Eddie Price: HOVG?

Discuss candidates for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the PFRA's Hall of Very Good
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TanksAndSpartans
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Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by TanksAndSpartans »

Won a rushing title. Additional details here: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/p ... icEd00.htm. For me the key thing has been seeing him in the old Tel Ra highlight videos. I had never thought much about him before that, but he really jumped out at me when I saw him.
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TanksAndSpartans
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by TanksAndSpartans »

When I saw John post the 2010s to date rushing yardage leaders yesterday, I asked him if he could run the 50s for me because its a decade I’m interested in (Thanks John!). Here is the to 10:

1 Joe Perry (HOF)
2 Ollie Matson (HOF)
3 Hugh McElhenny (HOF)
4 Rick Casares (HOVG)
5 Jim Brown (HOF)
6 Alan Ameche (HOVG)
7 Dan Towler (HOVG)
8 Tank Younger (HOVG)
9 Frank Gifford (HOF)
10 Eddie Price (HOVG??)
Saban1
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by Saban1 »

Price was a good one from when I first started watching football on TV.
JuggernautJ
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by JuggernautJ »

It'd be great if, when you pull an older or perhaps less well-know player out of, um... the woodwork you'd provide a link or some info about the guy.
Please?

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/p ... icEd00.htm

It looks like Price played six seasons with the Giants, led the league in yards/game rushing in 1950 & 51, attempts in 1951 & '52 and yardage in '51.
He played in three Pro Bowls and was All Pro twice (per PFR).

Wikipedia says he is in the College Football HoF:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Price
Reaser
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by Reaser »

TanksAndSpartans wrote: For me the key thing has been seeing him in the old Tel Ra highlight videos.
Same for me, some years back saw #31 in HL's and thought, "he looks pretty good".
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TanksAndSpartans
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by TanksAndSpartans »

JuggernautJ wrote:It'd be great if, when you pull an older or perhaps less well-know player out of, um... the woodwork you'd provide a link or some info about the guy.
There's a link in the initial post :) Thanks for mentioning the honors, etc. It was kind of a subjective thing for me so I didn't emphasize that part too much - from what I recall in his bio, his career was cut short by injuries. In the highlights, as the fullback, you see him running a lot of inside handoffs, some of them draw plays, and it always looked so smooth - made me say "that was great - who was that guy?"

Thanks everyone for joining in - I actually didn't nominate him for HOVG last year, but I think he was on the ballot without me - I remember thinking "Oh yeah, thats the Giants RB who looked really good in the highlight films."
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by JuggernautJ »

TanksAndSpartans wrote:
JuggernautJ wrote:It'd be great if, when you pull an older or perhaps less well-know player out of, um... the woodwork you'd provide a link or some info about the guy.
There's a link in the initial post :)
My sincere apologies.
I didn't see it. :oops:
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TanksAndSpartans
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by TanksAndSpartans »

Just wanted to bump this to see if @Zero26 or anyone had some thoughts to add about Price. Was pleasantly surprised to see him mentioned in the other thread: https://www.profootballresearchers.org/ ... 1d00415091
Brian wolf
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by Brian wolf »

Price should be in the HOVG ... Casares I feel, has a HOF case ...
Zero26
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Re: Eddie Price: HOVG?

Post by Zero26 »

TanksAndSpartans wrote:Just wanted to bump this to see if @Zero26 or anyone had some thoughts to add about Price. Was pleasantly surprised to see him mentioned in the other thread: https://www.profootballresearchers.org/ ... 92a54363b1
I think he should be in the HOVG and would be one of the best RB's in the hall. For HOF he's borderline IMO. Price's best comparisons would be Doak Walker and Dan Towler whose careers started and ended the same year and are somewhat similar statisticaly. Walker is one of the most borderline running backs to make the HOF, Towler might be the best running back not to make the hall of fame certainly IMO the best pre Super Bowl era. Price averaged slightly more yards than Towler and Walker(62.9 to 62.1 and 60.6) and they all finished with similar career totals. But there's a lot of ways he's got the worst case of the 3. In scrimmage yards Towler and Walker hit 4000 while Price fell just a couple yards short. In accolades Price had 3 pro bowls while Towler had 4 and Doak Walker had 5 he also had the fewest first and second all pro teams of the group. In the playoffs Towler and Walker went to 4 and 3 title games and played great in them, while Price just played in a tiebreak game. While 65 yards in his tiebreaker game isn't bad Gene Roberts(another interesting Giants RB with a short dominant career) had more and their team was held to 3 points in a game just 1 TD would have won.

But those are all little things(well to me,I imagine the playoff bit matters to todays voters) the big weakness is touchdowns not only does Price's 24 pale next to Towler 44 and Walker's 33 in 4 more games 24 would be the second fewest of every post 20s HOF back except Tuffy Leemans. Another thing to note while it's not the main reason he made the hall of fame Walker was a higher percentage kicker than Groza and Blanda over a much smaller sample size. I don't think return yards have swung a running backs case but Walker and Price have 3 1000 yard seasons in return yards while Towler has 1. Price does have a rushing title but a lot of backs got more of their yards receiving while Price got most of his rushing. Towler who also got most of his yards rushing yards had better rushing numbers and also has a rushing title.


While for me the main issue would be the touchdowns I think the main issue for the case being considered by the HOF is longevity. Price has 63 games, Walker and Towler have 67. If you look at the HOF they've seemed to make an unstated floor on longevity outside of the 1920s at 65 games. The only exception is Battles with 60 and he retired at or near the top of most career categorys. That might seems silly and arbitary but many of the most deserving candidates from earlier eras are in the 55-65 game range and all of the HOF'ers with the shortest brilliant careers are on the other side of 65. Not that 65 games means the bar isn't very high(Doak Walker made the pro bowl every year and made it, Towler was 4/5 and didn't) but that 65's a solid floor. Now I think this benchmark is fine for a 14 game season but for eras where 12 or fewer games were played the bar should be lower. 65 games in a 14 game season is a minimum of about 4.5 seasons. For the 12 game era this should be adjusted to 55 games which comes out to the same 4.5 seasons. That minor change would prompt reevaluation to a bunch of candidates whose numbers aren't the real issue. This would also mean players in the 65+range with HOF level dominance wouldn't be barely crossing some arbitary line. I could be missing someone but i counted 3 exceptions in the HOVG Isbell, Feathers and Spec Sanders.

Another reason why I'd say HOF election is unlikely for Price is that running back in the 1950s might already be the most populated demographic in the entire HOF. This is an imperfect way to count given players starting their careers at the very beginning/end of a decade but there are 9 HOF RB's or FB's who were drafted in the decade. Given all the other uninducted candidates I feel are deserving(Towler, Ameche,Webster, Crow, Casares, Price) Price would be the 15th. While I think blocking him solely for his longevity is unfair he's the only one of the group to have less than 65 games. Even if he were the best running back of the era outside the HOF the other decades have between 4 and 7 and 1950s running back might be the least likely position and era the seniors choose to go back to. And as of now they revisit one position and era a year.

He should certainly be in the HOVG. Price,Webster and John David Crow are the only members of that 15 to not be in the HOF or HOVG.
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