The San Francisco 49ers have had more than their fair share of NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees. However, several former 49ers stars have been wrongfully overlooked by the Hall. Here’s a rundown of the top-five biggest snubs in recent history.
The San Francisco 49ers are one of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports.
The team’s dominance in the 1980s and early 1990s led to five Super Bowl titles, making it one of only four organizations to hoist the Lombardy Trophy that frequently.
As part of that success, a handful of the players and personnel have also been recognized for their unparalleled talents.
Quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young, along with wide receiver Jerry Rice, safety Ronnie Lott, defensive end Charles Haley and, of course, head coach Bill Walsh and owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., have all been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (HoF).
However, not every deserving 49ers star has been blessed with the privilege of donning the coveted “Gold Jacket.”
In order from least to most egregious, here is a list of the biggest Hall of Fame snubs for modern-era 49ers players.
No. 5: Brent Jones (84)
For the decade spanning 1987-1997, few manned the tight end position better than the 49ers Brent Jones.
A Bay Area native, Jones grew up in San Jose and played his college ball at Santa Clara University, before being selected in the fifth round of the 1986 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Shortly thereafter, Jones was in a car wreck that caused severe damage to his neck as well as to the beginnings of his NFL career. He was subsequently cut by the Steelers, only to be picked up the following year by the 49ers.
By 1989, Jones had won the starting job, and went on to have a prolific career as a primary cog in the team’s vaunted West Coast Offense:
Jones was not only one of the top threats at his position for the bulk of his career. He also helped to remake the perception of the tight end as nothing more than a glorified blocker.
Along with Jay Novacek of the Dallas Cowboys, Jones took the tight end position to new heights, regularly gashing defenses up the seam as well as providing an invaluable safety blanket for his quarterbacks on third down.
Jones had a particularly strong rapport with QB Steve Young, culminating in a nine touchdown season in 1994.
Per the Pro Football Hall of Fame website, only eight tight ends have been inducted into the HoF to date:
These players averaged roughly 6,700 yards and 45 touchdowns over their careers, numbers that admittedly overshadow Jones’s production.
However, those figures are heavily skewed by Shannon Sharpe’s insanely productive career (10,060 yards and 62 touchdowns). Jones has more yards and touchdowns than Hall of Famer Charlie Sanders and his three Super Bowl titles (as a player) ties Sharpe atop the HoF list.
Jones’s bid for a place in Canton is probably most hurt by the fact that there are others at his position with similar numbers, including Mark Bavaro, Todd Christensen, Ben Coates, Keith Jackson and the aforementioned Novacek. Yet only Jones and Novacek have the Super Bowl hardware to accompany their yardage and touchdown stats.
In addition, HoF shoo-ins Tony Gonzales and Antonio Gates will soon be up for consideration, likely making the odds of yet another tight end getting the nod even slimmer.
All that said, Jones has the numbers and the titles to justify Hall of Fame consideration, making him No. 5 on the 49ers snub list.
No. 4: Bryant Young (97)
Another 49ers great who is seemingly flying just under the NFL Hall of Fame’s radar is defensive tackle Bryant Young.
Like Jones, Young, or simply “B.Y.” as he’s known to the Faithful, was a stalwart on the mid-’90s 49ers, a group that perennially competed for the league title.
Also like Jones, Young has career numbers that seem to be right on the cusp of HoF consideration:
Beyond the sheer numbers, Young was a suffocating presence in the interior of one of the best defenses of his era. Alongside fellow standout Dana Stubblefield, Young terrorized passers and runners alike, with his best statistical year coming in 1996 when he recorded 84 tackles, 11.5 sacks and two safeties.
B.Y. was also leading the league with 9.5 sacks heading into Week 13 of the 1998 season, when he suffered a spiral “tib-fib” fracture that required the insertion of a metal rod into the larger of the two bones.
Down, but far from out, Young returned in 1999, recording 11 sacks, 36 tackles and a safety. He was named the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
Young’s 89.5 career sacks is an undeniable accomplishment, placing him No. 4 on the all-time sack leaders list at his position. Two of the three players ahead of him on that list, Warren Sapp (96.5 sacks) and John Randle (137 sacks), already have gold jackets hanging in their closets.
Perhaps most unfortunate for Young is that he joined the 49ers at the very end of their prolific title run. In turn, B.Y. only has one championship to his name, spending the bulk of his career anchoring the defense of a 49ers franchise in perennial “rebuild mode.”
Young, however, never complained. Instead, he became a shining presence for the organization, winning the 49ers most prestigious team honor, the Len Eshmont Award, a franchise record eight times.
Young’s career, both on and off the field, is the embodiment of greatness. The fact that he has yet to be enshrined among the game’s best makes him No. 4 on the 49ers Hall of Fame snub list.
No. 3: Tom Rathman (44)
Few players personify the game of football better than former 49ers fullback Tom Rathman.
"“He’s everything that’s basic about football. You know, blocking. You know, tough running. Yeah, but not only the way he looks, but the way he plays. You know anyone can cut their hair short, you know. But he plays that way.” – John Madden"
In the words of Hall of Fame coach and legendary TV broadcaster John Madden, he’s the quintessential football player.
Born in the nation’s heartland, Rathman became a standout at the University of Nebraska, where he was the lead blocker for fellow Cornhusker and ultimate 49ers running mate, RB Roger Craig.
Drafted by the 49ers in 1986, he spent virtually his entire career (save his final season with the Oakland Raiders) in red and gold and was a focal point of Bill Walsh’s West Coast attack.
Rathman’s nickname was “Woody” for his alleged resemblance to the character on NBC’s TV series Cheers. However, he was far from a naïve hayseed when it came game time.
Apart from his bone-splintering blocking ability, Rathman was a legitimate dual threat on offense, racking up more yards through the air in his career than on the ground.
In 1989, Rathman led the league in catches by any back with 73 receptions for 616 yards. Combined with his 305 yards on the ground, he finished the year just 84 yards shy of 1,000 all-purpose yards, an accomplishment that is almost unheard of at the fullback position in the modern era.
Stunningly, Rathman never earned a single All-Pro award or Pro Bowl nomination during his nine-year career.
By today’s standards, most fans would describe the Hall of Fame’s all-time great fullbacks as running backs. Hall of Famers Jim Taylor, Earl Campbell and the peerless Jim Brown all technically share Rathman’s positional title.
However, as football has continued to evolve, old school fullbacks have morphed into halfbacks, and the mid-80s incarnation has virtually gone the way of the dodo bird. Not a single modern-era fullback is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Rathman, along with Dallas Cowboy’s FB Daryl Johnston, was the best of his era, helping to redefine the scope of his position. Johnston has been in the running for the HoF in both 2016 and 2017. Rathman, despite having significantly better offensive numbers, has never even sniffed a nomination.
That’s good enough for No. 3 on the 49ers Hall of Fame snub list.
No. 2: Roger Craig (33)
No. 2 on the 49ers Hall of Fame snub list is none other than Rathman’s teammate in both college and the pros, Roger Craig.
One of only two players to ever notch 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving in a single season, Craig was the archetypal dual-threat running back. The only other player to tally 1,000/1,000? Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk.
Craig was drafted by the 49ers in 1983 with the numerically pleasing 49th overall pick. Originally a fullback, Craig’s sure hands and famed high-knee action quickly earned him a spot as the Niners’ marquee runner.
The model of consistency, Craig finished his career with a very respectable 4.1 average yards per carry and a gaudy 8.7 yards per reception.
Craig critics are quick to note that he only netted 1,000 rushing yards in three of his eleven NFL seasons.
However, taken in tandem with his receiving yards, Craig averaged 1,552 total yards per season during the prime of his career (1983-1989).
To put that figure in perspective, HoF running back, Marcus Allen, arguably the most similar runners to Craig during that same era, averaged 1,039 yards from scrimmage per year during his career.
Craig may also simply be the victim of circumstance. When surrounded by some of the best the game has ever seen, i.e. Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, etc., it’s easy for a stellar talent like Craig to be overshadowed.
And of course being the goat who fumbled away the 49ers chances at a “three-peat” in the 1990 NFC Championship Game (versus the New York “football” Giants and the Big Tuna, Bill Parcells), probably doesn’t help his cause much either.
But, a single play rarely defines an individual’s entire career, especially in the case of one as prolific as Craig’s. With three Super Bowl rings and a host of individual accolades, “Roger Dodger” deserves to see his bust glimmering on the plains of Ohio.
Nevertheless, Craig is still not the 49ers biggest modern-era Hall of Fame snub.
No. 1: Terrell Owens (81)
In examining the greatest modern-era 49ers Hall of Fame snubs, many of the names hail from ’80s and early-’90s, the period during which the team was collecting its five league championships.
However, since that last Super Bowl victory in 1995, there has been one 49ers player so extraordinary that he tops the HoF snub list: Terrell Owens.
Admittedly, Owens was many things apart from a dominant receiver; He was a braggart, a diva and at times, a downright classless provocateur. All characteristics that have undoubtedly contributed to his receiving the NFL’s equivalent of the Barry Bonds treatment.
But like Bonds, “T.O.” was a generational talent, and without question belongs in Canton alongside the rest of the game’s greatest:
Behind only his one-time teammate Jerry Rice, Owens is the second all-time in yards by a receiver (15,934). In terms of touchdowns, he sits No. 3 all-time, behind only Randy Moss and the aforementioned Rice.
A hulking brute with the speed to go the distance every time he touched the ball, few wide receivers have ever come close to matching T.O.’s physicality and game-breaking ability.
Owens’s physique alone probably qualifies him to be bronzed in Canton, but take his epic numbers into account and the fact that he has not already been enshrined in the HoF is asinine.
The Associated Press and the league obviously want to make Owens sweat, alleged comeuppance for his behavioral transgressions throughout his career. Further, some might point to his lack of championships as proof that he was never a true team player.
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Save that argument for the guys on the bubble. Hall of Famer Barry Sanders never won a championship. Neither did Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, or O.J. Simpson.
When it comes to a singular talent like T.O., inarguably one of the best to ever play the game, excluding him from the HoF is as or more childish than Owens’s own impish antics that the press is so staunchly protesting.
Perhaps KNBR’s John Lund put it best by simply reading off the all of the receivers currently in the Hall of Fame and then posing the very simple question, “Where would you rank T.O. among these names?”
Here are the 25 pass catchers currently enshrined in the HoF:
So where does Owens rank among these names? No.2? No. 3 perhaps? Certainly nowhere below No. 5.
How can excluding the fifth best receiver to every play the game from the Pro Football Hall of Fame be justified? It can’t.
Terrell Owens belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. End of story.
Honorable Mentions
These modern era San Francisco 49ers players are all deserving of recognition for their excellent play and sportsmanship, and one or two of them may even be worthy of Hall of Fame consideration:
Next: Ranking the 5 Greatest 49ers of All-Time
However, despite their abilities and their inarguable contributions to the team, they did not make the list of top five 49ers Hall of Fame snubs of all time.