John Henry Johnson

JohnTurney
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Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2014 1:28 pm

Re: John Henry Johnson

Post by JohnTurney »

TanksAndSpartans wrote:
I'm glad I asked - I really thought for sure you were pro JHJ in the HOF - I read you completely wrong.
It's not that I am pro or against, really. It's just I see him in a similar way as LeBeau and Riley - someone with few postseason honors but that something
other than All-pros and such that got him in. With LeBeau and Riley it was a high stat total and with JHJ it was blocking that was his "thing" and most accounts have him as one of the best ever, so that is what got him in, IMO.

I think he was well respected at the time--and that the comments by opponents are what make the most difference with him...he played defense, was
a hard tackler..have seen some 49ers games from the 1950s...his only INT in fact.

I guess you could say he was an "eye-test" guy. But I am not against him in HOF at all . . . but I also don't think he checks a lot of the so-called boxes. He was
just, to me, someone who would be an asset to a team . . . a great player.

With Johnston and Neal--they were not the runner that JHJ was, so HOF? I don't know, they would be more like specialists---but not
something I would think is HOF, for whatever my opinion is worth, and it's not much.

Also, I was wrong about being only one that had a 3-4 defense---there were two others, but one of them had 2 4-3 ends and non-pass rush OLBers
the other had Reggie White as a 3-4 end, which is a fair projection, he could have done it...

as far as the other teams, all of them were great, but I liked Peter King's defense the most, Joe Horrigan's offense was the most interesting--great old timers
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TanksAndSpartans
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Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2015 1:05 am

Re: John Henry Johnson

Post by TanksAndSpartans »

@Bryan - great info on the local voter for JHJ. Reminds me of HOVG sometimes :D
Bryan wrote: He did some amazing things past the age of 30, kind of like Riggins.
I think when he retired he was the 4th leading rushed in history.
I don't think any other player played FB, CB and KR.
I really like the 3 points above.
-Another past 30 RB I like is Otis Anderson, but his ypc wasn't great.

-It's easy to look at those sub 1,000 yard seasons and not put them into context. '54 is a great example. 129-681 isn't going to wow anyone, but when you look closer, it turns out it's second in the league and the guy who won the rushing title was the guy he blocked for.

-Not corner, but another FB is Tank Younger. I remember seeing him covering a HB from what I think was an OLB position and thinking he moves pretty good.

***
JohnTurney wrote: With Johnston and Neal--they were not the runner that JHJ was, so HOF? I don't know, they would be more like specialists---but not
something I would think is HOF, for whatever my opinion is worth, and it's not much.
Thanks John - I figured not many are in my camp - I don't see the HOF putting in a pure FB any time soon. To me, they were on the field a lot during the years the two back style of offense was prevalent. They'd come off for 3rd and long and "2 minute" offense, but they were part of the base offense. I wanted to get your take - I think PFJ ranks both high as fullbacks or maybe specifically blocking fullbacks. My other one would be Roy Lumpkin, who you all have under pre-war.
JohnTurney wrote:for whatever my opinion is worth, and it's not much.
Ha, ha - don't sell yourself short - my first thought with Klecko was to check PFJ. You guys do a nice job at staying balanced and avoiding "hot take" type reactions - that's needed to look at someone's whole career.

And finally - MMQB - I forgot Joe Horrigan drafted. I think King is the only one to use a player both ways - that was a nice nod to history.
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