Pats' Morgan may be the best receiver ever forgotten

Stanley Morgan averaged 19.2 yards per catch over the course of his 14 seasons in the NFL with the Patriots and Colts. Richard Mackson/SI

MAILBAG Dr. Z will answer select user questions each week in his NFL mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Heavy run of Hall of Fame questions. First one's the best, and its e-mailer, Andrew Levin of Hanover, Mass., is my E-mailer of the Week for submitting it. Did you know, Andrew, that along with this award goes the provision that you can always get your questions allowed through for a period of a year? Of course you didn't. I just made it up. The question is simplicity itself, but very meaningful.

"Why is Stanley Morgan constantly ignored when the Hall of Fame discussion rolls around?"

Why indeed? I certainly thought he was a great player, one of the most feared long ball threats in history. I got out my book and did a little research on Stanley. For the first six years of his career in New England he averaged 22.6 yards per reception. In every one of those six, the number was at 20.9 or better. No receiver since then has come close.

To put it in perspective, Jerry Rice's first six seasons produced a 17.6 average. James Lofton, king of the recent long ballers, averaged ... well, I didn't take his first six. I took his best six, which contained a few 20-plussers ... 18.9. The best single year that Randy Moss, today's top deep threat, had was his rookie season ... 19.0. Marvin Harrison's best was 14.5.

Are you starting to get the picture on Stanley Morgan? So with all those 120-something names we had to wade through, all those jamokes, why wasn't Morgan there? The answer is something that always sets my teeth on edge when I hear it so many times during the enshrinement meetings. "Slipped through the cracks."

I'm just as guilty as the others, dozing in my gondola by the Grand Canal. He won't slip through the cracks next year, I promise. His name will be on the list.

From Rick of Lancaster, Calif. -- Why isn't Ralph Wilson in yet? Because the trend is growing away from owner types. Many selectors are beginning to feel that they shouldn't compete head-to-head against players. They should enter by a different door.

Chris of Fayetteville, N.C., wonders how much a team's success influences an individual's chance for induction. Too much, I'm afraid. I go through that argument every year. "Well, how many Super Bowls did he win?" say the yahoos in the room. To which your faithful narrator calmly replies, "He didn't win any. One player does not win any. The team did or did not win one while he was playing quarterback." One QB who I always thought certainly deserved enshrinement was Archie Manning. I tried selling that one year and got laughed out of the room. "Are you kidding? With the record the Saints had?" A lot of things go into a bad record, but it's an argument I don't know how to win.

Here's an interesting hypothetical situation posed by Mike of Fairfax, whose kindly words brought a smile to the face of the Red Flame. What if Adrian Peterson would put the single season rushing record out of sight? "For an eternity," Mike says, but I've got a bit of an issue with that one. Then, God forbid, he gets hurt. Career's over. Terminado! Would the sheer dominance of those numbers get him into the Hall of Fame?

No. They'd draw a lot of hearts and flounders columns, and if enough of us pushed hard enough, a kind of asterisk notation, or little display with plaque, in Canton. Something to be enshrined, but on a different pedestal. You realize, of course, the weakness of your argument. There's no such thing as a record for all eternity. It would be impossible to argue it. Could be broken the next year.

Tom of Reisterstown, Md., is upset because L.C. Greenwood keeps getting stiffed. The trouble is that too many pass rushers keep coming up at the same time ... Richard Dent, L.C. Greenwood, Fred Dean, Chris Doleman, Claude Humphrey, Derrick Thomas, Andre Tippett. We could go on and on. I like them all, and when they make it through and the vote gets serious I cast one their way ... yes, I've voted for L.C. every time he got far along in the progression.

Phil of New York takes issue with my support of Terrell Davis. Lots of others, he says, can come close to TD's numbers, and their careers were longer, Priest Holmes, for instance. Why must it be either-or? Holmes will be a worthy candidate, as well, when his name comes up. Davis was the face of the franchise. He created a living memorial, whatever that means.

From Ty of Birmingham. "What is the knock on Kenny, The Snake, Stabler?" and I'll cut the question off right here because I'm just the chap to answer it for you because I'm the leading negative voice.

In his prime, while it lasted, he was very accurate. Then he became consistently inaccurate. His teammates wondered why. That's as far as I'll take this one. A few years ago, the person presenting him at the enshrinement meeting mentioned how he had "always been cooperative with the media." My hand shot up as if it were on a spring, and I reminded this ninny about how the Snake invited Bob Padecky of the Sacramento Bee down to the Redneck Riviera to do some offseason interviewing. And when Padecky showed up, all of a sudden Kenny's buddies on the Mobile PD found some drugs that had been planted in the writer's car, and off he went to the joint. For a night. Then he was released with no charges filed. Yeah, Kenny will make it. After I'm morto.

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