vegas55 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 The hall of fame in any sport is all about standards of excellence. By that measure, Bruce Smith was a no brainer, as his career personified the standard of excellence in countles ways. Congrats to Bruce. But Mr Wilson is a different story. He was a founding member of AFL, but isnt having your initial $25,000.00 investment turned into $800,000,000.00 reward enough? His franchise, in particular his mangement of his franchise does not approach any standard of excellence. For the vast majority of the history of this organization, the Bills have been perenial losers. 20+ years into its existence, that is, the mid eighties, the franchise was such a mess that Jim Kelly took one look and signed with the USFL. Read his book about what a rinky dink organization the Bills were when he refused to sign with them. And this hall of fame owner was the only owner in history to lose the number one overall pick in the draft to the CFL!! This hall of fame owner, rich beyond most peoples comprehension, attempted to stiff Wade Phillips out of a years salary, and was sanctioned by his fellow owners and ordered to pay. Having had the absolute good fortune to stumble across a (real) hall of fame GM in Pollian, the franchise enjoyed one great run of success; but our hall of fame owner could not stand success, fired Polian and later fired Polians (successful) pupils. The team is mired in a ten year non play off draught, more typical of its history. Thats mediocrity at best, not excellence. And having realized a franchise value appreciation of almost 800 million dollars, along with substantial operating profits each year, he still imposes a cash to cap spending restraint, and refuses to pay the going rate for coaches, because he has not made enough money from this franchise and needs to turn a profit every year. Most NFL owners want to win, incur season to season operating losses, knowing that theincreasing value of their franchise more than makes up for operating losses incurred. Not Ralph, he must have franchise appreciation and yearly profits, and winning takes a backseat to that. His team has been a losing joke for much of its existence, and that should have kept him out of the hall of fame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murra Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Your post was mainly a justification as to why Ralph shouldn't be in the hall. The problem is that, anyone can do that. Of course it's debatable that owners are even in the hall at all. But the real crime of tainted "excellence " is that 4-7 players each year are being inducted. Are you trying to tell me that each draft there are 4 H.O.F players? That's ridiculous. Ralph is just one person in a long list of people who are given a title for something they very well do not deserve. It's sad, but I don't even want Andre Reed to get in, but I lobby for him because I think he's at least better than Cris Carter. What sucks, is that eventually we know they'll both get in. I'm sorry I didnt really add to the discussion since I agree with you and shifted the debate a little, but I'm sure others have thoughts on the issue as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 but isnt having your initial $25,000.00 investment turned into $800,000,000.00 reward enough? Without Ralph, the NFL wouldn't be worth the billions it is. You are aware that without Ralph, the Patriots and Raiders franchises would've both folded and the AFL would never have merged with the NFL, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kota Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 /gives some sunshine to this poor cold soul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Without Ralph, the NFL wouldn't be worth the billions it is. You are aware that without Ralph, the Patriots and Raiders franchises would've both folded and the AFL would never have merged with the NFL, right? But Ralph is evil and won't spend all of his money so fans can hold their head high above the fans of other teams with a SB win. Ralph is one of the men who made the NFL what it is today, he is the only reason that Buffalo has a footballteam for all of us to enjoy. He is one of the longest reigning owners of a team, and is very charitable with his earnings and the community. He deserves to be recognised in the Hall of Fame. Seems like the only people that aren't happy for Ralph are bills fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Philster Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 If you have to question Ralph's credentials for the Hall, then I would have to suggest you educate yourself on what he's done for the league over the past 50 years...there's a lot that he brought to the league that people with your tunnel vision are missing. Read Felser's book "The Birth of the New NFL" for just a taste of what he did for the AFL-NFL merger. Regarding a few points Wade essentially quit. First by saying we were out of the playoff run when we clearly weren't and then, more blatantly, by refusing to fire Ronnie Jones. Ralph ordered him to fire that joke of a special teams coach or else. Wade walked away and Ralph fired Jones himself. Polian...Ralph didn't fire him because he couldn't stand success...he fired him because he was fighting with other people in the organization...Polian reportedly had problems playing with others in Carolina as well As far as Polian's pupils, there was only one that was fired...John Butler...who had made it pretty clear that he had no intention of coming back after the 2000 season. His wife wanted to leave Buffalo, he had mangled the salary cap, and he refused to even talk about a contract extension. (All Ralph did was let him out of his contract a few weeks early, anyway) But the real crime of tainted "excellence " is that 4-7 players each year are being inducted. Are you trying to tell me that each draft there are 4 H.O.F players? The league has been in existence since 1920...the HOF came 43 years later...so it's not like all these players that are going in were drafted in the same year by any means Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Philster Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Seems like the only people that aren't happy for Ralph are uneducated or childish bills fans fixed your last line They either don't have a clue about what he's done for the league or are the diaper-wearing types who made claims like "since Ralph didn't do what I wanted him to do, he's trying to lose" when Ralph kept Jauron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murra Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 The league has been in existence since 1920...the HOF came 43 years later...so it's not like all these players that are going in were drafted in the same year by any means Right...But it's been caught up with by now. And it's getting ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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