Most Overrated (Part II)

[Awsi Dooger]

Suzie Kolber or however you spell it? **** that..not me

Count me out also. I can't stand her voice. I thought for sure it would preclude her from network TV. It grates me instantly and I hit the mute button to survive.

 

[djfresh47]

The most overrated player that I ever saw was Andre Reed. He always killed the Phins, but I think of it this way he was probably at best the 4th best player on the Bills during there run behind Kelly, Thomas, Smith. The Bills teams of the early 90's were an Afc dynasty, but the Afc was weak. The Phins were a pretty decent Afc team for that time, but honestly those Bills teams were great Afc teams, but it was during an era of Nfc dominance so I think that the 4th best player on the Bills during that time was overrated to an extent, he's probably not a HOF player, but he'll probably get some votes. This is nothing against Reed for the Bills fans, he killed the Phins and was great with the offense.

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

Vinny Testaverde would have blown Super Bowl III by impatiently and stupidly checking out of called running plays and throwing forced INTs, just like the '86 Fiesta Bowl. Namath won that Super Bowl very much like Griese in our two title wins, deftly understanding field position, clock management and superiority in the trenches. If you downplay Namath's effort then Griese's two Super Bowls with basically 10 or less pass attempts must also be minimized. I think we're smart enough not to go there, given the nature of our team in that era.

I attended Super Bowl III as an elementrary schooler and believe me Namath threw some clutch and pretty passes with little margin for error, to Sauer in particular as the Colts were intent on shutting down Maynard. He checked out of many plays and always ran the clock down to near zero. That was before the play clock so you had to keep it in your head. My dad sitting next to me kept raving at how close Namath would come to taking too much time but always get it off in time. He played a great game in the bigggest game of his career, maybe the most significant in NFL history. To me, that counts plenty. He also outdueled Darryl Lamonica in a great AFL title game just to get to that Super Bowl.

Otherwise, I think it's difficult to gauge Namath's career without acknowledging he was almost always damaged goods. He was a great athlete at Alabama before tearing a knee. At that point he diminished to a pocket passer then hurt his knee several more times. When the Dolphins played the Jets in the early-mid '70s it seemed like he missed half the games. Many times it seemed like Namath played when he really shouldn't be out there. No question he forced the ball into coverage as his health and arm declined but he didn't seem to fully accept it or compensate.

One of our biggest games of the '72 season was a come-from-behind 28-24 win over Namath and the Jets in the Orange Bowl. That was by far the toughest game our defense had in '72. Namath had us on our heels all afternoon. No one else put up 20 or more points on us in a competitive game, including the playoffs. Younger fans might look at the results and see a 24-23 win over Buffalo, but that was entirely misleading. We were ahead 24-16 with seconds left and running out the clock when a Buffalo lineman inexplicably burst threw the line and literally stole the handoff. He either scored or ran it down to the goal line. We weren't threatened because there was no two point conversion in that era.

Good points and I probably did downplay Namath's super bowl contribution. What I really wanted to emphasize, though, was that Trent Dilfer had a great Super Bowl for Baltimore -- similar to Namath's -- and yet Dilfer will never be mentioned as a Hall of Famer. I understand that Namath could carry a team when he was at his best and it is a shame that injuries robbed him and limited him. But if you look at Namath's career I just don't see Hall of Famer and you certainly have to factor in that he missed a lot of games to injury as a negative. He simply didn't have the numbers or enough outstanding seasons. For that reason, I think he was highly overrated.