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Send Curtis Martin to the Hall of Fame - As a member of the New York Jets!


BaumerJet

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I don't think he ever averaged below 4.0 and was actually at 4.5 for his career. O.J. ended at 4.7.

You're just not correct. Imagining his effectiveness being different than it was doesn't make it so.

Two of his pro bowl seasons he averaged 3.5 and 3.6 ypc. That's in addition to two other seasons below 4.0. His career average was 4.0 ypc, which is decent but not great by any stretch.

OJ's career ypc average was higher than Martin's best season. They are in a totally different class of player (and person).

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The past ten years or so, I've been subjected to the Giants and Pats twice in the Super Bowl, the Yankees playing the ******* Phillies, the rejuvenation of both the Heat and Bulls, the Belichick/Brady era, the Howard/Utley era, Mark Sanchez and Chad Pennington, Billy Wagner and K-Rod, Tim Thomas and Eddy Curry, Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Willie Randolph, Art Howe, Isiah Thomas, and Larry Brown.

Call me crazy, but Curtis Martin was one of the few enjoyable things I had. I will choose to remember him fondly.

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saw him play his entire career, certainly long enough to recognize that he doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame other than by purchasing an admission ticket to visit

Who is arguing he should be in the HOF? I am referring to your comment that Freeman was a "never ever running back". Freeman was an exceptional talent.

CuMar should be in Canton, but he was not as talented as McNeil when both were in their prime and healthy.

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I wish I had a nickel for every post here and at other sites that incorrectly predicted Martin was a mortal lock to be a first-ballot HOF'er.

Good player for a ridiculously long time for the position. Rarely, if ever, a game-changer. Particularly against better defenses. Made a career of taking what his OL gave him and little beyond that.

Say you're a GM. You have a window of 3-4 years where your team is a true contender and the only missing piece you perceive is an upgrade over your bad RB's. You can have anyone in history. You seriously telling me Martin would really crack your top 20? I can probably name a dozen backs who will never sniff at the HOF I'd rather have in that situation. We had the guy for years & years and he came up small when we needed a game-changer at the position time after time.

He was solid, not great. His longevity was a great accomplishment, but he was not a great RB.

That said, I think he's got a decent chance of getting in this year, but only because the crop is relatively weak on offensive skill positions which always get preference. But he's not a top-3 player among the finalists or semi-finalists even in this pretty weak eligibility class.

Bolded is what I always felt. Liked the guy. Good player. But there was never a time when I felt like he was the best RB in the league, or even really top 3 or 4.

Add to that that I've always believed the RB was the easiest position to find, and think investing in one is usually a losing proposition, and I was just never that awed by having Curtis Martin.

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I don't think he ever averaged below 4.0 and was actually at 4.5 for his career. O.J. ended at 4.7.

I think your short list of Jets you actually have anything good to say about is quite small.

4 of 11 years he was below 4.0 (though 1 was his last season) and his career was 4.0.

The year he led the league in rushing he also led the league in attempts.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MartCu00.htm

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I referred to Freeman McNeil as a "never ever running back" ONLY in terms of making the PF HOF in Canton. He was obviously a good NFL running back for the Jets for many seasons and a strong addition to the team. Just not HOF caliber. IMO Curtis Martin clearly is HOF caliber and will be wearing the yellow jacket at his induction this summer as proof

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8 and 8 is average. The Jets were average this year. Not bad.

Average and malcontent is better than bad and malcontent.

We'll be fine next year. Even if Sanchez returns as QB, the only 2011 starters we're likely to lose in free agency are LT and Plaxico. RT, OLB, and S will be upgraded. Opposite Holmes should be at worst a slight downgrade because Sanchez either hardly threw it at him or didn't take advantage of his size anyway. One of our toughest opponents next year, SF, we probably match up very well with.

Barring something unusual, like not re-signing Pouha and sticking with Hunter at RT, I think we win between 9 to 11 games last year even with Sanchez at QB.

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4 of 11 years he was below 4.0 (though 1 was his last season) and his career was 4.0.

The year he led the league in rushing he also led the league in attempts.

http://www.pro-footb.../M/MartCu00.htm

I could of sworn pro football reference said different this morning but when I look now you are correct.

I still think his body of work gets him in and not sure why some fans don't root for that to happen.

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I could of sworn pro football reference said different this morning but when I look now you are correct.

I still think his body of work gets him in and not sure why some fans don't root for that to happen.

Agree there. Likable guy, great Jet... No reason not to root for him to get in, but I certainly understand the argument that he's where he is more because he was consistently pretty good as opposed to truly great.

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I could of sworn pro football reference said different this morning but when I look now you are correct.

I still think his body of work gets him in and not sure why some fans don't root for that to happen.

Without looking it up, how could you have watched this guy's career and thought he averaged anywhere near 4.5 ypc for his whole career? He only accomplished that feat twice in his career (and barely at that). The Jet RB with a 4.5 ypc career average was Freeman McNeil.

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Without looking it up, how could you have watched this guy's career and thought he averaged anywhere near 4.5 ypc for his whole career? He only accomplished that feat twice in his career (and barely at that). The Jet RB with a 4.5 ypc career average was Freeman McNeil.

Actually I did look Sperm and was comparing to Freeman's page. Like I said took the wrong stats.

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The past ten years or so, I've been subjected to the Giants and Pats twice in the Super Bowl, the Yankees playing the ******* Phillies, the rejuvenation of both the Heat and Bulls, the Belichick/Brady era, the Howard/Utley era, Mark Sanchez and Chad Pennington, Billy Wagner and K-Rod, Tim Thomas and Eddy Curry, Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Willie Randolph, Art Howe, Isiah Thomas, and Larry Brown.

Call me crazy, but Curtis Martin was one of the few enjoyable things I had. I will choose to remember him fondly.

Agreed. The single player I attribute the to the turnaround of the New York Jets. Since his trade, they've been a pretty consistent playoff team...every other year type. Sucks, but good if you grew up a Jets fan in the 80's and early 90's, its an improvement.

I really dont get it. He was really ******* good. Its almost like his haters have argued that he sucks for so long that they forget he's was pretty awesome. They act like he just fell over every time he touched the ball, you dont just fall over and end up being the 4th leading rusher of all time. You dont just fall over but go for 1000 yards 10 straights season in a row, if you did, there would be more than 2 players who've ever done it.

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Agreed. The single player I attribute the to the turnaround of the New York Jets. Since his trade, they've been a pretty consistent playoff team...every other year type. Sucks, but good if you grew up a Jets fan in the 80's and early 90's, its an improvement.

I really dont get it. He was really ******* good. Its almost like his haters have argued that he sucks for so long that they forget he's was pretty awesome. They act like he just fell over every time he touched the ball, you dont just fall over and end up being the 4th leading rusher of all time. You dont just fall over but go for 1000 yards 10 straights season in a row, if you did, there would be more than 2 players who've ever done it.

Exactly. If you point out his career achievements, you're overrating him. It's a bit ridiculous. I don't think I've seen anyone rank him up with Gale Sayers or anything, but I've seen plenty of people preemptively remind everyone that he shouldn't be.

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I could of sworn pro football reference said different this morning but when I look now you are correct.

I still think his body of work gets him in and not sure why some fans don't root for that to happen.

Edwards did the same exact thing with Larry Johnson in KC.Arguably the Jets lost a playoff game not only because of Doug Brien(and losing a yard on a play before to center the ball-WTF) but because Edwards slavishly gave the ball to Martin over Lamont Jordan despite the fact Jordan was very effective and Martin facing a stout D was often useless. Another example of the brainlessness of Herman Edwards.And Edwards did these stupid things at exaclty the time the NFL began to deemphasize the expensive feature back. If Edwards and Bradway ahd been ahead of the curve may be their Jets teams would've fared better. We'll never know, but paying a feature back a huge chunk of cap room was folly and still is.

If any newbies don't understand this bile, search "Savage69" and "Curtis Martin". Look, no one disputes Martin's durability and his positive attitude. He is a class act. But when it came to big games he was usually as in that Steeler playoff game and the 1998 AFC titlle game in Denver next to useless.

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Agreed. The single player I attribute the to the turnaround of the New York Jets. Since his trade, they've been a pretty consistent playoff team...every other year type. Sucks, but good if you grew up a Jets fan in the 80's and early 90's, its an improvement.

I really dont get it. He was really ******* good. Its almost like his haters have argued that he sucks for so long that they forget he's was pretty awesome. They act like he just fell over every time he touched the ball, you dont just fall over and end up being the 4th leading rusher of all time. You dont just fall over but go for 1000 yards 10 straights season in a row, if you did, there would be more than 2 players who've ever done it.

They turned around the year before he got here when Parcells replaced Kotite. I know you know this. The year he got here he flat-out sucked except in games when Testaverde was deadly & carried him, and we won 12 games despite his pathetic 3.5 ypc and 1.1 ypc in the AFCCG. The real turnaround in '98 didn't kick in until Testaverde took over for Foley anyway, not with the addition of Martin. With the great Curtis Martin we probably still win only 6-8 games with a full year of Foley instead of Testaverde having his lights-out season. Of course before that part of the season kicked in, in one of the more painful losses of the era for us, Martin was the only offensive player on both teams who didn't go off in the season opener vs SF.

Swap RB's in 1998 and we win the SB instead of Denver.

And he didn't fall down every time he touched the ball. He also ran out of bounds a lot.

And to use your words, as a huge fan of his, the best you can come up with is that he was really good. Not great, but really good. That is all some of us have been saying. The HOF ideally should be for the greatest of great players, not good or really good players simply because they did it for longer than most.

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They turned around the year before he got here when Parcells replaced Kotite. I know you know this. The year he got here he flat-out sucked except in games when Testaverde was deadly & carried him, and we won 12 games despite his pathetic 3.5 ypc and 1.1 ypc in the AFCCG. The real turnaround in '98 didn't kick in until Testaverde took over for Foley anyway, not with the addition of Martin. With the great Curtis Martin we probably still win only 6-8 games with a full year of Foley instead of Testaverde having his lights-out season. Of course before that part of the season kicked in, in one of the more painful losses of the era for us, Martin was the only offensive player on both teams who didn't go off in the season opener vs SF.

Swap RB's in 1998 and we win the SB instead of Denver.

And he didn't fall down every time he touched the ball. He also ran out of bounds a lot.

And to use your words, as a huge fan of his, the best you can come up with is that he was really good. Not great, but really good. That is all some of us have been saying. The HOF ideally should be for the greatest of great players, not good or really good players simply because they did it for longer than most.

Curtis Martin was a great player. Clearly worthy of the HOF. One of, if not, the greatest Jets of all time.

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Curtis Martin was a great player. Clearly worthy of the HOF. One of, if not, the greatest Jets of all time.

If it was so clear he would have been in already. He was Thomas Jones who got to play with better teams (and OL's) earlier in his career. Solid player, like Jones, but he was not a great runner with the football.

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If it was so clear he would have been in already. He was Thomas Jones who got to play with better teams (and OL's) earlier in his career. Solid player, like Jones, but he was not a great runner with the football.

Lots of great players dont get in on their first attempt. Curtis Martin was an excellent runner of the Football.

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