Last week, Last Word on Sports president, Michael Kovacs, posted Facebook a video he made in the fall of 2011. He asks his viewers whether Anthony Calvillo, who at the time had just become pro football’s leading passer with a touchdown pass to Jamel Richardson, should be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame once he retires.
Calvillo would play another two seasons before announcing his retirement, finishing his 20-year career with 79,816 passing yards, passing Damon Allen by over 7,000 yards and finishing with 8,000 more than the great Brett Favre.
Favre excelled him in the categories of touchdown passes and completions. Calvillo passed for 455 touchdowns and 5,892 completions, while Favre had 508 and 6,300, respectively, also in 20 seasons. Calvillo was passed by Peyton Manning for touchdowns (469) and completed passes (5,927) last season but remains the CFL’s all-time best in all three categories of touchdowns, completions and yards.
Before we answer the question of if Calvillo should merit a bust in Canton, Ohio, we must look at other quarterbacks who have a permanent bronze figure in football’s holy shrine.
There are currently 23 modern-era quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The names include Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, John Elway, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Steve Young, and former Edmonton Eskimo Warren Moon, just to name a few.
Statistically, Calvillo is better than all of those players, but in reality, it’s a stretch to say that Calvillo is greater than such greats as Marino, Montana, and Elway. It is difficult to compare players from two different leagues, even more so when they played two different brands of football. One may also argue the talent level in the NFL is significantly greater than what Calvillo faced in Canada.
The NFL is a better league talent-wise but its rules work against it when talking about statistics. In the CFL, quarterbacks have one less down to make a play, the balls are slightly larger to throw, the field is wider and longer, overall making it harder to get a touchdown. And receivers in the CFL are not as strong as those in the NFL and might not make those timely catches. One particular example of this was in the 2012 East Division Final when a wide-open Brian Bratton dropped a touchdown pass that bounced off his chest, preventing his team from advancing to the Grey Cup. Meanwhile, in the NFL, Odell Beckham Jr. is catching touchdowns one-handed while falling backwards.
In short, a number of factors worked against Calvillo in completing passes and put up points compared to any regular NFL quarterback. But he has better statistics than all of the 23 men who played pivot and have been inducted into the PFHOF. Unitas and Montana have 40,239 and 40,551 passing yards, respectively, just over half of Calvillo’s total yardage. In fact, 16 of the 23 inductees have less than half of Calvillo’s total yardage.
In terms of touchdown passes, Marino is the next closest to the third-placed Calvillo, with 420, while both Tom Brady and Drew Brees entered the 2015 NFL season with 396 passing touchdowns. At 38 and 36 years old, it could be interesting to see if either of them will catch up to Calvillo’s mark of 455 before their career is over.
Surprisingly enough, Moon and Allen follow Calvillo in the list for most completed passes, with 5,357 and 5,158 passes each. Marino is the next in line with 4,967 passes, while Brady (4576) and Brees (4937) could have a tough time to catch up to Calvillo’s mark.
Anthony Calvillo certainly merits the statistics to send him to Canton and he also has the pedigree. Calvillo brought his team to eight Grey Cup appearances, winning three. No NFL quarterback has reached more than six Superbowls, and only three quarterbacks (Brady, Bradshaw and Montana) have won four Vince Lombardi Trophies, while Aikman is the only one to claim three.
So Calvillo has amazing numbers and has many rings, so what would keep him from an induction when he is technically eligible in 2019? The list of inductees features only NFL players and those who have played in both leagues, such as Warren Moon, have little to no mention of any CFL affiliation on the PFHOF’s website. Moon’s profile on the website has only his NFL statistics but does quickly mention the fact that he won five Grey Cups with the Eskimos in the 1980s.
Although the Hall of Fame is not for the sole purpose of the NFL, it is tied closely with that league and is not geared towards other leagues, such as the Arena Football League and the now defunct United Football League. It does devote a certain section to the non-NFL leagues but a player from outside the NFL has yet to be enshrined. This may be the biggest hurdle for Calvillo’s case; despite his numbers and despite his championships, the fact that he never played in the NFL may just lock him out from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Having retired in 2014, Anthony Calvillo is only eligible for the PFHOF in 2019, still many years away, although he is very likely to be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2017. He is arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game of football, American or Canadian, and he undoubtedly deserves a bust in Canton along the greats, but will it happen? Only time, and a bit of fortune from the Board of Selectors in four years, will tell.
