It is ridiculous how much Jamal Lewis gets overlooked as a Hall of Fame candidate, even though he clearly belongs. Here's another article, talking about 12 RBs who have "cases" to be enshrined someday, and Lewis is not listed among them. Even though he has the one thing that, by my count, NONE of those listed ever got: A ring.
Not only did Jamal Lewis win a Super Bowl, but he did so as the featured back and primary offensive weapon of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. As a rookie. In fact he set an NFL Record for first rookie to have 100 yards rushing in a Super Bowl. And if he hadn't suffered a freak injury in the 2001 offseason, he might very well have helped the 2001 Ravens repeat as SB Champs, with that same D largely intact.
In addition to his SB rookie record, and the fact that he actually HAS a ring, Jamal Lewis also has 10,000+ career rushing yards, which believe it or not puts him in pretty exclusive company. A little over 2000 of those yards came in 2003, when he won Offensive Player of the Year, on the back of a 2000+ yd. rushing season, which saw him come just 39 yards shy of Eric Dickerson's single season rushing record. He surpassed the likes of OJ Simpson, Barry Sanders, and Terrell Davis. Until Adrian Peterson surpassed him in 2012, he held the #2 single season record. He is still #3, and is one of only 7 RBs in NFL history to rush for over 2000 yards.
Again, that exclusive company, the 2000 yd. club, the 10,000 yd. club, the rookie SB record, being one of only so many RBs who have ever actually WON a SB ring, and more, should have already put Jamal Lewis in the HoF. He was a big player, who was an absolute wrecking ball on the field, with a hard and punishing running style that not only hurt his opponents, making him one of the hardest men in the NFL to bring down, but it also took its toll on his own body. Jamal Lewis gave his body and future health to the sport, as this Bleacher Report article illustrates.
His straight ahead, bulldozing style, caused him to get numerous concussions over the years, and that's not including ones he got before the NFL. Jamal Lewis is a man who fights everyday, struggling with very real brain damage, and the very real possibility that it will only get worse over time. He's a man who gave his all, everything he had, to the NFL, to the sport of American Football. And that, along with his accolades, should make him worthy of enshrinement.
So why isn't he in the Hall yet, when he retired in 2010? Why wasn't a 10,000 career yd., 58 career rushing TD, 2000+ yd. Offensive Player of the Year, former Super Bowl Champion, a so-called "First Ballot Hall of Famer"? Meaning getting voted into the Hall the first year you're eligible (players are eligible five years after retiring from the NFL). Why isn't a player who is, as the stats show, literally one of the best and most dominant running backs in NFL history, already enshrined with the league's most prestigious honor? Lesser players, without his accolades, without his ring, are already in. Other players who lack his accolades and ring, including some in that NFL.com list, will almost assuredly one day get in. And to me, the real question isn't just "WHEN will Jamal Lewis ever get put in the HoF?", but rather "WILL he ever get put in the HoF?"
It surely isn't a matter of deserving or having earned it. He did, in spades. As far as I'm personally concerned, the only thing that even slightly diminishes his career, is the fact that he wasn't able to play his entire NFL career as a Baltimore Raven. Ironically, he spent his final three seasons, from 2007-2009, with the very same AFC North rival Cleveland Browns that he made history against. In his 2003 OPOY season, He gashed the Browns for 500 of those 2066 yds., setting the single game rushing record of 295 yds. in one of the two contests. That mark also stood until Peterson surpassed it by one yard in 2007. And I say that in light of his unfortunate 2004 suspension and jail-time, stemming from what essentially was a case of entrapment, and a crime Jamal has vehemently denied ever committing. Even in the face of that four game suspension, he still rushed for over 1000 yds. in 2004.
I'll admit, that as a long-time Baltimore Ravens fan, having watched that 2000 Super Bowl that he (and the team) dominated, the only offensive shut out in Super Bowl history in point of fact, I am a tad biased. But the fact that Lewis is one of my favorite players of all time, doesn't diminish what he accomplished in his career. In his prime, he was easily one of the Top 3 best RBs in the entire NFL, next to the likes of Ladainian Tomlinson and (former Raven and fellow 2000 SB winner) Priest Holmes. In 2012, the same year they finally won a second Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens put Lewis into their own Ring of Honor. An honor that he absolutely deserved, being their franchise All-Time Rushing Leader. Now it's time to put him in the NFL Hall of Fame where he also belongs.
The 2019 class has already been picked, and Jamal isn't part of it, though fellow Raven Ed Reed is (as a "First Ballot" inclusion, which Reed deserves). But in the next few years, I hope the 48 member committee responsible for choosing players for enshrinement each year, will do the right thing, will get beyond any possible league politics or anything else that could be holding him out from inclusion, and put one of the game's best players, where he so rightfully and deservedly belongs.
