Hall of Fame or Championship?

[brewcity77]

I was listening to a piece on ESPN about how LaDanian Tomlinson said that he would rather have a Hall of Fame career without a Super Bowl than winning a Super Bowl without making the HoF. He was immediately blasted by Tedy Bruschi, and after some discussion, Merrill Hoge agreed.

But really thinking about it, personally, I'd rather have the Hall of Fame. It'd be easy to point to all the random backups that won one ring, but looking even at starters that won rings. Who will be better remembered, Barry Sanders or Edgar Bennett? Patrick Ewing or Luc Longley? Ken Griffey Jr or Paul O'Neill? Sure, guys like Bennett and O'Neill might be well-regarded by the fanbase they won titles for, but no one will ever confuse their careers for those that are in the HoF, nor will they ever be as well-regarded in history.

So which do you think is more valuable? Winning that one ring, or making the Hall? Of course getting both is the ideal, but if you could only have one, which would you prefer?

[MerrittsMustache]

This is a bit of a cop-out but I think it would depend on who I was on the championship team. If I was a guy sitting on the end of the bench for a championship team, I don't think that I'd really feel like I had done much to win that title. Charles Barkley was on PTI last week and they were teasing him about Eddy Curry winning a ring. Barkley said that he doesn't care about the scrubs who win championships because they're not important.

I'd happily be the starting RB on a Super Bowl team like Bennett, a 5-time champ and 5-time All-Star like O'Neill or the starting center on 3 title teams (including the greatest team ever) like Longley. Basically, I'd rather be a contributor on a champion than a great player who never won a championship. If I was a HOF player who never won a championship, I'd feel like my career wasn't really complete. IOW, what does it matter if you're great if you don't win anything? I understand people whose preference would be the HOF, but I just don't think it would be mine.

[warriorchick]

So which do you think is more valuable? Winning that one ring, or making the Hall? Of course getting both is the ideal, but if you could only have one, which would you prefer?

I think a high-profile athlete's response to that is an indicator about how important being a team player is to that person, and if he values using his talent to raise the level of his teammates.  A hall-of-fame-minded wide receiver on a moderately good team might not want another gifted receiver on his team.  That would give the quarterback another talented person to throw the ball to, and therefore, he will have fewer catches, yards, TDs, etc. It's actually a pretty selfish position to take. 

A Superbowl-minded athlete, on the other hand, would welcome anyone whose participation would improve the team' performance and help not only him, but everyone else on the team get a ring.

[MUBurrow]

my god tedy bruschi blows goats. he gives nfl commentary like mitch albom writes. its beyond insufferable.

relevant to the specific question, I agree that the championship has a lot to do with your perceived role in winning it. I can definitely see coming out either way, but i think any answer for an athlete will involve a lot of rationalization after the fact. If you're tomlinson or marino or sanders, you have to choose the career. You did the best you could to win that championship, and it just didnt work out. Would you look back on it and trade 12 years of a 13 year career to be the backup on a championship team? Thats idiocy.

Then again, would you trade being Tomlinson to have a career like Jamal Lewis (on field only)? Yeah, I could conceivably see taking that trade because not being in the HOF wouldnt nag you like not winning a championship. At the end of the day, what typicall separates HOF from non HOF is more games, yards, TDs - not the kind of thing that keeps you up at night.

The reason that Bruschi should be taken out behind the shed is his self righteous default to anything that sounds like it makes him prioritize the team more than anyone else. Is it good for a guy in his rookie year to say "I'd rather be in the HOF than win a Super Bowl?" Of course not, because they aren't mutually exclusive - hell they arent even contradictory. But for him to look at a guy with LTs track record and history and say that his opinion is selfish or invalid is the biggest load of crap of all time.

[damuts222]

Bruschi is like Dilfer ...unbearable. Since Dilfer won a ring he thinks he can judge quarterbacks that are much better then he could've ever dreamed of being.

I agree with Tomlinson but to think that Tomlinson didn't try to win a championship by splitting carries in New York in an attempt to get a ring at the end of his career. I don't know about that.

[MerrittsMustache]

The reason that Bruschi should be taken out behind the shed is his self righteous default to anything that sounds like it makes him prioritize the team more than anyone else. Is it good for a guy in his rookie year to say "I'd rather be in the HOF than win a Super Bowl?" Of course not, because they aren't mutually exclusive - hell they arent even contradictory. But for him to look at a guy with LTs track record and history and say that his opinion is selfish or invalid is the biggest load of crap of all time.

Perhaps if the Chargers were cheating during LDT's time there, they would have won a few Super Bowls, right Tedy? 

[CTWarrior]

It is a stupid question.  I'm sure Tomlinson wanted like hell to do both.  Being a Hall of Famer says more about you than being a champion.  All Hall of Famers are great players.  Not all players who've won championships are.  You can't be a Hall of Famer without helping your team.  I'm pretty sure Patrick Ewing was a better player than Luc Longley.  Not his fault that Longley had Jordan and Pippen and Ewing had Starks and Charles Smith.

Lucky for Teddy Bruschi he didn't spend his career on the Jets.  I'm quite confident he wouldn't have made them Super Bowl champs.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I can see that perhaps winning a ring is more gratifying to a player where the HoF could mean more to family/heirs

IOW a championship is instantly rewarding to the player's ego but at the end of a career many players might move on to the extent that their hopes of whether they get in the HoF or not might diminish over a period of time