Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Hello All,

New fellow here but I've watched a while and had a friend in PA who used to add comments here. He had too much trouble signing on and quit. That hasn't changed - or has it? I had trouble enrolling and needed to be rescued. At least there is a lifeguard on duty.

Other than football in general, I am particularly interested in the deterioration of the Hall of Fame. It seems they lower the standards every year and now they are creating categories so that soon every one who can write a check will be installed. I hate the word enshrined because it denotes something special and many have very little "special" about them.

Now, what's this Hall of Very Good? Is that a room all y'all rent from the HOF or is it at a separate location? How often are people inducted? (I say people because it seems cheerleaders are not far from the mix.) Who does the voting? Certainly not any watcher who happens to see this site? My friend warned that many offering ideas have ZERO football experience - not as a player, not as a coach, not as scout and maybe not even as an elevator operator in the building. Is this so?

On the other hand, I do notice there are a couple of men here with a substantial body of work - people like the guy from Rutgers and the fellow who runs your Archives section (or is that separate.) I do apologize for not knowing their names yet.

I've got my old ratty tennies on while I scuff my way around but I think I am a fast learner. It seems like it will be fun and maybe there will be some topics where I can learn something.

I didn't know what to do so I put this in both sections. One is Learning; the other is Halls.

Everyone is welcome and anyone can post or respond to a topic. It is a moderated site, so if someone gets out of hand, they will be warned or banned as the situation dictates. I invite you to form your own opinions about things and express yourself when you get the urge, whatever the topic may be. People may disagree with you here, but we all expect each other to do so respectfully.

What is your area of interest?

Welcome, Zach.

You brought up a lot in your first post and I'm sure you'll get lots of replies.
I'll touch on one subject because, perhaps, we're both coming from the same place in that regard.

zachary stephen wrote:My friend warned that many offering ideas have ZERO football experience - not as a player, not as a coach, not as scout and maybe not even as an elevator operator in the building. Is this so?

There are many different folks here with many different experiences and viewpoints.
There are those who played and/or coached some serious football at higher levels and there are serious scholars of the game and its history, people who have had multiple books published on the topic.

And then there are folks like me (and presumably you) who have graduated from "fandom" and want to learn more about our favorite game. If that's the case you've come to the right place.
In addition to history, trivia and anecdotes here one can find original research and expert opinions to further one's understanding of the game.

What seems to hold it all together and make the PFRA Forum a rewarding place to be is a love of the game and a desire to learn more and share the information learned.

Again, welcome.
I hope being here is as rewarding for you as it has been for me.

Positive contributors are always welcome. If you cause trouble, there is a very short leash. However, I am guessing you already know that.

zachary stephen wrote:Other than football in general, I am particularly interested in the deterioration of the Hall of Fame. It seems they lower the standards every year and now they are creating categories so that soon every one who can write a check will be installed. I hate the word enshrined because it denotes something special and many have very little "special" about them.

I know, right? Bobby Lee Randall was one of the stick holders for Atlanta Falcons games for 17 years. I believe if Mr. Randall slips some money to some Hall voters, he will get nominated for Hall of Fame induction as a contributor.

zachary stephen wrote: Now, what's this Hall of Very Good? Is that a room all y'all rent from the HOF or is it at a separate location? How often are people inducted? (I say people because it seems cheerleaders are not far from the mix.) Who does the voting? Certainly not any watcher who happens to see this site? My friend warned that many offering ideas have ZERO football experience - not as a player, not as a coach, not as scout and maybe not even as an elevator operator in the building. Is this so?

It is not in the museum. There is a Hall of Very Good room in a corner of the Ralph Wilson Research Library.

Am thinking that whether one sees quality deterioration in the HoF or not depends on how "small hall" or "big hall" one is. There have been several Seniors head-scratchers recently (Emmitt Thomas, Dick LeBeau, Floyd Little, Ken Stabler, Dave Robinson) and at least one Contributor mistake (Ed DeBartolo) the last several years, but am thinking they've established a pretty consistent standard for regular candidates with the odd miss here and there (such as Fred Dean).

Sorry for being slow, folks but the NCAA has sure lived up to its reputation as the most exciting playoff system in sports. It beats the NBA, the World Series and the silly NFL playoff format and doesn't put you to sleep doing it.

When I first started spending weekends in this area, there were times when sitting in front of the fireplace listening to stories about our childhood days just wasn't enough. Finally, I decided to seek out some entertainment and started to call around. The entire telephone directory - personal and classified - was only about a half-inch thick so there were not a lot of places to call and there were no listings as far away as Scranton although there were a few in Port Jervis (which was too far east.)
When I asked one gal if they had live music, she enthusiastically shouted into the phone, "We shore do. We got both kinds too."
Naturally, I had to ask what she meant by both kinds. She replied, "Man, we got country AND western."
I knew it was going to be another long weekend and began to understand why they call the state pennsyltucky and describe it as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Arkansas in-between.
(Or, maybe Mississippi?)

There was one good thing.
Every Saturday, the VFW had a buffet lunch where they literally went whole hog. You could eat for a week and sit around and talk about fishin', huntin', and football and argue about whether a menstrual cycle had two, four, six or 18 wheels. At the end of the buffet table was a huge old wooden barrel filled with sour pickles. You just reached in and grabbed one or two and tossed them on your tray.

Well, the responses I see remind me of a bunch of sour pickles.

Only one person even attempted to reply to my greeting and it seems he or she put the comments in the wrong section. Holy Halls, Batman!

There's a lot of work ahead answering these wonderful folks and I hope I can figure out how to do it.
Thanks for the replies boys and girls, I will answer one at a time.

One question though before I go: why are so many ashamed of who they are and neglect to mention if they are actual members here or just enrollees like me?
Maybe I should change my name to Zulu or Zebra or ZuluZebra, identifying with both the new and the old.

I wasn't sure if I should follow the FIFO or LIFO method of replying so I just decided to reply as best I can in the order messages were received or maybe just reply at random.
This would be a heck of a lot easier if there were some instructions regarding the insertion of other people's messages that you want to answer and how to answer them.
Wow! No wonder people had problems. Being new is tough. Maybe they will do a movie and call it "The Milford Redemption."

One last thing - was it wrong to put my greeting in the other box also? I thought it was proper since I hope to learn more about the halls. It has disappeared or someone has erased it -
probably by mistake not realizing it was intended to be there as it says in the greeting in my first entry.

zachary stephen wrote:Sorry for being slow, folks but the NCAA has sure lived up to its reputation as the most exciting playoff system in sports. It beats the NBA, the World Series and the silly NFL playoff format and doesn't put you to sleep doing it.

When I first started spending weekends in this area, there were times when sitting in front of the fireplace listening to stories about our childhood days just wasn't enough. Finally, I decided to seek out some entertainment and started to call around. The entire telephone directory - personal and classified - was only about a half-inch thick so there were not a lot of places to call and there were no listings as far away as Scranton although there were a few in Port Jervis (which was too far east.)
When I asked one gal if they had live music, she enthusiastically shouted into the phone, "We shore do. We got both kinds too."
Naturally, I had to ask what she meant by both kinds. She replied, "Man, we got country AND western."
I knew it was going to be another long weekend and began to understand why they call the state pennsyltucky and describe it as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Arkansas in-between.
(Or, maybe Mississippi?)

There was one good thing.
Every Saturday, the VFW had a buffet lunch where they literally went whole hog. You could eat for a week and sit around and talk about fishin', huntin', and football and argue about whether a menstrual cycle had two, four, six or 18 wheels. At the end of the buffet table was a huge old wooden barrel filled with sour pickles. You just reached in and grabbed one or two and tossed them on your tray.

Well, the responses I see remind me of a bunch of sour pickles.

Only one person even attempted to reply to my greeting and it seems he or she put the comments in the wrong section. Holy Halls, Batman!

There's a lot of work ahead answering these wonderful folks and I hope I can figure out how to do it.
Thanks for the replies boys and girls, I will answer one at a time.

One question though before I go: why are so many ashamed of who they are and neglect to mention if they are actual members here or just enrollees like me?
Maybe I should change my name to Zulu or Zebra or ZuluZebra, identifying with both the new and the old.

I wasn't sure if I should follow the FIFO or LIFO method of replying so I just decided to reply as best I can in the order messages were received or maybe just reply at random.
This would be a heck of a lot easier if there were some instructions regarding the insertion of other people's messages that you want to answer and how to answer them.
Wow! No wonder people had problems. Being new is tough. Maybe they will do a movie and call it "The Milford Redemption."

One last thing - was it wrong to put my greeting in the other box also? I thought it was proper since I hope to learn more about the halls. It has disappeared or someone has erased it -
probably by mistake not realizing it was intended to be there as it says in the greeting in my first entry.

We didn't mean to be rude. I assumed that you just wouldn't consider anything I had to say worthy - even a "hello" - since I have that ZERO football experience you were talking about. Never operated the elevator in the building, nor even rode in the elevator in the building.

I'm not seeing "sour pickles". I think the post by JuggernautJ was really friendly, while some others were understandably more tempered. Personally, I never introduced myself, I just like talking football history and either jump in where I can or start a new topic.

TanksAndSpartans wrote:. . . while some others were understandably more tempered. . .

An introductory post insulting the membership and ripping the Hall of Very Good would be why some responses were maybe more tempered.