Harrison Smith proves PFR’s new HoF Metric is a Joke
Joe Johnson
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One thing that people in Minnesota have long either suspected or known is that the Vikings get little respect from people nationally. Sure, they’re a top five franchise in terms of regular season win percentage as well as multiple rankings of the best/most passionate fan-bases, but one of the reasons I started purplePTSD in the first place was that I was sick of waiting 45 minutes for under 45 seconds of coverage from ESPN after each Vikings win.
That disrespect continues despite my best efforts, and there’s another ranking that isn’t as friendly to the Vikings: Pro Football Reference new Hall of Fame Monitor. The PFRHOFM as no one is calling it attempts to objectify the partially subjective Hall of Fame process, which continues the recent tradition of stats ruining everything we hold dear.
Case in point, and I’ll cut to the chase on my irritation, the fact that current Vikings safety Harrison Smith has 37.65 ranking. For point of reference, the average score to make the Hall is 106. Earl Thomas, meanwhile, is over a 75. Is he really twice as good?
What, because he played on a more successful franchise?
Wait.
That’s usually by far the most important aspect of who gets into the Hall and who doesn’t, so maybe I shouldn’t be irritated at the good fellas at PFR after all?
For those of you that will say that safeties aren’t huge Hall favorites, that’s changed recently and so let’s hope that Smith can end up where he deserves as we all know he won’t have the luxury of winning a ‘ship… at least in Minnesota… Which, maybe ESPN has a point for giving 45-seconds of coverage in the first place?
Now I don’t know what to believe.