Harvey Martin is the next Dallas Cowboy who should be in the Hall of Fame | Opinion
The inductions of receiver Drew Pearson and Cliff Harris into the Pro Football Hall of Fame right the wrongs, and there is one remaining “How is he not in?” candidate from the dynasty Dallas Cowboys of the ‘70s.
“It’s a shame that Harvey (Martin) being all-decade second team who doesn’t get any recognition,” Pearson recently told me in an interview.
“Hopefully the attention that has been brought to me (with his HOF induction) will bring some attention for some of these other Cowboys who deserve this type of recognition.”
Pearson is specifically referring to Martin and defensive end Ed “Too Tall” Jones.
“Those guys deserve to be talked about a little bit more,” Pearson said. “There are so many great players and there is such a logjam to get in that a lot of guys will never get in. It’s even tougher now.”
Pearson and Harris’ respective HOF cases were the most well known from the Cowboys of the ‘70s, but the late Harvey Martin was so good, but now so forgotten his own franchise has not enshrined him.
Martin is not going to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame until the Cowboys put him in their Ring of Honor.
That can only be fixed by Jerry Jones.
This is something that has been said before, but it needs to be repeated until Martin is where he belongs. There is no Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the ‘70s without Harvey Martin.
Martin died of pancreatic cancer in 2001 at the age of 51.
From 1973 to 1983, Martin was one of the best defensive players in the NFL.
He was sacking quarterbacks before sacking quarterback was a thing, and actually tracked by the league.
Former Fort Worth Star-Telegram NFL writer Charean Williams, who now writes for ProFootballTalk.com, is one of the two media members from the DFW area who can present candidates for potential induction.
She and former Dallas Morning News NFL writer Rick Gosselin are a big reason why Jerry Jones, Pearson, Harris and so many other Cowboys are in the Hall.
She said Friday that she thinks Martin will eventually get in, but “it won’t be for a while for two reasons.
“No. 1. There is only one senior nominee every year. Drew Pearson is the senior nominee this year, and Cliff Harris went in the Centennial Class last year.
“There are 31 other teams. So it’s a good guess the senior committee will look at other deserving candidates on other teams before circling back to the Cowboys. There are so many deserving senior candidates on every team.”
(Before Martin, the Hall voters need to address the late Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Ken Riley, one of the Hall’s most egregious oversights.)
Martin’s case should be aided considerably now that ProFootballReference.com, the bible for football stat geeks, has gone back to count plays that should have been recorded as sacks.
The NFL did not count sacks as a stat for players until the 1982 season. That left about 20 years of great defensive players wondering exactly how many sacks they actually had.
Martin retired after the ‘83 season.
ProFootballReference estimates it has recorded 99 percent of the sacks starting from 1970.
At least according to that site, Martin had 114 career sacks, including 20 in 1977.
He was the defensive player of the year in 1977, and the co-MVP of the Super Bowl in the Cowboys’ win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII.
No one has said it, but one of the silent factors working against Martin for so long were off-the-field concerns.
Tales of FBI wiretaps and cocaine rings from the end of his playing days didn’t help. At the time, he denied ever having used cocaine.
He was arrested on cocaine and domestic violence charges stemming from a fight with his girlfriend. He plead no contest to the drug possession, and was ordered into a drug treatment facility.
That was in 1996.
It’s 2021.
As former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith once remarked about his fellow teammate, Michael Irvin, whose HOF case was shrouded in off-the-field concerns, we are talking about the pro football hall of fame. Not the life hall of fame.
“There is no doubt Harvey is deserving,” Williams said. “I would guess the wait will go on for at least a few more years.”
The induction of Pearson and Harris into the Hall are overdue, but at least they are done.
Harvey Martin is gone, but his legacy as a player should be enshrined in Canton, which starts by putting him in the Ring of Honor.
This story was originally published August 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
