Countdown to Canton: Broncos Who Belong in Hall of Fame: Howard Griffith | No. 14
The NFL has changed dramatically over the years and that's had a significant effect on how positions are used. The position that has been affected the most might be the fullback.
These changes have nearly removed this position from offense altogether, a sad state of affairs for the once-prized position. With all these changes, the Pro Football Hall of Fame must look at different eras and judge players based on how great they were and how they were used.
In the olden days, fullbacks were often more like a running back and were heralded for their performance. Hall-of-Famers Jim Brown, Larry Csonka, and Jim Taylor are prime examples.
Then around the late 1980s, the fullback changed from being a runner and key ball-carrier, with few exceptions like Mike Alstott, to a more specialized role. Some became more of a receiving weapon, al la Larry Centers. However, most became lead blockers. The unsung heroes in the backfield.
With these significant changes, the fullback has been all but ignored by the Hall of Fame voters. Instead of avoiding this slowly fading position, voters should be more innovative in how they're judging fullbacks.
The voters should group fullbacks by their primary roles while they were in the league: the runners, receivers, and lead blockers. By doing so, the Hall of Fame voters could then decide who was the greatest of the respective groups.
The Case for Griffith
This is where long-time Denver Broncos fullback Howard Griffith enters the picture as the No. 14 most deserving former Orange and Blue player for the Hall of Fame.
Griffith is the greatest of the fullback lead blockers. It's a difficult proposition to prove because there are very few statistics to measure the players that were used as battering rams. Fortunately, we can look at what a guy like Griffith did for others on the offense.
Griffith was drafted in the ninth round by the Los Angeles Rams and played sparingly due to the incumbent starter at fullback, but once he got his shot, he proved to be an invaluable key on offense. In his seven seasons as the starting lead blocker, a running back behind him rushed for over 1,000 yards five times, and one eclipsed the rarefied 2,000-yard rushing mark in 1998.
Griffith performed with greatness as a lead-blocking fullback, blasting open holes for 1,000-yard rushers in six of seven seasons. These incredible numbers don’t tell the entire story because there are several fullbacks who could run headlong into a defender by design.
More Than a Blocker
Griffith was more than just a battering ram that slammed headfirst into anyone in his path. He has been described as one of the most instinctive blockers the Broncos had in the '90s with one of the greatest offensive lines in history. Yes, he was even better at it than his O-line brethren.
This means that Griffith knew which defender to block regardless of play design. To be able to instinctively know which defender should be the target even if the design called for him to block somebody else, and be correct every time, was next-level awareness.
This uncanny ability is why Terrell Davis was so dominant, eventually reaching the Hall of Fame himself, and it was a big factor behind the Broncos' back-to-back Super Bowl victories. Even as quiet as the fullback position was, Griffith came through at the right time in the right situation with aplomb.
Throughout his career, Griffith caught 122 passes for 844 yards, but almost all of them seemed to be of high importance. The biggest may have been his one catch for 23 yards late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXXII which set the Broncos up at the Green Bay Packers' 8-yard line, proving to be the catalyst for the go-ahead score that won the game.
Critical in Key Moments
Griffith was also robbed of a touchdown in that Super Bowl when the famous fake handoff to Davis (who was near-blind due to the sudden onset of a migraine) at the goal line fooled the Packers defense so badly, quarterback John Elway was able to jog into the end zone. The bootleg play was designed to be a pass to Griffith, who was wide open for an easy touchdown.
Had the fake not worked so well, Griffith would have scored himself, giving him a total of three Super Bowl touchdowns in his career on only seven touches. In his era, Griffith was passed over for the most coveted accolades for more exciting players such as Alstott and Centers, but his value can be measured in what he did for the running backs behind him and his contributions to consecutive World Champion teams.
Bottom Line
Before the NFL completely discards the fullback position, Griffith should be immortalized in the Hall of Fame.
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