Ron Wolf: Why Isn't Sterling Sharpe in Pro Football Hall?

(EDITOR'S NOTE: To listen to the Ron Wolf interview, click on the following link: Megaphone)

Sterling Sharpe isn't in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and, I know, it happens. Too many qualified candidates aren’t in, either. But in 20 years of modern-era eligibility, Sterling Sharpe was neither a finalist nor semifinalist for Canton.

That shouldn’t happen. But it did.

All the guy did in a seven-year career cut short by injury was:

-- Lead the league three times in receptions.

-- Produce 1,000 or more yards five times, including a league-leading 1,461 in 1992.

-- Accumulate 42 TDs, 314 catches and 3,854 yards receiving his last three seasons.

-- Become the first receiver in Packers’ history to score four times in one game, tying Hall-of-Famer Don Hutson’s 1945 record.

-- Win the rare “Triple Crown” for receivers in 1992, leading the league in catches, yards and TDs. Only three other modern-era receivers (Jerry Rice, Steve Smith and Copper Kupp) have done it.

-- Set the single-season record for receptions with 107, only to break his own mark the following year with 112 -- thus becoming the first NFL receiver to have 100 or more catches in consecutive seasons.

-- Get named to five Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pro clubs.

In short, he was dominant. So how is it that he wasn’t even a Hall-of-Fame semifinalist during his 20 years of modern-era eligibility?

It’s a question Hall voters must have asked, too, because a year ago they broke from tradition and made Sharpe, now 70, a finalist for one of three senior positions in the Class of 2023. He wasn’t chosen, but what’s new? He did, however, pull enough votes that some board members predict his inclusion as a senior candidate for the Class of 2024. 

That would be only fitting, said Hall-of-Fame GM Ron Wolf on a recent “Eye Test for Two” podcast. Granted, Wolf isn’t exactly a neutral observer. He was the general manager in Green Bay for Sharpe’s last three years there. But that makes him an expert witness. He studied and watched Sharpe daily for three seasons when only San Francisco’s Jerry Rice was as dangerous.

“When we went to Green Bay in 1992,” Wolf recalled, “we only had Sterling Sharpe. That was our player. So I’m sure defensive coordinators would say, ‘We got this made. We take away Sharpe (and) we’ll beat them.’ You know what? They never took him away. He was the leading pass receiver for three or four straight years.”

He's right. Look at Sharpe’s last three seasons. Twice he led the league in receptions. Twice he led it in receiving touchdowns. Twice he was named first-team All-Pro.

No surprise: Those three seasons coincided with Brett Favre's arrival in Green Bay..

Now look at Sharpe's entire career. In seven NFL seasons, only one receiver had more receptions and touchdowns ... and that was Rice. And only two others during that span -- Rice and Henry Ellard -- had more yards.

“What he accomplished in that era,” Wolf said of Sharpe, “in that arena … you know, starting in October, there’s snow on the ground … was just remarkable.”

As mentioned, only Rice was comparable. From 1992-94 he had 20 fewer catches (314-294), 349 more yards receiving (4,203-3,854) and as many touchdowns (42, though four of Rice’s were rushing).

Rice was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and rightly so. He’s the greatest wide receiver in the modern NFL game. But Sharpe? He wasn’t a blip on Canton's radar until the Hall’s senior committee rescued his candidacy last year.

However, Hall voters aren’t alone in overlooking him. When the Pro Football Hall of Fame assembled its “blue-ribbon panel” to choose a 2020 Centennial Class, it included such luminaries as New England coach Bill Belichick and Hall-of-Famers Gil Brandt, Ozzie Newsome, Dick LeBeau and Bill Polian as part of its 25-member committee.

It didn’t make Sharpe a finalist, either.

So what’s the problem? It must be longevity, you say, because Sharpe’s career was relatively short. Maybe. Except longevity should not … and cannot … sabotage a candidacy as it once did. Not since 2017 it can’t. That’s the year the Hall enshrined Terrell Davis and Kenny Easley, both of whom are Hall worthy but neither of whom played as many games as Sterling Sharpe.

Like Sharpe, Davis’ career spanned seven seasons and was cut short by injury. He played 78 games. Easley’s career lasted seven seasons, too, and was ended by a severe kidney disease. He played 89 games.

Sharpe played 112 games, or 23 more than Easley and 34 more than Davis.

Then maybe the issue is championships? Sharpe didn’t win a Super Bowl ring, while Davis won two. But Easley didn’t win a ring, either. The Seahawks qualified for the playoffs three times in his seven seasons, once reaching the AFC title game. Green Bay made the playoffs twice in Sharpe’s last three years. But a career-ending neck injury prevented him from playing in the 1994 postseason.

So his resume consists of two playoff games in 1993. He scored four TDs and averaged 20.1 yards per reception. 

He retired when he was 29.

“I’m very biased,” said Wolf, “but there are receivers going in the Hall of Fame that can’t compare to him. He was just a tremendous football player. I always thought (that) in order to get into the Hall of Fame you had to be elite. Sterling Sharpe is elite. The record proves he’s elite. It’s a shame he’s not (in).”