Well, there are two players on the 1970′s All Decade first team (not tied for second team) who have multiple All Pro awards and at least one ring each who can’t get a sniff of the Hall, Drew Pearson and Cliff Harris.

The Snake led the Raiders to a victory in Super Bowl XI against the Minnesota Vikings. Under his leadership the Raiders played in some of the most memorable games of the ’70s and in numerous playoff and conference championship games.

Stabler was a four-time Pro Bowler and is a member of the NFL’s All Decade Team of the ’70s. He was the NFL MVP in 1974, the Bert Bell Award winner in 1976, and twice led the league in passing.

Among some sports writers controversy still swirls around the Snake, but it can be argued that Stabler was a better QB at crunch time than a few fellows already in the Hall of Fame.

And if All Decade and a Ring doesn’t get a player in, what does?

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BINGO

I don’t hear anyone laughing at this statement.

If the busts in Canton could talk (thanks John), they laugh out loud at you people saying Stabler does not belong.

The most common response I get when I bring this subject up to someone who watched Stabler play and the 70′s Raiders is “Stabler is not in the HOF already? Gee, I thought he was”.

Let’s not pretend that Stabler was some kind of unstoppable force. His championship total is one. That puts him in the same category as Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson. As far as “off the field” stuff; being suspected of fixing games is not exactly “off the field”.

Stabler is going to make it on a veteran committee vote.

“Stabler won…passing titles…many times All Pro…”
Stabler was All Pro once, in 1974. He won no passing titles and was 4th in yardage once and 5th in yardage once for his only top 5 finishes.

“It has to do with off the field stuff.” Agreed, but that “stuff” is some pretty serious stuff.

@joetoronto

Talk about “full of crap”, did you even bother to read what I said? There was a post earlier that speculated some bias based on a reluctance of Stabler to give interviews. All I said was that Stabler had a close association with a known gambler and that I believe that is most likely the source for much of the resistance to those who oppose his induction. There have been stories that Stabler was involved in fixing games. You don’t have to believe that he fixed any games, but surely you don’t deny that the speculation was there, not when the NFL and a major network spent money investigating the story. However innocent Ken Stabler’s friendship with Nicholas Dudich may or may not have been, hanging out with a convicted bookmaker who was a known associate of the De Calvatore crime family was not a very bright move on the part of the Snake. I believe that is the reason for Zimmerman’s “as long as I live” statement, and the reluctance of many other voters to support Stabler as well.
Please feel free to identify anything in this post that is “crap”. It all looks accurate to me.

I don’t believe that Stabler’s omission from the Hall has anything to do with sportswriters holding a grudge. However, Stabler’s close friendship with a convicted bookmaker who had ties to a New Jersey crime family might have a great deal to do with it.
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Like usual, you’re full of crap.

In Zimmerman’s own words…

“Ken Stabler won’t get my vote as long as I live.”

It’s a shame he hasn’t recovered, and probably will never recover.

‘Jascha Heifetz never played the violin with more dexterity than Kenny Stabler is playing the defense of the Minnesota Vikings.”

RIP Mr. King.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Any one who says things like this is a moron, or 21 years old and hooked on comparing stats that are apples to oranges, or both.

Do you people even relaize how different (and better) the game was in the 70′s? You think TO would be in one piece playing the 70′s? DB’s made life tough on Offenses. It is fundamentally flawed to compare stats from different era’s of a game that has prostituted itself into some kind of touch football game with the offense getting the keys to the car in the 80′s.

I’m not going to google it, I’ve done it before, but the Stabler Raiders were in like 6 of 7 AFC Championship games over 7 years, only falling short due to running into the other big dynasty’s of the 70′s the Dolphins and the Steelers, and things like the immaculate reception and Rob Lytle’s botched fumble call. Stabler won an MVP, passing titles, and was involved in more memorable game, more comebacks, more INCREDIBLE games, than any other one player. All Pro many times. NFL’s most accurate passer. Sea of Hands, Immaculate Reception, Holy Roller, Ghost to the Post. He defined the clutch QB of the time, and was Joe Montana with the 2 minute drill before Joe Montana. Heck, Stabler usually only needed 1:10.

The reason this fool is biased against Snake has nothing to do with football. It has to do with off the field stuff.

You are embarrassing yourself as an NFL fan to defend the shallow and petty bias of this moron Dr. Z.

I wish him nothing, and that is the best thing I can say about the POS.

If you wanna write about the guy’s medical issues and how they impact SI.com, fine. But at least try to demonstrate a little objectivity, even if Zimmerman couldn’t, and even if you’re only pretending.

Now we all know why.

Good luck, Dr. Z!

But not on Memorial Day. That’s for the men and women who died in service.

You were thinking of Veteran’s Day, maybe?

For other voters, Stabler’s problem as I see it is that compared to other HoF QBs of that age, he has neither the multiple championships of a Bradshaw nor the excellent passing TD-to-INT ratios of a Staubach, Fouts, or even a Ken Anderson. He was an exciting but inconsistent player throughout his career, and that just hasn’t been good enough to merit entry into the HoF.

Dr. Z was a pleasure to read and I actually learned something about football now and then in the process.