Otis Taylor Needs To Be In The Pro Football Hall Of Fame NOW!!!!

As of this time as I’m currently writing my latest article, one of the greatest players ever to play for the Kansas City Chiefs Leonard Raymond Dawson who led the team to its first Super Bowl Championship died on August 24^th at the age of 87. Lenny was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987 and was huge sports figure in the City of Kansas City and the State of Missouri. Some of the other great Chief players that were members of the team’s first Super Bowl titles like Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Curley Culp, Emmett Thomas, Buck Buchanan and Jan Stenerud are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But one player that is missing is Otis Taylor. At 6’3 Taylor was considered to be the Terrell Owens type Wide Receiver back in the day because of his straight-line speed and his ability to break tackles after making the catch. For his size he was a hand full for small cornerbacks and free safeties tackle. The most memorable moment came in Super Bowl IV when Taylor caught a short pass, turned downfield and threw a devastating stiff arm on his way to a 46-yard touchdown run in the Chiefs 23-7 upset victory over the heavily favorite Minnesota Vikings. As the late Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson said, “Otis made my job easy, if you got to pass to Otis you knew he’d catch it.”

Taylor currently ranks second of the Chiefs all-time list in receptions with 410, receiving touchdowns with 57, 20, 100-yard games and receiving yards with 7,306. Now compare those numbers to Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer Lynn Swann who had 5,462 and 51 touchdowns, you would think that Taylor would be in the Hall of Fame, but he isn’t. In fact, Taylor went over 1000 yards twice in his career while Swann never had 1000 yards in his career and like Swann, Taylor is a 3-time All-Pro Wide Receiver plus was named AFC player of the year in 1971. I don’t know what’s in the mind of some of these NFL writers who over look players such as Otis Taylor, but one thing is for sure, he should had been in the Pro Football Hall Fame long before Lynn Swann got in back in 2001. It’s really sad and extremely disheartening that players who had great careers in the NFL, all have to wait until they’re no longer alive to get fitted with the Gold Jacket and make their acceptance speech in front of their adoring fans. Kenny Stabler and Cliff Branch, two players who were apart of the great Raiders teams didn’t get make their acceptance speech because they sadly died before they were both inducted into the Hall of Fame from the veterans committee. Otis Taylor turned 80 years old on August 11 and sadly his health is deteriorating. Otis Taylor Needs to be in the Hall of Fame right now and we should hope that he is voted in by the veterans committee while he’s alive and join with his former Chief teammates who a currently enshrine in Canton, Ohio. Let’s hope and pray for Otis and his family that he stays a little longer, so he can finally get that call.