Induction Day

Deserving

A full ESPN programming day of Art Monk and Darrell Green highlights, that's what I call a good Saturday. Today is the day Art and Darrell are inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Let us take moment to recall that Art Monk was the first receiver to catch more than 100 passes in a single season, in 1984. To give the reader some idea of what the NFL was like in those days, in 1983 the top three pass catchers were tight ends, in 1985 the top receiver was a running back.

It was not until 1990 that another pass catcher caught 100 passes in a season and not for another two seasons that Art's record would be broken, that's eight years. Since then, only in 1998 has a receiver not caught 100 passes.

Over his career Art set the NFL records for career receptions with 940, catches in a season with 106 and consecutive games with a reception with 164. He was a steady possession receiver with big play ability, he kept the chains moving.

Darrell Green played 20 years with the Redskins, failing to pick off a pass only in his final season. He was the NFL's fastest man for nearly a decade, a shutdown corner effective both in front of and behind the play. He was durable and had a short memory, he always got in your head, you never in his. Darrell has more interceptions than any other Redskin in history with 54, was a seven time Pro Bowler and a member of the NFL All Decade Team of the 1990s.

A proud day for Redskins fans.

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Lee Gibbons at The Redskin Report, Greg Trippiedi at Hog Heaven, Rich Tandler at Real Redskins, Mark Newgent at DC Redskins Examiner, Redskins AOL Fanhouse Darrell / Art, Ron Burgundy at Bleeding Burgundy, Matt Terl at the ORB (Official Redskins Blog) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And excerpts from a conference call interview with Art Monk here. Matt also interviews David Elfin on Art Monk, David is a HoF voter. CaptChaosSidekick at Hogs Haven was there too. Jamie Mottram at Mr. Irrelevant has Art Monk's career history in football cards, this is truly awesome.

Washington Post: Mark Maske, Michael Wilbon, Art Monk slideshow, Darrell Green slideshow, WaPo video, Tom Boswell, Jason La Canfora here, here and here. Jason Reid Q & A with Darrell, Jason Reid Q & A with Art.

Washington Times: had a great print section on it, it is not online. Too bad, lots of good stuff.

NFL.com: Darrell, Art.

ESPN.com: Darrell, Art.



Composite image by me, Darrell Green detail from image here; Art Monk uncredited Washington Post image from here.