Las Vegas Raiders: Tom Flores missing Hall of Fame again is a crime
With the senior members of the expanded 2020 class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame already announced, a Raiders legend is once again snubbed.
There’s been a long-running conspiracy theory that there is an anti-Raiders bias when it comes to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This theory is largely the brainchild of former owner Al Davis, attributing it to his own feud with former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle.
This theory doesn’t just concern the Hall of Fame but also numerous calls Davis felt cost the Raiders playoff wins, most notably the Immaculate Reception. It also has to do with the franchise’s movement from Oakland to Los Angeles, back to Oakland and now to Las Vegas, which has sometimes drawn ire from the league.
While the entirety of the conspiracy isn’t of concern, it’s hard to argue with as the Hall of Fame is concerned. It took Ken Stabler, Ray Guy and Tim Brown forever to get inducted. And one can look at numerous former members of the silver and black that have consistently been snubbed from Canton.
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Lester Hayes, Cliff Branch, Jack Tatum, George Atkinson, Daryle Lamonica, Phil Villapiano and Todd Christensen are just a handful to wet the whistle. Former quarterback Jim Plunkett is a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and MVP of Super Bowl XV. He’s also still waiting to hear his name called. There is one Raiders snub that reigns supreme, however.
Tom Flores was the Raiders head coach for the franchise’s second and third Super Bowl championships during the 1980 and 1983 seasons. Flores is one of only two men in the 100-year history of the NFL to win a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach and head coach, the other being Hall of Famer Mike Ditka.
Flores is also one of only two head coaches with multiple Super Bowl wins not to be enshrined in Canton, the other being George Seifert.
In the case of Seifert, his championship in 1989 with the San Francisco 49ers was the year after Bill Walsh faded into the sunset after winning the Lombardi Trophy. Seifert then took practically the same team the following year to a championship. He’s not Barry Switzer because Seifert did win another in 1994. His exclusion is more explicable though, especially when his 1-15 season in 2001 with the Carolina Panthers is taken into account.
In the case of Flores, while he did take over for John Madden in 1979 three years after Madden’s Super Bowl title in 1976, the roster was very different. Flores’ 1980 squad featured only eight starters from the 1976 club while the 1983 roster had only four — and one was the punter.
So it wasn’t like Flores was along for the ride. The 1983 team also beat the defending champion Washington Redskins, the highest-scoring offense in NFL history at the time, 38-9, in Super Bowl XVIII.
While Flores did have a not so spectacular tenure with the Seattle Seahawks, going 2-14 followed by two 6-10 seasons, it’s not like all coaches are perfect. Jimmy Johnson, who is getting inducted this year, had a 1-15 season, and Andy Reid, who everyone is already inducting if he can guide the Kansas City Chiefs to a title this year, has gone 4-12 in his career.
Certainly, Flores’ down years can’t be ignored. However, of the 13 head coaches to win multiple Super Bowls, Flores’ .727 win percentage ranks second. So despite those three down years with Seattle, Flores is still ahead of the great Bill Belichick (.721) and only behind Vince Lombardi’s outrageous .900.
Flores has a higher winning percentage than Johnson and more Super Bowl rings than Bill Cowher. Both former coaches are getting induced this season. So what gives with Flores? Some attribute it to the anti-Raiders bias, while some go even deeper and look at his heritage, going so far as to conclude the NFL must stand for “Not For Latinos”.
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Whatever the reason, Flores and the Raiders are getting robbed with another year of being snubbed. This year’s expanded class was his best shot. And with more people becoming eligible each year as senior members (being retired for 25 years), the chances of Flores getting in are becoming less likely.
Let’s hope the Pro Football Hall of Fame voters right their misdeeds to this point, however, and gets Flores enshrined.