Absolutely GREAT post from another board that shall remain nameless.
Jerry, you were doing so well. But I'm sure this will give you the oportunity to recall how it was your decision to get him.....even though it wasn't.
We should all just forget the fact that he only played 5 of his 13 seasons with the Cowboys. The other 8 years? One of our greatest rivals, the 49ers, of course!
Anybody who has known you during your entire "stewardship" of the Cowboys knows this is just a backhanded self-tribute. You just couldn't wait to throw Allen in there too. Of course, he has truly earned it but you take away some of the special meaning and exlusivity of the ROH by not waiting a season or two.
It's apparent to many that your intention is to have as many as "your" guys in the ROH than the previous teams in Cowboy history. we are just suppopsed to forget the fact that your "glory years" lasted a full 6 years compared to a 20 year span of 20 consecutive winning seasons, 7 NFL championship game appearences, and 9 NFC championship apearences. By the way, Michael Irvin was one of their guys, drafted before you ever showed up.
Charles Haley............you were that impressed with his regualr season contribution of 35 sacks and 159 tackles?
He doubled both of those playing for the 49ers...........he is 2nd place in sacks in 49er history.
We are inducting a guy who is ranked 2nd place in 49er history in sacks!...........................Jerry, you are a fool. You just turned the Ring of Honor into a joke.
Charles Haley wants to get into the Hall of Fame. Under which team do you think he will be inducted? He says that Bill Walsh is the greatest coach he ever played for, is that a clue?
And where does he rank in Cowboy history when it comes to sacks?
1 Jim Jeffcoat 94.5
2 DeMarcus Ware 80.0 3
3 Greg Ellis 77.0
4 Tony Tolbert 59.0
5 Too Tall Jones 57.5
6 Randy White* 52.0
7 Charles Haley 34.0
First of all, sacks weren't recorded until 1982, so most of the Cowboy leaders in sacks didn't even get most of their sacks recorded. One of them only has 10 recorded but if you go back and record them during each game prior to 1982 this guy is 2nd place in NFL history!
Strahan has the NFL record for one season at 22.5. There is verfiable proof that this guy has 23 sacks one year!
That's right, Jerry, while we are inducting this "Cowboy great", let's not pass up an opportunity to insult the memory of one of the greatest players in Cowboy history:
Harvey Banks Martin was the first Dallas city native drafted by the organization. Alas, he also became the first deceased Super Bowl MVP.
Born in Dallas on Nov. 16, 1950, Martin didn't play organized football until his junior year of high school. He didn't make much of a first impression on the gridiron either, once recalling of his playing days at South Oak Cliff High School, "I was so bad in high school that coach told me he was going to put me in a sack like a bunch of pork chops and feed me to the Dallas Cowboys."
Still, his rare combination of size and speed landed him a scholarship to East Texas State, now Texas A&M-Commerce, where he earned NAIA All-American honors as a senior. The Cowboys stunned many by selecting him in the third round of the 1973 NFL Draft.
The selection almost ended up being a complete bust, as Cowboys defensive coordinator Ernie Stautner, a Pro Football Hall of Famer himself, was incredulous with Martin's play throughout training camp and the preseason. He became furious when Martin helped opposing players to their feet, and thought that his lack of nastiness would prevent him from becoming an efficient NFL defensive end. Sure, Martin possessed the size (6'5", 250 lbs.) and the speed, but he was simply too nice.
"Harvey was a fascinating guy; he was a big teddy bear off the field. He was a sweet guy," says the longtime "Voice of the Cowboys" Brad Sham. "He was almost cut as a rookie. Stautner wanted more aggressiveness from him. Harvey himself told his roommate that first training camp that he was going to be cut."
Late in camp, Stautner pulled him aside and read Martin the riot act. Almost instantly, the affable Martin took on a different personality on the field, one that was more than willing to step on an offensive lineman or offer an opposing quarterback the unsuspecting forearm smash to the head. Nothing violent per say, just a gentle reminder that he was lurking.
A season later, in 1974, the Cowboys selected Ed "Too Tall" Jones with the No. 1 overall pick and a lifelong friendship was immediately formed.]
"Harvey admitted that the hype around me as the No. 1 pick fueled him, gave him motivation but that's only natural, I'd been the same way," Jones says. "We became friends almost instantly, in part because the veteran players took us under their wing. Bob Lilly would call us over, always both of us together, and teach us something. That's where our connection started. The veterans were genuine in offering advice even though they knew we were there to take their place."
And take their place Martin and Jones most certainly did, as they served as the bookends of the vaunted "Doomsday Defense" for nearly a decade.
The duo presently ranks first and third, respectively, in team history with 114 and 106 career sacks.
However, the majority of those are unofficial as far as the NFL is concerned since the league didn't officially recognize the statistic until 1982. The term "sack" was originally coined by Deacon Jones in the late-1960s, although it wasn't always used for tackles of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.
"Tom Landry called them traps so that's what we called them for the most part, although we were familiar with the term 'sack,'" says Sham. "I remember keeping track of them in the booth during games but not really as a season-long statistic."
Legendary local football writer and columnist Frank Luksa says that he, too, used both terms in the 1970s.
"I would guess that I probably used the word sack in a story now and then but for the most part, we used trap. It was an either-or sort of thing until the NFL made it an official statistic in 1982 and referenced it as a sack," Luksa says.
Martin led the Cowboys in sacks seven seasons, including four straight from 1974-77.
"We were definitely familiar with sacks, Harvey and I would make a little side wager before every season for which of us would finish with the most sacks," says Jones. "The team kept track of them. They kept track of all those defensive statistics you hear about today, quarterback hurries, forced fumbles, passes blocked. But Harvey and I just bet on sacks."
With the arrival of "Too Tall" Jones, it was only appropriate that Martin was almost immediately dubbed, "Too Mean." However, it was a moniker that only applied when he was on the field. By all accounts, there wasn't a more pleasant, affable man away from football.
"Harvey was very intense on the field. He had several nicknames, but once he walked into the locker room, it was just 'Too Mean,'" Jones says. "He was all smiles off the field, a guy you could have dinner with and a few drinks and laugh all night. It was hard to believe a guy so intense and mean on the field was such a pleasant person."
Even Martin's staunchest opponents offered fond memories following his death.
"On the field he was a competitor, and you'd hate the guy," former St. Louis Cardinals and Hall of Fame offensive lineman Dan Dierdorf said. "Then you'd meet him off the field at the Pro Bowl or at a league function, and you'd find it was impossible not to like him. You'd leave him, and be mad at yourself for liking the guy."
Former Washington Commanders quarterback Joe Theismann agreed with Dierdorf's assessment, saying, "He was part of a championship organization and he was every bit a champion. I certainly appreciated the opportunity to play against him and to get to know him."
While Martin was a four-time Pro Bowl selection, without question the greatest season of his career came in 1977 as he registered an unofficial single-season NFL record 23 sacks in just 14 games. He was named Defensive Player of the Year as the Cowboys finished 12-2 before rolling through the playoffs en route to a Super Bowl XII victory, Dallas outscoring its postseason opponents that year, 87-23. Martin shared co-Super Bowl MVP honors with Randy White behind two sacks and a pass deflection as the defensive front forced four interceptions from Denver Broncos quarterback Craig Morton.
"Harvey was a defensive back's dream because quarterbacks feared him so much they'd be looking over their shoulder trying to find where he was and they wanted to get rid of the ball before Harvey sacked them," says former Cowboys and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Mel Renfro, who played with Martin from 1973-77. "Without question, Harvey Martin was as important of a player as we had on those Super Bowl teams.
"I guarantee you that Harvey was one of the great pass-rushing defensive ends in the history of the game. If was because of him that Randy White is in the Hall of Fame. Now Randy was a great player in his own regard, but offenses were double and triple-teaming Harvey and that made Randy more effective.
"The two fastest defensive ends I ever saw play were Deacon Jones and Harvey Martin. When we did wind sprints as a team, Harvey would beat some of the defensive backs, he was running 4.5, 4.6 (seconds)."
For the record, even though the NFL doesn't recognize Martin's single-season sack mark - Michael Strahan holds that honor with 22.5 in 2001 - the Cowboys do. So as bizarre as it sounds, Dallas defensive end DeMarcus Ware - who enters this weekend's game with 20.0 sacks - could conceivably break the NFL record yet still only share the team mark.
"Harvey wouldn't have a problem with DeMarcus breaking the record. In fact, he'd be at the game, the first to offer congratulations," Jones says. "Harvey wasn't a selfish person and he was a huge Cowboys fan. He loved the Cowboys; he'd be even happier it was a Cowboys player."
Says Renfro, "Knowing Harvey like I did, he was a jolly guy, he'd be rooting for him to break the record. He was such a great guy, he'd definitely want that for another Cowboys player."
Speaking of Ware, while he's officially an outside linebacker and Martin was a defensive end, Jones sees many similarities between the two.
"First off, when comparing DeMarcus and Harvey, we're talking about two totally different positions," Jones says. "When I'm talking to kids, high school and college players, I always use Harvey as an example. He didn't have the best technique but he had wheels. Give me a guy with heart, one that'll crawl, kick, jump, whatever it takes to get to the quarterback, that was Harvey. And that's DeMarcus, too. They have that motor that's always going at 110 percent.
"Poor Ernie Stautner, our old defensive coordinator. He'd work with Harvey all day and night on technique and come Friday, he was ready, had it all down. And then we'd watch the game film and it was impossible to tell that Ernie spent any time with him. Harvey was all over the place."
Sham witnessed the majority of Martin's career, coming to the Cowboys in 1976, and has obviously called each of Ware's games. The No. 1 common bond that he draws between Martin and Ware is not so much their play on the field as much as how opposing teams prepared for them.
"Harvey was that rare defensive player that offenses had to game plan for," Sham says. "He changed the game, offenses had to account for him on every play, especially on passing downs. That's the case presently with DeMarcus.
"There are great similarities between them, both are obviously outstanding pass rushers, but there are more differences. Harvey was a 4-3 end while DeMarcus is a 3-4 outside linebacker, so he has more responsibility. There were also no zone blitzes in the 1970s when Harvey played. He was literally a hand-on-the-ground pass rusher."
"He has given us so much," Landry said at the time. "There are so many highlights. He was very instrumental in the great teams we had."
"There is no question that Harvey belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame," Renfro says. "As a member, I attend the inductions every year and I see these people going in that couldn't tie Harvey's shoes. I hope that changes. I'd like to see him in the Ring of Honor, too."
Hey Jerry, how about putting a real Dallas Cowboy in the Ring of Honor?
Haley in the ROH? An absolute travesty. JMO
