bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part twelve)))


day twelve: offensive guard

John Hannah



9 All Pro Bowls
10 All Pros
75 Anniversary Team
70's All Decade Team
80's All Decade Team
Offensive Lineman of the Year (78, 79, 80, 81 and 84)
HOF 91


Bear Bryant, "He was the greatest lineman I ever coach."


Viewed as the second greatest lineman to ever play the game of football. Right behind Anthony Munoz who is also on Team Hicks.


Roll Tide!

i knew hannah would be your pick, and i don't hate, hate the pick, but you provide us a good path back to our old school/new school debate. we've already deconstructed the munoz as g.o.a.t. thing. we'll do the same here with hannah.


i don't like arguing against a Bama guy, but let's face it. he weighed in at 265 on a good day. no matter how "fast", "agile", or "intense" dude was, there is no way he has any shot of handling a monster like ted washington. and sure, he's going to get some help from what i assume will be an also undersized center, but you are setting up your pocket to start 2-3 yards behind the line of scrimmage from the jump of every play.

my pick was always going to be bruce matthews, the best guard that i've seen play, and he was probably even a hair past his prime when i started paying close attention.

his resume of pro bowls several-ups hannah with fourteen consecutive. he has an equal number of all-pros as well. he's a member of the 90's all-decade team, which i will contend until the end of this draft meant he was doing his thing around bigger and better athletes than those of generations past. he also was an iron man that never missed a game, playing in a record 296 for an offensive lineman.

what say you?

What do I say?  I am no expert, but the experts say Hannah is the 24th greatest player of all time.  The same experts say Bruce Matthews is the 78th.  Bruce Matthews was a great lineman.  John Hannah he was not.  My grade for this round:  Chris A  Kevin A-
 
yeah, i get that. and i understand where they are coming from. the only way that you can make those lists is to is to grade guys out relative to the competition they were playing against.


to me, and maybe we are approaching this in two different ways, we are doing something completely different. we are putting together two teams that will play when each guy was at the height of his respective powers, lining them up, and playing one game to end all games. if we were just drafting based on the lists that you and i are both looking at, we would just be aggregating 20 lists and picking the next guy in line.

there is no way, in my mind, that hannah was a better offensive lineman than bruce matthews. i think, from what I've read, that hannah was a great lineman, too...for his time. in the same vein, how many of bear bryant's many all-americans could even make a current nick saban team? what about bruce matthews?

 John Hannah may not beat out a guard on Saban's team right now, but he would beat out Bruce Matthews. And right now, that's all that matters. I'm sticking with the greatest Guard of all time. Chris

(ed: chris had first pick, so he's supposed to get last word. after that last statement, though, it's. so. hard.)