PFHOF Profile: Charles Haley
There is no debate in the Pro Football Hall of Fame that is greater than the debate between championships and stats.
It is the one conversation that goes on throughout the nomination and election process as players are judged on those two categories more than anything else.
Where the debate comes in is whether stats or championships should be the bigger factor in deciding whether or not a player belongs in Canton.
For some the only way into the Hall of Fame is by winning championships as players without a championship will never find their way to the Hall.
Other believe that stats are king and that a championship is a good thing but if someone has the stats and no championship they still belong.
There are countless players who have been passed over because they never won the big one while other are in the hall almost entirely because they won the big one.
The only problem is that championships don’t determine who is the best player in the NFL but not winning a championship is also a display of not being able to win.
The best players in the NFL’s history have to be winners but they are also a part of a team and sometimes can be forced to playing on a team that has nothing but them.
Great players can play on bad teams and put up great numbers but never even get to the big game.
It is not fair to punish those players for the lack of talent in the front office that can’t build a team around them.
Then again if a player was just that good they should be able to carry a team into the Super Bowl and take the championship home.
Great players make everyone around them better and there are a number of players who have won the Super Bowl even without having great players around them.
It is one of the biggest talking points every year but this year there is one new hall of famer where the debate stopped immediately.
That is Charles Haley who has the stats of a hall of fame defensive player while also added five Super Bowl rings.
Haley just knew how to help his teams win games and win the most important game of them all as he continued to be successful no matter where he went.
He became a premier pass rusher almost immediately after being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers.
That ability to pressure the quarterback helped the Niners to two Super Bowl wins while Haley played for them.
Then Haley moved on to Dallas where once again he was a devastating pressure player that set the tone for the defence.
After another three Super Bowls with Dallas Haley finished his career as one of the greatest winners in the history of the NFL.
There is no other player in the history of the league that has won five Super Bowl championships.
That alone is an amazing achievement that will put those in the championship camp at ease with his election.
He also put up the stats required to prove that he wasn’t simply a member of those teams but a big part of the winning.
He reached 100 sacks in his career while getting close to 500 total tackles that helped him to five pro bowl appearances.
There is little doubt to the fact that Haley belongs among the best players in Canton as he brings together two sides of a major debate.
There are no sides that can claim that Haley doesn’t belong as he has the championships and the stats to earn a bust.
The championships are there and so are the stats and so Haley enters Canton as one of the best pass rushers of all-time taking his place among the best of the best as a member of the Class of 2015.
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