Steelers fans should be furious with Hall of Fame as 2023 induction approaches

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been hearing the same refrain from the Hall of Fame voters since at least 1989. You can’t put all the Steelers in Canton. It doesn’t matter if they deserve it more than other inductees. The Hall of Fame seems to be purposely ignoring deserving candidates if they wore black and gold. Worse than the slights of the current eligible Steelers on the normal ballot is the utterly ridiculous veterans committee.

The last great Steelers dynasty was the teams between 2004 and 2012, the first half of Ben Roethlisberger’s career, which I have dubbed the tween team dynasty period. During that era, the Steelers had multiple All-Pros and Pro Bowl selections, and Troy Polamalu and Alan Faneca are in the Hall of Fame. Polamalu was a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, but Faneca had to wait until 2021.

He was eligible for six years after he retired before he was elected. Faneca’s résumé only included nine Pro Bowls in 13 seasons, six All-Pro First Team selections and two All-Pro Second Team selections. He was the best left guard in football during his time in the NFL. Faneca also played on a Super Bowl-winning team. Why did he wait six years? Joe Thomas, who never played in a playoff game and only played on one team that finished above .500, sailed in on his first ballot in 2022 with very similar career numbers.

Roethlisberger will probably join Polamalu as a first-ballot Hall of Fame election, but it is not a lock. The Steelers quarterback was not well-liked by the media and even in retirement, fame chasers like Bob Griffin take any shot they can manage. Roethlisberger has the career numbers and multiple championships, but judging by how the national talking heads reacted to his retirement in 2021, there is very little love for Roethlisberger, and spiting him for a year would be on brand for the Hall of Fame voters.

Despite playing in three Super Bowls and winning two in five seasons, going 3-1 in four AFC Championship Games and posting an 11- 3 mark in the playoffs from 2004-2012, only three Steelers may get in from those teams. Players like Hines Ward, a Super Bowl MVP with 1,000 career catches, and James Harrison, a former AP Defensive Player of the Year with one of the top 10 most memorable plays in Super Bowl History, are being virtually ignored at this point.

It isn’t a recent phenomenon and voters like Peter King, who gained notoriety for turning Hall of Fame voting into his private fiefdom, should not escape blame for the current rash of curious exclusions from Canton for dubious reasons at best. The veteran’s committee is a different matter altogether, the almost stubborn insistence on looking past several Steelers greats is embarrassing at this point.

The Steelers have two All-Decade Team selections from the 1970s and 1990s who have been consistently overlooked for decades and have watched players with much flimsier cases like Joe Klecko get a gold jacket. Klecko had two good seasons and starred in a Burt Reynolds movie. He is the very definition of the type of player Deion Sanders was talking about when he discussed levels at the Hall of Fame.

Carnell Lake was elected as one of the four safeties on the 1990s Hall of Fame Team, and he is the only one who is not in the Hall of Fame. Lake’s resume as one of the best safeties in football is not in dispute. He did play in one Super Bowl and is one of the only men to make a Pro Bowl as a safety and a cornerback.

Steelers LC Greenwood Needs A Passionate Advocate To Revive Long Overdue HOF Induction

LC Greenwood is the most curious and egregious oversight in Hall of Fame history and if you have read my previous articles on the subject, this is a hill I am willing to die on. Greenwood gets too little credit for his impact on the 1970s Steelers defense and in what are still two of the greatest Super Bowl games ever played. During Super Bowl X and Super Bowl XIII against the Dallas Cowboys, he savagely beat Roger Staubach into the ground. He sacked him four times in Super Bowl X and should have been the game MVP, but Lynn Swann’s acrobatics stole the show.

Greenwood sacked Staubach again in Super Bowl XIII with two minutes to play in the game for an 11-yard loss that sealed the game for Pittsburgh. The Steelers were ahead 35-24 and the Cowboys had the ball on the Pittsburgh 30. The sack with so little time left put the Cowboys in the hole, and they ran out of time in a frantic comeback that fell short at 35-31. Greenwood’s five sacks are still the most in Super Bowl history, but they don’t count because it was not an official stat during his playing career.

The Steelers have other players worthy of serious consideration like Andy Russell and Greg Lloyd, but when Super Bowl MVPs, record holders and the man who generated the longest interception return in the game’s history can’t get a serious look, what chance do solid candidates like Russell and Lloyd have in Canton?

Luckily, the real Hall of Fame for any true Steelers fan is located at Acrisure Stadium.