to us that last weekend the Dallas Cowboys added Darren Woodson to their prestigious Ring of Honor at halftime of their home game against Seattle.

Woodson was drafted out of Arizona State in the second round in 1992 and would spend thirteen seasons in the National Football League, all of which were with the Cowboys.  Converted to Safety from Linebacker, Woodson would have an outstanding career in professional football making five consecutive Pro Bowls from 1994 to 98 and would make three First Team All Pro squads during that timeframe. 

More importantly to Woodson (and to the Cowboys fans), he was a big part of helping the team win three Super Bowls in the 1990’s, though it was the potent offense and triumvirate of Aikman, Smith and Irvin that got most of the attention.  Woodson was also set the record for tackles by a Dallas Cowboy.

While this is an elite accolade for the Defensive End, Woodson was asked what he felt about the most prestigious post career honor, the Hall of Fame:

“I think about it all the time when I see guys going in.  When I look at my career and the guys I played with and played against, there ain’t a Hall of Famer I couldn’t have played with.

But if you are asking me, it’s like me coming in my first year asking me if I should be starting? I say, ‘Hell, yeah!’ It’s like asking if I belong in the Ring of Honor? ‘Hell, yeah!’ So should I be in the Hall of Fame? ‘Hell, yeah!’ But that decision is not up to me. That’s every football player’s ultimate goal. It would be icing on the cake.”

Last year, Woodson was a Semi-Finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, however he has yet to be a Finalist and is not (though he was close) to making our Notinhalloffame.com 100 for Hall consideration.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Darren Woodson for achieving this honor!








Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/article42105006.html#storylink=cpy

  

Did we make a mistake not ranking Drew Bledsoe in his first year of eligibility? Statistically speaking, we may have made a mistake, as his career statistics are more impressive than those of other Quarterbacks ranked higher than him. However, other intangibles come into play, which makes it hard for us to determine his perfect place on this list.

Sure, he has solid career totals and impressive statistical seasons, but what can never be forgotten is that once he got injured, Tom Brady stepped in and took the Patriots over the final hurdle Bledsoe never could; and that is where the problem lies. In his first year of eligibility, Bledsoe was not a semifinalist, which shows that many view him the same way we do…a very good QB who also was a bit of a stat accumulator at the end, yet has a bit of a Wally Pipp quality to him. Drew Bledsoe was very good, but a lot of things would have to go right for him to be considered a serious threat for Canton; that elusive Super Bowl (which he does have, but on the injured list) means more on a Quarterback’s Hall of Fame resume than any other position.