Help get Art Monk into the HoF

http://redskins.scout.com/3/monktohall.html

I sent an email to my local sportswriter,john mclain,I talk to him on a reg basis on a call in show here,I've heard him say before he thought clark was the better reciever,his wife is a huge skins fan and if she hasnt convinced him yet i probably wont,I'll email some of the others when I get time

Art Monk was one of the greatest! What I liked about him the best is that he didn't run his mouth and have that "me" atittude...he just went out there and did his job. I see that in guys like Marvin Harrison. I can see the sportswriter's point on Gary Clark. I think that's because he was always the number one guy downfield and Art Monk was known more for being the possession type receiver. Man...if we had Art Monk, Gary Clark, and Ricky Sanders today, this season would be completely different!

another thing he said was that Art Monk would never talk to the media{ I guess after games?} and that really pisses sportswriters off

I don't blame Art Monk for doing that at all! The media is notorious for stripping down one's reputation.

I hope he gets in, he will eventually. He deserves it more than some other receivers that are coming up for it.

skinsguy:

Players - especially the really good players - need to find a balance when dealing with the press. They have to keep them at arms length to some degree in order to have some privacy in their life and to keep the negativity of much of the press out of their life. BUT they ALSO have to be courteous to the press and minimally accomodating to their needs - deadlines for newspaper reporters and quick soundbite stuff for radio and TV guys.

The reason really good players need to do this is because it is those same press guys who will decide if you get into the HoF. And they are human too. If you spent a 15 yer career pissing them off and making theri jobs harder to do, they will be far less inclined to do something for you - like vot you into the Hall.

I believe the local guy who votes for HoF in football is Michael Wilbon of the Post and ESPN's PTI - but I'm not positive of that.

I really don't recall the circumstances but I was always under the impression Monk didn't talk to the media because he's just a quiet, unassuming guy. I could be wrong, but it wasn't like he was shutting himself off because he was a prick or anything.

Still, it sucks to know that part of the reason that's holding him out of the Hall is certain guys in the media felt they were wronged by Monk is some way because he wasn't very open with them.

Matty:

Art Monk is indeed a quiet and intropsective and introverted and very intelligent man. But he did not "accomodate" himself very much to the "needs" of reporters. There were games where HE was the person that folks needed to talk to because he made the key play in the game - or very rarely was the player who botched the key play. In those cases he would talk to the press but it was clear that he did not want to do it and he was not working very hard to be helpful.

That is is right; no one can deny that.

But it did not make him popular with the guys who will do the voting. Only the press guys who covered the Skins for a while and got to know him really came to like him as a person - because they got to see his intelligence and his humanity.

BTW, have you noticed how few commercial sponsorships Monk has had here in the DC area over the time of his career or since he retired? That is part of the same thing.

We need joecrisp to chime in hiere. Joe, if you have deadlines and stories to write and maybe a sidebar to one of your gamers and the key player on the team is not available or is maddeningly late arriving for an interview and then answers all your questions in five words or less, is that going to make you happy with him? My guess is not until or unless you get to know him...

I have wrote one email already and plan to write a couple more.Mainly to people in other parts of the country that didn't get to see Art all the time.Great thread,thanks.