Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. We have another one ready, with our Top 50 Arizona Cardinals.

As for all of our top 50 players in football, we look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.

The most tenured team in the National Football League, the Arizona Cardinals have taken a long road, traversed multiple cities, and seen more hard times than good.

Formed in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club, they would be renamed the Racine Normals for two years before becoming the Racing Cardinals.  Twenty years later, they were charter members of the National Football League as the Chicago Cardinals.

In the Windy City, the franchise won two titles, the first in 1925, disputed by the Pottsville Maroons, but there was no NFL Championship Game back then.  The second title is undisputed, as with their "Million Dollar Backfield," they won the Championship Game in 1947, the last title they have won.

Taking a backseat to the Bears in Chicago, the Cardinals relocated to St. Louis in 1961.  They only made the playoffs thrice in St. Louis and relocated again in 1987, becoming the Phoenix Cardinals.  That name would change again to the Arizona Cardinals, and with Kurt Warner as their Quarterback, they made it to their first Super Bowl in the 2008 Season.  They did not win but appear to have a permanent home in the desert.

Here is the inaugural top five:

1. Larry Wilson
2. Larry Fitzgerald
3. Charley Trippi
4. Roger Wehrli
5. Dan DIerdo

You can find the entire list here.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

1961 Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project Class.

Here we are!  Again!!

If you have been following our Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project, you know that we have asked the rhetorical question: What if the PFHOF began in January 1946?

After soliciting and obtaining a passionate group of football fans and historians, we sent out a ballot for a Preliminary Vote, in which we asked each voter to give us 25 names as their semi-finalists and 5 in the Senior Pool. Following that, we asked the group to vote for their 15 Finalists in the Modern Era and 3 in the Senior Category. The final stage was to vote for their five Modern Era inductee and one Senior inductee.

This is the result of the sixteenth official class;

Below are the final results of this project based on 31 votes,

Remember that the group took a vote in “1961”, and we have reverted back to the top five candidates entering the Hall PROVIDING THEY MAKE 50% of the vote.  This will be put to a vote again in “1963”.

This is for the “Modern Era”

*Bold indicates they have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Class of 1961:

This is for the “Senior Era”, *Bold indicates they have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Class of 1961, though no one made the mandatory 50% threshold to advance.

About the 1961 Inductees:

Otto Graham QB-DB, CLE 1946-55: Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1961 on his 1^st Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.

Otto Graham was the first player that Cleveland Browns owner; Paul Brown, sought when he assembled his team in 1946 to begin play in the All-American Football Conference. Brown was right to convert the Northwestern Tailback to a pro Quarterback in the T-Formation. Graham and the Browns dominated the AAFC, and without question, Graham was the best player in the upstart league. The Browns won every single title in the four-year existence of the AAFC, and Graham was at the forefront of that success. The AAFC would merge with the NFL, and it was expected that those teams would not be successful in the first few years of the unification. They were wrong. The Browns won the 1950 NFL Championship, thus proving the merit of the AAFC; Graham won two more NFL Championships and was, overall, a five-time league leader in Passing Yards. In the ten years he played, there was never a year where he didn’t at least take the Browns to a Division Title.

Marion Motley FB-LB, CLE 1946-55: Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1961 on his 1^st Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

While there were African Americans in pro football before Marion Motley, they had been phased out, but after World War II, this was about to change.  Motley tried out for the Cleveland Browns of the new All-American Football Conference, and he made the team and would become oone f the best players in team history. Motley was an excellent rusher who won the AAFC Rushing Title in 1948, and the NFL Rushing Title in 1950, and he was a large part of the Cleveland juggernaut that won all four AAFC Championships and the 1950 NFL Championship.  He was also incredibly valuable as a blocker and helped open up Otto Graham’s passing game.  Motley had 5,827 Yards From Scrimmage, an excellent total for his era.

Pete Pihos E-DE, PHI 1947-55: Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1961 on his 1^st Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1970.

A three-time All-American at Indiana, Pete Pihos played his entire nine-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles, beginning as a two-way end, but eventually specializing in the offence.  Pihos was one of the top receivers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, aiding the Eagles in back-to-back NFL Championships (1948 & 1949), and securing five First Team All-Pro Selections.  In 1953, Pihos began a three-year streak leading the NFL in Receptions, with him also finishing first in Receiving Yards in the bookend seasons.  He would accumulate 5,619 Yards with 61 Touchdowns.

Charley Trippi HB-QB-DB, CRD 1947-55: Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1961 on his 1^st Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

Charley Trippi was a coveted player coming out of the University of Georgia, and the New York Yankees of the upstart All-American Football Conference thought they had him locked up.  The Chicago Cardinals, who drafted him first overall, earned his services when Cardinals owner, Charles Bidwell signed him to what was a huge contract at the time, $100,000 over four years.  Trippi was the heart of what would become Chicago’s “Million Dollar Backfield” and as a rookie in 1947, he would lead the Cardinals to an NFL Championship.  Incredibly versatile, Trippi could play any offensive skill position and excelled at rushing, passing and punting.  He played until 1955, finishing his career with the Cardinals and amassing 4,827 Yards From Scrimmage.

The sports we love to watch have changed dramatically from the date of their creation to the modern era: that’s part of what makes debates comparing athletes so compelling. We’ll never get a definitive answer to how prime Michael Jordan would’ve compared to prime LeBron James, if Wayne Gretzky could’ve continued his dramatic scoring pace in an era of the NHL with less offense than the free wheeling 1980s, if early MLB stars like Babe Ruth benefitted from weaker competition or if they could still hold their own today.

Looking at how sports have changed over time provides a fascinating glimpse into the history of the games we love, and the fact that we’ll never get an answer to these burning debates makes it even more fun to argue your case. Here are some of the best hidden athletic gems who you may never have heard of, as well as the mark they left on their respective leagues.

Dick Allen - MLB

A standout bat of the pitching-friendly 1960s and 1970s, Dick Allen played for a host of teams during his 15-year major league career. Allen hit 351 home runs with a .292 batting average in that time. While his counting stats aren’t quite what one expects out of a corner infielder, it’s critical to take the era he played in into account as well.

Allen’s career OPS+ of 158 is on par with the MVP-vote earning year that Freddie Freeman just had with the Los Angeles Dodgers: the only difference is that Allen sustained that production over the course of a decade and a half, not one single summer. Rather controversially, the famed slugger never made it into the hall of fame.

Baseball’s voting body for the honor has a reputation for letting personal relationships cloud their voting process, as writers bar the players they didn’t like from being immortalized in Cooperstown. Whether or not that’s the case with Allen, nobody knows for sure… but he’s not a bad bet with Fanatics Sportsbook Promo Codes to sneak in on a veterans ballot at some point down the line.

Keith Tkachuk - NHL

While Keith Tkachuk enjoyed an 18 year career in the NHL, playing with four different teams in that span, he may be better known for his accomplishments off the ice these days, as he’s the father of Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, both of whom are well on their way to surpassing his career totals. Keith Tkachuk racked up 538 goals and 527 assists in 1,201 NHL games despite playing much of his career at the height of the neutral zone trap era. A prolific scorer despite that, he also never shied away from mixing things up, charged with 2,219 penalty minutes over the course of his career… including more than fifty fights.

Tkachuk is one of just 47 players in the entire history of the sport to score more than 500 goals, and he’s one of the only retired players of that group to not be in the National Hockey Hall of Fame.

Charley Trippi – NFL

Trippi is the lone hall of famer on this list, but his unique style of play earns him an honorable mention nonetheless. In the early days of the sport, football positions were far less specialized than they are today.

Rather than focusing solely on one position, players would rotate from quarterback to running back to wide receiver on practically every other snap, then do the same as cornerbacks while on defense, or maybe even contribute on special teams as a kicker, punter or returner.

Trippi did it all, lauded as a quintuple threat for his ability as a runner, passer, receiver, punter and defender. If that wasn’t diverse enough of a skillset, he also returned kickoffs and punts with gusto, compiling the most total offensive yards (3,506 rushing, 2,547 passing, and 1,321 receiving) in the history of the game at the time he retired. Trippi’s counting stats may pale in comparison to the stars of today, but it was a different game back then, and he helps tell the story of it.

Perhaps most impressive of all Trippi’s achievements is the fact that he helped the Chicago Cardinals — who now reside in Arizona — win their first and only NFL Championship. Trippi showed off his hallmark versatility in that game, dashing for a 44-yard rushing touchdown and a 75-yard punt return touchdown despite playing on an icy surface. Trippi lived to be the oldest NFL Hall of Famer ever, passing away in October 2022 at the age of 100.

Charley Trippi was a coveted player from the University of Georgia, and the New York Yankees of the upstart All-American Football Conference thought they had him locked up.  The Chicago Cardinals, who drafted him first overall, earned his services when Cardinals owner Charles Bidwell signed him to what was a massive contract at the time, $100,000 over four years.

Trippi was the heart of what would become Chicago's "Million Dollar Backfield," as a rookie in 1947, he would lead the Cardinals to an NFL Championship.  Incredibly versatile, Trippi could play any offensive skill position and excelled at rushing, passing, and punting.  He played until 1955, finishing his career with the Cardinals and amassing 4,827 Yards From Scrimmage.

Trippi was selected for the 1940s All-Decade Team and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.  The Cardinals selected Trippi for their inaugural Ring of Honor class in 2006.

Pro Football’s oldest living Hall of Famer, Charley Trippi, passed away today at the age of 100.

Charley Trippi was a coveted player coming out of the University of Georgia, and the New York Yankees of the upstart All-American Football Conference thought they had him locked up.  The Chicago Cardinals, who drafted him first overall, earned his services when Cardinals owner, Charles Bidwell signed him to what was a huge contract at the time, $100,000 over four years.

Trippi was the heart of what would become Chicago’s “Million Dollar Backfield” and as a rookie in 1947, he would lead the Cardinals to an NFL Championship.  Incredibly versatile, Trippi could play any offensive skill position and excelled at rushing, passing and punting.  He played until 1955, finishing his career with the Cardinals and amassing 4,827 Yards From Scrimmage.

He was chosen for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Charley Trippi.