Let's put Ricky Sanders in Northwest Stadium's Ring of Honor

burgold

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During the season, someone mentioned that Ricky Sanders one of the major heroes of the '87 Super Bowl and intergral member of the Posse was not a part of Washington's Ring of Honor at Northwest Stadium. I tried to verify it this morning, but a quick search found no site that listed all the people honored. If it's true that Ricky isn't among the number, he and his number 83 ought to be.

The purpose of this thread is twofold.

First: Let's confirm that he really isn't part of the list.
Second: To see if there is interest in trying to mobilize an effort to get him a plaque on the ring of honor
Three: to begin a virtual petition: that we can send to Ashburn which interest parties can sign here on BGO and that we can link to for other fans to sign who follow the team on Bluesky, Twitter, and Instagram.

What say you? Will anybody help? Does anyone want to get behind this?
 
Anyone who catches a pass from the President of the United States deserves it IMO.

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My bar is way higher. If we are letting in players who had 2 really good seasons and a big Super Bowl it diminishes the accomplishment of those who were selected and more deserving.
 
Darrell Green Fan said:
My bar is way higher. If we are letting in players who had 2 really good seasons and a big Super Bowl it diminishes the accomplishment of those who were selected and more deserving.
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I think that's undercutting Sanders' with the 'skins. He was great. The Posse was a force for five years and he was their stretch the field deep threat.
 
I have a higher bar for "great". He averaged 48 catches, 647 yards and 3.7 tds in his 10 seasons in Washington.
 
Really? Guys like Joe Namath and Doug Williams that had great offseasons and signature wins but overall had pedestrian numbers for their careers get recognized by their former clubs all the time.

I guess if you are a quarterback and win that Super Bowl that lives on in history, but if you are just one of the 'support' players on those teams who excel in the same contests then you are simply a face in the crowd.
 
I was glad to see three of the Hogs in there: Grimm, Bostic, and Jacoby all are in the Ring of Honor. You could make the same argument about Bostic not making the cut as you are with Sanders, but I'd disagree with that too. Jeff Bostic will never get HOF consideration, but he was a vital part of one of the best lines in NFL history. He was too small, not strong enough, and the team did try to replace him, but he beat off all challengers.

We will not take Jeff Bostic's name down and in my opinion Ricky Sanders' name should go up. Frankly, it's ridiculous how little love the cornerstones of our glory years gets around the league and it's even worse that they aren't even recognized by their own fans.
 
Part of me says he's part.of the 90 greatest so he is acknowledged and maybe the ring of honor is for that next tier but then I see guys like mark rypien, Doug Williams, Sean Taylor, Vince Lombardi to name a few and ricky did as much or more for this franchise than any of those guys so why is he not in.

6 thousand career yards and 2 superbowls Is a pretty good career accomplishment for this franchise.
 
1980's Redskins were hated by the media.

Reporters were covering teams like the Marino Dolphins and Elway Broncos and somehow Joe Gibbs and his merry bunch of 'average' players kept going to and winning the Super Bowl.

I know the New York media couldn't stand the fact a guy like Doug Williams or Mark Rypien won a Super Bowl.

Even though they later on had their own 'tweener' in Eli Manning, a guy that got hot in two playoff runs and other than that was simply an above average quarterback who never would have been a candidate for the HOF.
 
Bulldog said:
Really? Guys like Joe Namath and Doug Williams that had great offseasons and signature wins but overall had pedestrian numbers for their careers get recognized by their former clubs all the time.

I guess if you are a quarterback and win that Super Bowl that lives on in history, but if you are just one of the 'support' players on those teams who excel in the same contests then you are simply a face in the crowd.
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I think Joe Namath is overrated as well. Doug Williams did not play enough here to be considered for the Ring of Fame IMO. Again if we are going to let anyone in it diminshes the award for those more deserving. Should we put Releigh McKenzie into the ROF because he was a supporting player on a great team? Just where does it stop?

There is no right answer here, these are all opinions. We all recognize the value of the support players. But that is exactly what they were, support players and not the stars. To me a Ring of Honor is for star players, players who were truly great. Art Monk and Joe Jacoby were great, I never considered Ricky Sanders to be great.
 
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Darrell Green Fan said:
I have a higher bar for "great". He averaged 48 catches, 647 yards and 3.7 tds in his 10 seasons in Washington.
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How about 50, 701 and 6.1 in 13 seasons? Is that ring of fame worthy? Guess who that is.

Also not sure where you’re getting 10 seasons. Ricky was here 86-93. 8 seasons.

So his average per is actually

51.7, 731.75 and 4.5 touchdowns
 
scruffylookin said:
How about 50, 701 and 6.1 in 13 seasons? Is that ring of fame worthy? Guess who that is.

Also not sure where you’re getting 10 seasons. Ricky was here 86-93. 8 seasons.

So his average per is actually

51.7, 731.75 and 4.5 touchdowns
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Sorry I included his Atlanta stats by mistake. So his numbers are better than I had posted. Again my bar is higher, I don't think Ricky Sanders belongs next to names like Darrell Green and John Riggins. I feel the same way about the Hall of Fame. I'm glad it's difficult to get in, that means induction really means something
 
Darrell Green Fan said:
I think Joe Namath is overrated as well. Doug Williams did not play enough here to be considered for the Ring of Fame IMO. Again if we are going to let anyone in it diminshes the award for those more deserving. Should we put Releigh McKenzie into the ROF because he was a supporting player on a great team? Just where does it stop?

There is no right answer here, these are all opinions. We all recognize the value of the support players. But that is exactly what they were, support players and not the stars. To me a Ring of Honor is for star players, players who were truly great. Art Monk and Joe Jacoby were great, I never considered Ricky Sanders to be great.
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You are 100 percent correct in that it's an opinion and there are no right or wrong answers but my opinion is that what you're describing is what the hall of fame is for and the team ring of honor is for players with lesser success than the hall of fame but good enough to be recognized for their team greatness.

If all you acknowledge in your ring of fame is hall of famers and almost or debatable hall of fame level performers then the ring of fame is redundant.
 
I think using the standard I think you're using we'd need to get a crowbar and rip off 3/4s of the names on our Ring of Honor.

No Dave Butz (He's on my list)
No Jeff Bostic
No Joe Theismann
No Doug Williams
No Bubba Tyer
No Sean Taylor (didn't do it long enough and his legend is built on what we project he would have done)
No Chris Samuels
No Mark Rypien
No Charles Mann
No Dexter Manley
No Charlie Justice (only played 2 years for us and he's in the RoH?)
No Ken Harvey
No London Fletcher (Fletcher's best years were on other teams. He was a good sideline to sideline linebacker for us, but not even a probowler)
No Monte Coleman

I'd argue for almost all of those players. I'd also that Ricky Sanders contributions to the Super Bowl teams was equal or greater than the accomplishments of many of these players.
 
heisenberg said:
You are 100 percent correct in that it's an opinion and there are no right or wrong answers but my opinion is that what you're describing is what the hall of fame is for and the team ring of honor is for players with lesser success than the hall of fame but good enough to be recognized for their team greatness.

If all you acknowledge in your ring of fame is hall of famers and almost or debatable hall of fame level performers then the ring of fame is redundant.
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This is an excellent reply and has me reconsidering. You are right, the ROF is not necessarily for only Hall of Famers. I had no problem with players like Chris Samuels, Brian Mitchell or Monte Coleman making the ring of fame. Players who had an impact for a long time, not necessarily Hall of Famers.

I just never considered the 3rd best WR on his team to be worthy. Now I'm reconsidering. With that said I don't think being a productive support player on a great team is enough. I don't think Ryp or Doug played long enough. Ryp is in for basically 7 months of great football, Doug for 3 hours. That's just not enough for me personally. I strongly believe in preserving the honor for both the ROF and the HOF so that bar should be high IMO.
 
If Rypien, Williams, Ken Harvey, and Bubba Tyer (a trainer) get in then yes Ricky Sanders definitely should be in. I'm surprised that Bruce Allen isn't in as a ballboy.

It seems like Snyder put in guys who were involved with the team, like Doug Williams and London Fletcher and the guy he liked who died, Sean Taylor, but for some reason left off guys like Portis and Moss.

My list is to add Sanders, Portis, Moss, and maybe Cooley. Portis pretty much gave up a HOF career in Denver by coming to the Redskins.

Stephen Davis would get in too, but dumbass traded him so nope. Same thing with Ryan Clark who ended up playing a long time in Pittsburgh.
 
To me the Ring of Honor and Hall of Fame are distinctly different honorifics with distinctly different measures.

The Ring of Honor inductees should, of course, be identified by their on-field performance. But their contribution to the teams they played on, their meaning to the fans, and their impact on the community should take on a level of precedence.

My favorite Redskin, Monte Coleman, would never receive Hall of Fame consideration. But for me he is someone who epitomizes what ‘Redskins’ means.
 
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