Beau Boone: 'Forgotten Legends: Ken Anderson'

Source:Beau Boone- welcome to Super Bowl 16 between the Cincinnati Bengals & San Francisco 49ers. Two of the most unlikely NFL teams to make it to the Super Bowl, going into the 1981 season.

"Ken Anderson was one of the greatest quarterbacks of his era, but in today's world his name is hardly heard. He truly is a forgotten legend." 

From Beau Boone

This is about my case for Cincinnati Bengals QB Ken Anderson to finally be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And I'll make it very simple for you.

If there is room for Dan Fouts and Bob Griese to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, then there is room for Ken Anderson as well, whose at least, at least as deserving as both Fouts and Griese to be in the Hall of Fame. 

Dan Fouts has a career losing record as an NFL QB, He didn't become the San Diego Chargers full-time starting QB until 1978, his 6th season in the league, I'm not a big stats guy when it comes to sports, but he only three 12 more TD's than INT's during his 15 year career. But he's in the Hall of Fame because he was a very accurate QB and three for a lot of passing yards.

Miami Dolphins QB Bob Griese is in the Hall of Fame because he not just won 2 Super Bowls but won them back-to-back. But if he had 2 Super Bowl losses and didn't win a single Super Bowl and the rest of his career was still the same, he's probably not in the Hall of Fame today. He was a system QB, who needed a great offensive line and running game, which he had for most of his career with the Dolphins, in order to be successful at all. He played in a ball-control, power-run offense, where he only had to throw the ball about 15 times a game, for the Dolphins to win. 

I'm not arguing that Dan Fouts and Bob Griese are not Hall of Famers or that they should be removed from the Hall of Fame. I'm just arguing that Ken Anderson just as a QB, was at least as good as both of those players. 

Ken Anderson was generally, if not always the best player on every team that he played for with the Bengals, at least on offense and his numbers, victories, including playoff victories, playing for a franchise that didn't win consistently for most of his career. And yet still won a lot of games and put up excellent numbers for the Bengals in the 1970s and 80s, when Dan Fouts was still on the Chargers bench. And Bob Griese was handing the ball off for the Dolphins and watching his defense dominate the other teams.

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