Why Roger Craig Not Being In The Pro Football Hall Of Fame Is A Disgrace

I’m not going to lie, I am a massive fan of Roger Craig, and therefore my viewpoint might be slightly skewed, but I’ve tried to be as objective and fact based as I can.

I was a fledgling San Francisco 49ers in the early to mid-1980s at the time when there was the first big push for the NFL to get in to the UK market. Channel 4 started showing coverage, weekly and monthly magazines started to be published and there was a weekly magazine collection than built up knowledge of the game, with a binder to collect them in. All the (then) twenty eight teams were covered, the history, the big players, the rules of the game and more. The NFL Record and Fact Yearbook appeared in WH Smiths and Dillons.

There were a lot of fans of the Bears, Dolphins and Raiders, the 49ers were probably next. When we played our own version of American Football in the school playground using a tennis ball, the other kids all wanted to be the Quarterback, whether that was Dan Marino, Joe Montana or Jim McMahon, or they all wanted to be The Fridge. Not me, I wanted to be Roger Craig. I wanted to be the running back who would just blast my way through the opposition, or catch the little yellow ball thrown in my general vicinity.

As it was, when I went to University and put pads and helmets on for the first time, I was only the right build and speed to play a lineman, left guard on offence and nose tackle on defence. My heart was never really in it after that and I gave it up after a year.

But Craig was the player I admired more than any other. How he would high step his way over, around or through tackles was amazing to me, and when he wasn’t handed the ball off, he would pop up open in the middle of the field five or ten yards past the line of scrimmage to be able to catch the ball for another first down. On a lot of teams he would have been the superstar, but playing on the same team as Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott it was going to be difficult to be the main star. And there was a stellar supporting cast as well around him on offence, Tom Rathman, John Taylor, Brent Jones and the outstanding offensive line — Sapolu, Cross, Harris, Paris, and McIntyre. The whole package is what made the 49ers so great at the time.

And yet it seems that Craig has been overlooked amongst the players from that great team insomuch of just what an integral part of it he was. What having a player that was a threat as a runner and a receiver. The first really great dual threat back of the west coast offence. The player that defined the role that so many other running backs have come to emulate since. Without him playing in that role, it wouldn’t have been so easy to open up all the other offensive threats the 49ers had. It was difficult for opposing defences to double team Jerry Rice or John Taylor with a safety or line-backer, because they had to keep an eye on Craig either rushing or catching from out of the backfield.

Part of the issue to why he is continually overlooked is the low-key way the 49ers organisation seems to value his contribution. He eventually made it into their hall of fame, but somewhat shockingly they haven’t retired his number. Number 33 should be hanging with the other all-time greats from the 49ers.

Some have said that this is because of his fumble in the NFC Championship game when the 49ers were going for the three-peat, and his departure to the Raiders for the following season can point to that if you want to read it that way (bearing in mind nothing much is said of Jerry Rice’s drop in open field at 3–3 in the Divisional Playoff game shellacking against the Giants in 1986). Others will say his stats don’t add up in the same way. More would argue that he didn’t have the longevity, or the achievements. All of which could be considered if given a cursory glance, but none of which bear up to deeper scrutiny.

That so many 49ers fans would say that he shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame is shocking, and quite frankly, petty. That so many fans of the game disregard him is sad. He is the archetypal rushing and catching running back that teams so desire today. Some of those of a similar ilk that came after him have already made it to the Hall of Fame. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t have, but I am saying that Craig should be in there with them, and should have been in there first.

The first big reason why Craig should be in the Hall of Fame is the 1985 season. He became the first player to gain a thousand rushing yards and a thousand receiving yards in the same season. Something that has only been emulated twice since. The first by Marshall Faulk who is already in the Hall of Fame, and the second of those this year by Christian McCaffrey, who commentators are already talking about being a future hall of famer in only his third season. As the first player to do it, Craig should be in the Hall of Fame as well. Especially when you add to this the fact that in that year’s Superbowl he became the first player to score three touchdowns in a single Superbowl. A record that hasn’t been beaten, and he now shares with four other players (twice with Jerry Rice). He also recorded a rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game, something only five other players have managed in a Superbowl. The season also saw him finish as the NFL leader in receptions, the third and last time this had been achieved by a running back. His 92 receptions was a record for a running back at the time. It has been broken since, but none of those who have gained more receptions have averaged more than ten yards per catch as Craig did that season.

It isn’t as if that season was the be all and end all of his career either. Three years later he had another season where he broke two thousand yards from scrimmage. In the 1988 season he led the league in scrimmage yards, and the NFC in rushing average, and was voted as the NFL MVP, the NFL offensive player of the year, and the NFC offensive player of the year. He was the first running back to have a hundred yard receiving game in the Superbowl, a feat only matched by two other players. He became only the fourth player in NFL history to record multiple two thousand yards from scrimmage seasons. Thirty years later only thirteen others have managed this feat.

There is a view that he wasn’t consistent enough and didn’t have the stats required to make the hall of fame, yet this just isn’t true. In his first seven seasons with the 49ers he broke a thousand yards from scrimmage every year, leading the team in scrimmage yards in four of those seasons, including in his rookie year. There was only his final, injury shortened season where he failed to break a thousand yards.

With the 49ers he won three Superbowls, played in five NFC Conference finals, and played in the playoffs in all eight years. In his single season with the Raiders, and two years with the Vikings, he played in the playoffs every year as well. There aren’t many people who play in the playoffs eleven years on the trot, and less that have done so when that was every season of their career. In addition to this he picked up four NFL offensive player of the week awards, was elected to the Pro Bowl four times, and is the only running back elected to the Pro Bowl as both a full back and a half back. He was in the All Pro teams twice, and was selected to the NFL 80’s all decade team. With the 49ers he was awarded the Len Eshmont award twice.

From a 49ers perspective he is in the top five in so many of their all-time stats categories:- rushing attempts, yards, touchdowns, hundred yard rushing games all-time, hundred yard rushing games in a season, thousand yard rushing seasons, receptions (he’s also tenth on receiving yards), scrimmage yards, touches, yards per touch, total touchdowns (and eleventh on total scoring), rookie rushing attempts, yards and touchdowns, rookie receiving touchdowns, rookie total touchdowns, rookie total points. He led the team in rushing five times, receptions four times and scrimmage yards four times. No other player in 49ers history is in the top five of so many statistical categories. To put in to context his two two-thousand scrimmage yard seasons for the 49ers, in the team’s history he has half of all the times it has happened. Only Garrison Hearst and Frank Gore have managed this, and then only once each.

From an NFL career perspective, he is in the top fifty in rushing attempts and yards, fifty seventh in rushing touchdowns, top fifty in total scrimmage yards, top forty in total touches, top hundred in receptions and top ninety in total touchdowns. There are only forty eight running backs in the NFL Hall of Fame, of those forty eight; Craig has more rushing yards than twenty one of them. Not only that, but he has more receiving yards than eleven running backs in the Hall of Fame have rushing yards.

When you then look at his playoff stats, everything bumps up a few levels. He is top ten in scrimmage yards and total touches, and top twenty in rushing yards, attempts and touchdowns, and receptions, and twenty-second in total touchdowns. There isn’t a player who is eligible for the Hall of Fame above him in scrimmage or rushing yards that isn’t already in the Hall of Fame.

Then there is his Superbowl stats, he is still equal first in touchdowns in a single game; second in most points in a single game; third in single game receiving touchdowns, total touchdowns and yards from scrimmage, sixth in rushing attempts and career points, seventh in rushing touchdowns, career receiving touchdowns and single game yards from scrimmage; and eighth in rushing yards and receptions.

There isn’t a single eligible player with a catalogue of achievements and statistics to match Roger Craig who isn’t already in the Hall of Fame. The fact that Roger Craig hasn’t already been elected into the Hall of Fame is a disgrace. The fact that he is only just scraping into the semi-final stage of the voting each year is a scandal.

So next year when the voting season comes round, make Roger Craig the first name on your ballot paper. Vote early and vote often, and get him his deserved place in the Hall of Fame.