Tony Boselli should be in the Hall of Fame

The 2015 NFL season is just on the horizon, which means it’s almost time to shift the focus from evergreen fluff pieces to writing and talking about actual football. Still, we have to labor through the preseason so there’s still a little bit of time to talk about more retrospective topics. An appropriate topic with the first preseason game coming up is the hall of fame.

The Jaguars are one of the few teams without a representative in the hall of fame, thanks mostly to the franchise barely having two decades under it’s belt. Despite the lack of longevity, the Jaguars have one candidate who should already be in the hall of fame – offensive tackle Tony Boselli.

In two separate pieces released at the same time, Boselli was brought up as the Jaguars’ top candidate for the hall of fame. Elliot Harrison over at NFL.com is very clear in stating that Boselli should be in now:

"Of all the names listed for each franchise, Boselli’s was frankly the easiest to type. He should already be enshrined, irrespective of his rather short (seven seasons) career. Boselli was a technician at his position, a skilled artisan who was tough as nine acres of Texas onions (phrase borrowed from Doug English) while being a gifted athlete. Hall of Fame tackle Walter Jones told me last year, with no hesitation, “When I first got in the league, you had Tony Boselli. I think that was the guy that I said, ‘Man, that’s the way I want to play left tackle … when I was coming through (the NFL), that was the guy.” Jones, like so many other players and fans, marveled over how Boselli dominated Bills defensive end Bruce Smith in the 1996 playoffs. I remember that game, too: Hall of Should Be In vs. Hall of Fame. Put him in."

ESPN Jaguars blogger Michael DiRocco makes an equally strong case for the first draft pick in Jaguars history:

"The Jaguars don’t yet have a player in the NFL Hall of Fame but the first one should undoubtedly be Boselli. The No. 2 overall pick in 1995 had his career cut short at seven seasons because of injuries, but he was the top offensive tackle in the league for much of those seven seasons. He was a five-time Pro Bowler, a three-time All-Pro and was voted to the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade team."

There are two things keeping Boselli out of the HoF right now – his “short” career and the fact that he played for a small market team in Jacksonville. Honestly, it’s probably more the latter as there are plenty of players in the hall of fame who were dominant over a short period of time.

We seem to write an article at least once or twice every offseason about how Boselli should be in the hall of fame. Hopefully that will change sometime soon.

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