When the name Randy Gradishar is mentioned, the response speaks to the problems with the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The words one should hear is, “Hall of Fame linebacker.” Or, “One of the best to ever play the game.” Instead the response is disbelief. There’s just no way a player that good could have played for the Denver Broncos. So the 2,000 tackles Gradishar racked up in his career are fudged. They aren’t real. Because, remember, there’s just no way a guy that good could have played in a “cow town” like Denver.
“Well, there’s nothing to set straight,” the former head of Broncos public relations for 36 years and current team consultant/historian Jim Saccomano told me last summer.