The curious case of one Gerald Louis "Jerry" Kramer. From WIKIpedia: A former professional football player, author and sports commentator, best remembered for his 11-year NFL career with the Green Bay Packers as an offensive lineman. As a 6'3", 250 pound right guard, Kramer was an integral part of the famous "Packer Sweep", a signature play in which both guards rapidly pull out from their normal positions and lead block for the running back going around the end. Kramer was an All-Pro five times, and a member of the NFL's 50th anniversary team in 1969, but surprisingly, even after appearing on the list of finalists ten times since becoming eligible, has not been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was rated #1 in NFL Network's Top 10 list of players not in the Hall of Fame.
Kramer was the 39th player selected in the 1958 NFL Draft, taken in the fourth round by the Green Bay Packers. Two Hall-of-Famers for the Packers were taken in this draft: fullback Jim Taylor of LSU in the second round (15th overall), and linebacker Ray Nitschke of Illinois in the third round (36th overall). Kramer played every game in his rookie season of 1958 but the Packers finished with the worst record (1-10-1) in the 12-team league. In January 1959, the Packers hired a new head coach, Vince Lombardi, the offensive coach of the New York Giants.
"Jerry Kramer did not know how good he was when he first joined the Green Bay Packers. You'd be surprised how much confidence a little success will bring." -Vince Lombardi
With Kramer playing right guard, the Packers won five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls. Kramer also served as the team's place kicker in 1962, 1963, and part of 1968. As a kicker, he kicked 29 field goals, 90 extra points, for a total of 177 points. He also kicked 3 field goals and 1 extra point in the Packers 16-7 victory over the New York Giants in the 1962 NFL title game. In college at Idaho, he was also a kicker, with Wayne Walker as his long snapper. During his career, Kramer was often injured. Among these were surgery to remove sizable wood fragments embedded in his abdomen from a teenage accident, and a badly injured ankle suffered in 1961.
In all, Kramer played in 129 regular season games; he also had 22 surgeries in 11 seasons, including a colostomy, which he described as "a horror movie that hasn't been made yet." Despite these setbacks, Kramer was selected as an All-Pro five times (1960, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1967). He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. He is a member of the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Time team, and the only member of that team not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Here's the voters argument against Jerry Kramer's election into the HOF. 1. Tooo many Packers in the HOF already, and tooo many Packers from the championship teams of the 60's ini the HOF already. The HOF voters have been put on record as saying "We need more diversity from the other teams...." as their excuse for excluding membership to various Chicago Bear and Green Bay Packer players. Here's some EARTH SHATTERING LOGIC to the voters......
1. The Green Bay Packers have been around since 1919.
2. The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers helped start the league in 1921.
3. Having STARTED the league means they have had MORE PLAYERS in the league.
4. More players in the league means more players TO VOTE FOR!
5. More players to vote for means MORE PLAYERS IN THE HOF!!
6. Just because a person played on a team that's been in the league the longest, doesn't mean he should be keft out of the HOF.
If he played like a champion, and IS A CHAMPION, then what LOGICAL excuse do you have to leave him off your ballot? NONE, if you have any COMMON SENSE! The Bears and the Packers should have the most players in the HOF because they own the most titles. You have the most titles means you have MORE PLAYERS who PLAYED on those title teams, thus you have more players......etc....etc. LOGIC!!! FIRE ALL THE VOTERS to the HOF, and find some people with common sense please. You're an embarrassment to your so-called profession.
Anne V
Julie Henderson
NFL Super Bowl Sites
Celebrities at the NBA Playoffs
Comments (8) Add A Comment
I hate the way these blogs are changed when posted. This in NOT the way I wrote it. YIKES!
Wisconsin Death Trip
Total Comments (2723)
Wisconsin Death Trip
Total Comments (2723)
Same problem (no line breaks) happened to me when I posted in Google Chrome. Going back to Explorer as default browser, just for SI.com, seemed to do the trick. Chrome works well elsewhere. SI needs to do something, but Fannation is lowest on their list of concerns.
As for Jerry, one more reason he's missed-out on the HOF might be his personality. He never lacked for confidence and may have rubbed some voters the wrong way. He shouldn't care. The HOFs are getting so watered-down now they're becoming less & less relevant every year. With those 60s memories, the rings and his best-seller book "Instant Replay," he's better remembered than half the guys in the Hall. If I had a vote, JK would get mine, as would Jim Marshall (DE) and Mick Tingelhoff (C) of the Vikes.
Steven Keys
Duluth, GA
Total Comments (115)
Yes, when it comes to writing blogs with Google Chrome, no matter how many paragraph indents you have, Chrome prints out in a block. The good news is if you want to cut 'n' paste in your blog you can with Chrome, whereas you can't with Firefox.
IMO all sports HOF's are becoming jokes.
Lady's Coach Belicat
Total Comments (14080)
The thing that get's me is his ambassadorship for the game. He's done more since retiring to promote the league than just about anybody. Stinks man.
Wisconsin Death Trip
Total Comments (2723)
Yep, Keys told me the same. I'll try cut'n and pasting it in IE and see.
Wisconsin Death Trip
Total Comments (2723)
Thanx for the IE trick, it worked. I use Google Chrome for it's efficiency over IE, but it does have that one problem with it at times.
Wisconsin Death Trip
Total Comments (2723)
Comment
Remember to keep your posts clean. Profanity will get filtered, and offensive comments will be removed.