PHOENIX -- Terrell Davis is human, so of course he wants to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. What elite player doesn't want to be recognized as one of the greats of the great?
But Davis is not going to campaign for a spot in Canton. He respects the game and the process too much, giving the perfunctory "It's an honor just to be nominated" response when asked about his candidacy.
If the former Denver Broncos running back isn't going to campaign for himself, I don't mind doing it for him. So, here it is: Davis deserves to be voted into the Class of 2015 Saturday when the 46-member selection committee meets in a downtown conference room.
There's a saying within the league that big-time players have big-time performances in big-time games. No games are bigger than those in the playoffs, and Davis is the greatest postseason running back in league history. That is not a misprint: Davis is the greatest postseason running back in league history -- by a continental divide. It's as simple as 1-2-3.
1. He appeared in eight postseason games and surpassed 100 yards rushing in each of the final seven. The only other player to achieve seven 100-yard rushing performances in the postseason is Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith of the Cowboys, and he needed 17 games to do it, nine more than Davis. The only time Davis didn't reach triple digits was in his first career playoff game, when he finished with 91 yards on only 14 attempts.
2. On the list of the 20 top rushing performances in postseason history, Davis' name appears three times. No one else's name appears more than once.
3. Davis averaged 142.5 yards rushing a game in his playoff career, far exceeding anyone else who has appeared in at least five games. The second-highest average belongs to John Riggins at 110.7, then Eric Dickerson at 103.4. Smith, the league's all-time leading rusher, averaged 93.3 a game.
One knock against Davis is that he didn't play long enough. And while it's true that a knee injury cut short his career after seven seasons and 78 regular-season games, that's still 10 more games than running back Gale Sayers, who is in the Hall of Fame. And it's one more season than Doak Walker, who also has a bronze bust in Canton.
Another knock is that the Broncos consistently churned out 1,200- and 1,500-yard rushers under offensive line coach Alex Gibbs' zone-blocking scheme. And yet none of them ever reached 1,700 yards or 2,000 yards other than Davis. And none was ever voted league MVP or Super Bowl MVP, as Davis was. Even today, quarterback John Elway maintains that the Broncos never would have won back-to-back Super Bowls without Davis in the backfield.
We live in an age where we are wowed by highlights of players making moves that take your breath away. Davis was not that type of guy. He didn't captivate you with his footwork or dazzle you with his speed. He was the jackhammer who kept pounding and pounding until cracks became holes. He would stretch a play to the outside, then plant his foot and come downhill with a force that seemingly allowed him to administer as much punishment as he absorbed.
He was so dominant that the 6,413 yards rushing in his first four seasons rank as the second-highest total in league history to start a career, trailing only the 6,968 gained by Dickerson. During that time, he won league and Super Bowl MVPs and achieved what was then the fourth 2,000-yard season in league history, finishing with 2,008 in 1998.
It's foolish to play the "what if" game regarding Davis' career because none of us knows what would have happened had he not torn knee ligaments in the fourth game of the 1999 season. He attempted multiple comebacks but, after five knee surgeries limited him to 13 games from 2000 on, called it a career and walked away with, among other things, 56 franchise records, including those for yards rushing (7,607) and touchdowns (65).
There will be no shortage of deserving candidates Saturday when the committee meets to vote on the Class of 2015, but I focused on Davis because too often I hear people minimize his achievements because of the brevity of his career. If the Hall is for those whose on-field achievements left an indelible mark on the game, the greatest postseason rusher in NFL annals should be able to call Canton home.
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Each year in the lead-up to the Hall of Fame vote, I'm often asked who will get in. My answer this year is no different than it was the previous seven years preceding my vote: I have no idea.
A maximum of five modern-era candidates will be selected from a list of 15 finalists: kicker Morten Andersen; running backs Jerome Bettis and Davis; wide receivers Tim Brown and Marvin Harrison; coaches Don Coryell, Tony Dungy and Jimmy Johnson; linebackers Kevin Greene and Junior Seau; defensive end/linebacker Charles Haley; safety John Lynch; offensive tackle Orlando Pace; guard Will Shields; and quarterback Kurt Warner.
There also will be separate votes for "contributor" nominees Bill Polian and Ron Wolf, as well as "seniors" designate Mick Tingelhoff.
All are deserving. Only a handful will get in.
And before complaining about who did not make the cut, perform this exercise: Gather five buddies and give each a printout of the 15 modern-era finalists. Then have them vote silently for the five they would put in the Hall. My guess is that none of the ballots will look the same because 1) there are no hard guidelines for how to vote, other than you are to consider only what someone did on the field; and 2) each voter will bring his own perceptions and prejudices to the process.
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If there is one person whose wait for induction has taken too long, it's Coryell.
The former Cardinals and Chargers head coach was so far ahead of everyone else when it came to the passing game in the 1970s and '80s that many of his concepts are staples in today's game -- whether it's the use of the three-digit system, vertical concepts, H-back, motion, two-tight end sets and single-back formations.
I've long wondered what has held back Coryell, and the first argument people made against him was his lack of Super Bowls. Which sounded plausible until realizing that some coaches who've won multiple championships -- Tom Flores, George Seifert and Jimmy Johnson -- not only aren't in the Hall, but they couldn't even get into the room for discussion until Johnson became a finalist this year.
Then I was told that Coryell was receiving credit for things that Sid Gillman did, to which Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts recounted a conversation he had with Hall of Fame Raiders coach John Madden: "John said that Don did not copy Sid Gilman's offense. John should know because Al Davis was an assistant coach for Sid, and Davis took that offensive system with him to Oakland and it did not resemble anything Coryell did with the multiple formations, movement, shifting, and use of two tight ends and a single back."
Coryell was an innovator and a damn good coach. From 1949 to 1997, Coryell was the only coach to take the Cardinals to the postseason in a nonstrike year, and he did it twice (1974, '75). From 1966 to 1991, he was the only coach to take the Chargers to the postseason, and he did it for four straight years (1979-82) -- including two trips to the AFC Championship Game.
A few years ago I asked Dungy, former coach of the Bucs and Colts as well as a Hall finalist this year, about Coryell and whether he belongs in Canton. "Super Bowls count so much now; that's all anyone talks about," Dungy said. "But if you talk about impact on the game, training other coaches -- John Madden, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs to name a few -- and influencing how things are done, Don Coryell is probably right up there with Paul Brown. He was a genius."