The American Football League

Fred
Biletnikoff,

Charlie Joiner,

Billy Shaw,

George Blanda,

Johnny Robinson,
who has better statistics and more championships than some other
(nfl) defensive backs of his era who were selected – was finally
enshrined in 2019, 43 YEARS after he was first eligible;

like Johnny, the Hall should induct

Abner Haynes
(All-time AFL all-purpose yards);

Gino
Cappelletti
(All-time AFL scoring);

John Hadl, half of that tremendous aerial attack with
Alworth;

Lionel Taylor
(first receiver in Professional Football history
to catch 100 passes in a season);

Charlie Hennigan
(first to break Taylor’s record; held
many Professional Football receiving
records for 35 years after his retirement);

Daryle Lamonica
(2nd-best to Otto Graham in quarterback won-lost percentage);
and defensive stars like Ron
McDole, whose unit did not allow a rushing touchdown for
seventeen straight games, a record that still stands.
 I could name many more who have been
excluded because they played in the wrong league.

        I ask that you, the AFL Alumni in the
Hall of Fame, as a group, lobby that institution to emulate the
Baseball Hall of Fame’s action when it recognized an injustice and
inducted a number of Negro Leagues players at the same time. 

        If “senior” players can be inducted
to the Pro Football Hall of Fame only two at a time, it is unlikely
that many of those deserving AFL stars will be inducted before they
die.

        I ask that the AFL Alumni Hall of
Famers request that the Pro Football Hall of Fame, before it’s too
late, assemble a special selection committee of former sportswriters
who covered the AFL and former AFL players in the Hall of Fame, and charge them with the task of fairly
evaluating the merits of all those unrecognized AFL stars, with the
goal of inducting A NUMBER of them, en masse.