Before We Enter Global Endgame, Joe Jacoby NEEDS to be in the Hall of Fame

It’s Superb Owl weekend, so I am going to indulge myself a bit with a niche post and piggy back off of Erik’s NFL Hall Of Fame musings. It’s a built in feature of Halls Of Fame that they are in some ways defined by their omissions — that’s what makes discussing them so indelibly vexing — but there is one oversight with respect to Canton that really gets my goat. Joe Jacoby played for the Washington Football Organization between 1981 and 1993. He went undrafted as a left tackle out of Louisville, but quickly became the anchor for the legendary Hogs — probably the first offensive line to become famous as a group and have a rad nickname. Many stalwart Hogs passed through the group during the decade plus Jacoby was there — Russ Grimm, Mark May, Jim Lachey, R.C. Thielman, Ray Brown and Ed Simmons — badasses all. But only Jacoby and center Jeff Bostic were there for the full ride. Four Super Bowl appearances, three championships and the sort of dominating line play that allowed head coach Joe Gibbs to win three titles with three different starting quarterbacks in nine years. Consider how unusual that is. With dynasties the mainstay is almost always the quarterback. With Washington it was Joe Jacoby.

Do you know who thinks Joe Jacoby belongs in the Hall Of Fame? Lawrence Taylor. The consensus best defensive player in league history had to face Jacoby twice a year, and still feels the bruises. The Jacoby-Taylor wars of the ‘80s were epics on a scale of Achilles-Hector. An impossibly agile 6’7″ and 295 pounds, Jacoby towered over Taylor but like every other tackle in football couldn’t always match his speed around the edge. This one-on-one rivalry basically defined much of the NFL over a nine-year span where the New York Giants and Washington would combine to win six NFC championships. Taylor wasn’t Jacoby’s only twice-a-year problem either. He saw plenty of Hall Of Famers Reggie White with the Eagles and Randy White of the Cowboys, the latter of whom has also endorsed Jacoby for the Hall. If you want to know how double-tough and technically proficient Jacoby was just ask the raving jackals who lined up against him.

In addition to being a three-time Superb Owl champion, Jacoby was named first team All Pro three times, made four Pro Bowls and was named to the NFL 1980’s All Decade Team. He has all of the quantifiable bonafides and all of the intangibles. With his initial HOF eligibility now expired, his enshrinement currently lies in the hands of the Senior Committee. Jacoby himself is a soft-spoken man, not given to elaborate self-promotion, which most likely accounts for this glaring oversight. But make no mistake: the long-time anchor of one of the most dominant, transformational units in the history of the league deserves an XXXXL yellow jacket. We can’t address all of the injustices in the world, but surely we can get this one right.