PFHOF myth

[Crazy Packers Fan]

I'm sure most of you here know this already, but I wanted to put this out there, since this myth comes up every February. The myth is:

"A player is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a <insert team here>."

No player goes into the Hall of Fame as a member of a single team. All teams are listed equally under their busts. Sure, there's dates that make it clear that a player spent more time with one team than another. But Franco Harris is listed equally as Steeler and Seahawk. Brett Favre is listed as Falcon, Packer, Jet, and Viking. Joe Montana as 49er and Chief. And so on.

Even at the interactive screens the Hall of Fame has in the middle of the busts room, the players can still be found under any team they played for. The only thing is that the player's primary team is bolded. But that's hardly "going into the Hall of Fame as a..."

I'm sure this myth comes from the Baseball Hall of Fame, which I've never been to. There, a player's plaque has the hat of a certain team. That isn't the case in the PFHOF.

Now, I will grant that even the PFHOF's website will list players as having a primary team. But the Hall itself doesn't do that. Or at least it hasn't since the renovation in the early 2000s. I remember it being a lot different when I first visited in 1997, which I miss dearly (but that's a story for another day).

[Bryan]

I haven't been to the PFHOF in a long time, but they used to have painted murals of each HOF member next to their bust. I would guess that is where there would be some type of "team" identification. I don't know if having all the busts wearing helmets would be practical, as they would all kind of look the same. I do remember Paul Warfield's mural having him catching a pass wearing a Browns uniform while jumping through the Dolphins logo. I think Greasy Neale's mural had Steve Van Buren running the football. Perhaps Bill Belichick's mural will be of Tom Brady throwing a football? Just kidding.

[sheajets]

When I hear something like that from a fan ("Will Woodson go in as a Raider or Packer) I immediately dismiss them as not a true football nerd.

What really makes me cringe is when I meet people who look at me like I'm an idiot when I say the Ravens were the real Browns. Or when some guy who thinks he knows what he's talking about and slip in a "...yea Broadway Joe, when the Jets drafted him out of Bama he was a new kind of marketable megastar in the NFL...he was flashy, confident, good looking"

"What do you mean NFL?"

Stuff like that tosses them into all kinds of confusion

Of course these are real conversations, sometimes it's fun when you know you have these cocky millennial know it all's cornered. I feel like Bert Cooper on Mad Men..."Would you say I know something about you Don?" or "I don't have a contract"

[rhickok1109]

When I hear something like that from a fan ("Will Woodson go in as a Raider or Packer) I immediately dismiss them as not a true football nerd.

What really makes me cringe is when I meet people who look at me like I'm an idiot when I say the Ravens were the real Browns. Or when some guy who thinks he knows what he's talking about and slip in a "...yea Broadway Joe, when the Jets drafted him out of Bama he was a new kind of marketable megastar in the NFL...he was flashy, confident, good looking"

"What do you mean NFL?"

Stuff like that tosses them into all kinds of confusion

Of course these are real conversations, sometimes it's fun when you know you have these cocky millennial know it all's cornered. I feel like Bert Cooper on Mad Men..."Would you say I know something about you Don?" or "I don't have a contract"

I can't tell you how many posts I've seen in various Facebook groups claiming that Marion Motley and Bill Willis integrated the NFL in 1946. And my attempts to set the record straight are dismissed by people who are blithely ignorant of the facts.

[JuggernautJ]

At a team reunion we have every year to watch the Super Bowl an old teammate brought his son and his son's friend, who played college ball and coached in a youth league.
The young man was a "die hard, knowledgeable" Chargers fan... who had no idea who John Hadl or Lance Alworth were (and I didn't even bother brining up Paul Lowe or Keith Lincoln or... well, you get the picture).
To him, Chargers history was LaDanian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers.

It left me feeling somewhere between "kids these days" and "dang, I'm getting old..."