Greg Papa is happy 49ers great Roger Craig gets Hall of Fame validation
Greg Papa joins Matt Maiocco to discuss the NFL Honors on Friday's Media Row at Moscone Center in San Francisco ahead of Super Bowl LX.
Greg Papa is happy 49ers great Roger Craig gets Hall of Fame validation originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
We are back at Media Row, brought to you by Toyota, and I'm joined here on the La-Z-Boy recliners, long live the lazy, by Greg Papa, the voice of the 49ers.
Greg, it's great to see you.
Great to see you.
Got a little Peet's Coffee going.
I had Lazy Bear Wine this week at a, uh- Nice ... nice party we had.
The commissioner was there, and a few other celebs were there.
Jon Hamm was there, did a nice job hosting honors last night, and obviously, good night for Christian.
Could have been better, but getting Comeback Player of the Year- Yeah ... was nice, but the, the highlight, and I know you were involved in it, very closely, that Roger Craig, finally, after all these decades, is, is canonized.
Did you get a sense for just what it meant to him and those around him?
Yeah, I mean, I remember talking to him in 2019.
We did an open Q&A.
Patrick Willis was there, a few other former John Taylor was there, and, and Roger got into it.
And I go back to Roger when I was in college, doing Syracuse football.
We went to Lincoln, Nebraska, to play the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the score was 63 to nothing, and they had Turner Gill at quarterback.
They had Mike Rozier.
Tom Rathman was on that team, and Roger Craig was a fullback.
Irving Fryar- Were you at that game?
Yeah, I called that game, and it was, He was- Irving Fryar was the number one overall pick in the draft, and Roger, was a part of that backfield, but, he, he caught, like, 16 passes his whole career at Nebraska.
Yeah.
He was not a pass catcher.
He was a fullback, you know, like Marcus Allen coming into the NFL as a fullback for Charles White and doing what he did.
But Roger, with the high knees and the, the big eyes and just how he changed football, and he's always respectful, but I- it bothered him.
Mm-hmm.
It bothered all of us, that he just There's just not enough representation on the- in, in particular, the '80s teams.
You know, the '90s, when you get into Deion and a few other guys, but we stretch it all out.
But overall, the Niners, five dynasties when you, Super Bowls.
When you compare it to other franchises, like Dallas or the Steelers, like, their whole defense is in and their whole- Yeah ... offensive backfield, both wide receivers, and it's just not there.
So, you know, to, to, to have Roger finally go in and be recognized, and more than anybody, I mean, Joe is Joe, and Jerry's Jerry, but he, he symbolized that offense, that it was a, a short passing game, using the running back position, to pick up four, five, six yards over and over again, and, you know, just keep moving the chains, and they didn't make mistakes, and they hit you over the top now and then.
But that really was the essence of that Cincinnati offense that Bill Walsh brought here, that they called the West Coast offense, but it started in Cincinnati, obviously.
And, and Roger Craig, well, he wasn't there for the first one.
He was there for '19, '23, and '24, and '19 scored the three touchdowns, two receiving.
But I think more than anyone, because of that running back position and how they used it so differently, he really does symbolize the genius of Bill Walsh.
Yeah, and it, it validates, you know his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame kind of validates that as far as y- you mentioned.
The, the team of the '80s, you know, the team of the '70s, the Pittsburgh Steelers, have all kinds of players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and, you know, the, the offense was innovative, it was dynamic, it was exciting, and really, it was only Joe and Jerry from those teams.
Steve, as you mentioned, came later, as far as from the offensive side, and, and Roger was really the missing piece.
Roger was the guy A lot of great players on those teams, but when you look at it, really, the, the one guy who was deserving, who wasn't in, is Roger Craig.
And his work ethic.
Mm-hmm.
Oh- Before Jerry Rice got here and ran the hill, it was Roger Craig running that hill, and very few of their teammates wanted to run that hill with him, so he was maniacal.
And then the other side of it, we wondered, would it be two 49er running backs going into the same draft class, same Hall of Fame class, with them hosting the Super Bowl?
And I think we thought, as a first-ballot Hall of Famer for Frank Gore, it might be difficult when you especially look at Drew Brees, and, and Larry Fitzgerald.
Jason Witten didn't make it.
but you, I mean, Adam Vinatieri made the greatest kick in the history of Pro Football.
There have been a lot of great ones, but I was there, for the Chuck Hughes game in the snow, and when that ball came off his foot, I said, "No."
It was going sideways, 46-yarder, looked like a helicopter, and for him to hit it hard enough And it was a low-line drive.
He was able to get it over the uprights, and then he made a chip shot field goal to win the game in overtime, and the Raiders never had the ball.
And then he made two, you know, kick to win the Super Bowl later, and then another one to beat Carolina.
we need more foot in football.
We, we need more placekickers, and for a long time, there wasn't.
You didn't have M- you know, Morten Andersen finally went in, Jan Stenerud.
My friend from Syracuse, Gary Anderson, still not in the Hall of Fame.
We've had, you know, Shane Lechler still waiting to go into the Hall of Fame.
Um- Well, it's, there only one punter.
Great guy, and, and Shane should go, and then Devon Hester finally went in.
Steve Tasker's not made the Hall of Fame in Buffalo.
You know- They're- ... it's funny.
Okay, so you're bringing up the specialists, and you're talking about if you're at the absolute best of your profession, you should go in.
What about Kyle Juszczyk?
You know, i- it's, it's the fullback position that not every team uses, in fact, very few teams do use, but talk about being a decorated, fullback, the most Pro Bowls and everything else.
What, what do you think about his case?
Well, I remember, I think, I think you were standing next to me one year when we found out, Juice was there, and I was gonna interview him, that he And it was a couple years ago.
Now he's got 10. but he passed Jim Brown.
He has made the most Pro Bowls of any fullback in the history of the NFL.... and I gave him a list.
Now, the position has changed.
Mm-hmm.
Jim Brown was a fullback.
Larry Csonka was a fullback.
You know, they, they had what's called a pro set, where the running backs were not, like Juice is offset, I had him, Christian, either in line or off, and back then they were even.
They were level, so you couldn't tell.
so, you know, Franco Harris was a fullback.
I mean, a lot of guys were.
But anyway, what you're saying is the, you know And he's not like a, a, a Sam Gash or Lorenzo Neal, that were just, you know, neck roll guys that were leading it up in there- Yeah ... and running blast plays, and, you know, bob plays, and, or even Mike Alstott in Tampa Bay, who would run the ball more, and was a really good lead block.
He's not like that.
He- what they call him in the building is offensive weapon, because he does line up I don't even know who plays more positions, Christian or Juice.
He's everywhere.
Yeah.
He's an H-back, he's a inline tight end, a, you know, tight end.
He's a, a offset fullback.
They line him up in a slot, they put him outside.
so th- that's a really good, question.
But- I don't think Juice will make the Hall of Fame, because he won't have the stats- Yeah ... to back it up, but he's guys made 10 Pro Bowls in his career, nine as a 49er, the most in history.
So I think we have to recognize as time goes on, just how great a player, and how perfect He's not, he would not fit every offense- Yeah ... in the NFL.
Probably wouldn't fit half of them, but for Kyle Shanahan, what Kyle Juszczyk does is instrumental.
I think it would've been a much better case, had the 49ers won two Super Bowls, to say he was a vital member of two Super Bowl winning teams.
Well, Super Bowl LIV, he scored a touchdown- Yes, he did ... in that game, and he got down to the one-yard line to score a second touchdown in that game.
Had the Niners won that game, I don't know who would've been the MVP.
People think Jimmy, but if Juszczyk scores the second touchdown, there's a chance.
And again, you know- Yeah ... Csonka was a fullback, so he was a, a Super Bowl MVP.
But in the modern era, to have a fullback, that'd be a nice return on the odds- Yeah ... to pick a, to pick a fullback to be the MVP.
Yeah.
Seattle's got two fullbacks on their roster, by the way.
Two.
Incredible.
