Speaker 1: Joining us on the UMA guest line this segment is
Speaker 1: Mark Adams from forty nine or web Zone, and I'm
Speaker 1: super excited to have Mark on in this segment. He is,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, one of the reasons that Roger Craig
Speaker 1: is in the Hall of Fame class of twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: and he's with us on the Sports Leader Mark.
Speaker 2: How are you, hey, Larry, how's it going?
Speaker 1: Oh man, it's going so good. And I'm just you know,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy, so happy today. You know. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: part of it is that I hit my three team
Speaker 1: parlay last night in baseball, but that has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with it. It's really more My happiness has to
Speaker 1: do with the fact that Roger Craig taking his spot,
Speaker 1: his long awaited spot in pro Football's hallowed ground, and
Speaker 1: he is the part of the Hall of Fame class
Speaker 1: at twenty twenty six. It's an amazing class. Drew Brees,
Speaker 1: Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Keigley, Adam Vinettier and Roger Craig. And
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say not only congratulations to Roger,
Speaker 1: his family, his friends, his teammates and everybody who loves him,
Speaker 1: but I also want to say congratulations to you, Mark,
Speaker 1: because you you had her hand in this, You had
Speaker 1: a role in this, and I'm so proud to say that.
Speaker 1: You know, I was maybe had a little small part
Speaker 1: in this as well, and I'm so excited. I know
Speaker 1: you are as well. It's not about you, it's not
Speaker 1: about me, but it's about Roger. But tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about what you did to try to make
Speaker 1: this a reality, because this is a long road and
Speaker 1: this is this is not the first time you and
Speaker 1: I have talked about Roger for the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: and you've spent a lot of hours invested in this.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it has been a long road about thirty years
Speaker 2: that he's been waiting to get in, and it's long overdue,
Speaker 2: it's well deserved. But you are one of the big
Speaker 2: reasons why he's in. Because when I reached out to
Speaker 2: you and said, hey, I heard in that pregame show,
Speaker 2: I heard the stats the case that you made. Can
Speaker 2: I get a copy of that because I want to
Speaker 2: write an article on it. And you gave me, you know,
Speaker 2: you called me and said here's here's the case, and
Speaker 2: then you kind of challenged me, Hey, don't just write
Speaker 2: an article. See if you can get some guys on board,
Speaker 2: because you know, you're a writer, you're a fan, that's great.
Speaker 2: But if you can get some guys like Joe Montana,
Speaker 2: Steve Young and Ronnie Lott, if you can get those
Speaker 2: kinds of guys behind you, then this this could go
Speaker 2: a long way. And you know, I said, okay, I'll
Speaker 2: give that a shot, thinking how in the world am
Speaker 2: I going to get, you know, in touch with these guys.
Speaker 2: But I ended up had a contact with the team
Speaker 2: who put me in contact with somebody else that was
Speaker 2: with the team back from the glory days. And then
Speaker 2: that individual just said, hey, who do you want? And
Speaker 2: I said, I just started naming names, and I started
Speaker 2: with Joe and Jerry and and Ronnie and all these guys,
Speaker 2: and next thing I know, I'm reaching out to him.
Speaker 2: And because it was Roger Craig, they they all reached
Speaker 2: back out to me. And so it really is a
Speaker 2: testament to the kind of person that that Roger is,
Speaker 2: because these these guys were all willing to talk to
Speaker 2: somebody that they didn't know, just just just for a
Speaker 2: chance that he might make it into the hall. And
Speaker 2: so it was definitely a collective effort. Couldn't have done
Speaker 2: that on my own. So I appreciate you. And Matt
Speaker 2: Mayoko gave me a lot of guidance. Being that he's
Speaker 2: a Hall of Fame voter, he was able to tell me, Okay,
Speaker 2: here's how they think, here's what you need to to
Speaker 2: speak to as far as the Hall of Fame voters.
Speaker 2: But you know, some of them I had to do
Speaker 2: on my own. Like I've got Mike Singletary didn't have
Speaker 2: anybody get his information for me, but he has a charity.
Speaker 2: I went to that charity website and just filled out
Speaker 2: this little contact for him and said who I was
Speaker 2: and why I was wanting to talk to to Coach Singletary,
Speaker 2: and he called me the next day. And so that
Speaker 2: shows you how great of a person Roger Praig is
Speaker 2: because so many people were willing to help. I mean,
Speaker 2: when we were making this big push, the last time
Speaker 2: that we were doing it, I think, if I remember right,
Speaker 2: Joe Montana was out of the country, and so there
Speaker 2: were some people Eddie de Bartolow's office, they were getting
Speaker 2: some of the some of the guys like Watt and
Speaker 2: Singletary and Steve Young and different guys. They were getting
Speaker 2: them together to call Hall of Fame voters and say, hey,
Speaker 2: he needs to get he needs to be selected. And
Speaker 2: Montana was in another country and he took time out
Speaker 2: of his schedule to call some Hall of Fame voters
Speaker 2: while he was overseas. And so I think that just
Speaker 2: shows you how great of a person Roger Craig is.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so true somewhere in this path. I
Speaker 1: I I did an event with Roger down in San
Speaker 1: Jose and and I told him, I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna fight this fight. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: you in there. We're gonna, we're gonna, you know, because
Speaker 1: he's he was too proud to do it on himself,
Speaker 1: do it for himself. He's just he's not the kind
Speaker 1: of guy who's gonna do that. He's just not He's
Speaker 1: not Drew Pearson. He's not gonna. I should have been
Speaker 1: in you know. And and yet you know what, the
Speaker 1: squeaky wheel gets the grease. And I'm I I promised him,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, we are gonna fight this fight. We're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna knock on every door. We're gonna remind
Speaker 1: people but what you were and and and and we're gonna,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get this done. And Roger was like, you know,
Speaker 1: very happy, you know, very gracious, but you know, he
Speaker 1: this means so much to him, and it's meant so
Speaker 1: much to him, and to have to wait as long
Speaker 1: as he has, it's just it's not right. There are
Speaker 1: bigger injustices in the world. I'm not pretending that this
Speaker 1: is the greatest injustice of all time, but this is
Speaker 1: a guy who if Walsh had not died early, Walsh
Speaker 1: would have led the charge. And unlike you or I
Speaker 1: who don't maybe quite have the juice, if Bill had
Speaker 1: said Roger's a Hall of Famer and kept saying it,
Speaker 1: you know, he would have been in probably a decade ago.
Speaker 1: And instead he's had to wait, largely because Bill passed
Speaker 1: and he didn't have that advocate. But I'm just glad
Speaker 1: that that we could be that advocate. That and you
Speaker 1: talk to a lot of guys, I mean, and you
Speaker 1: did a lot of interviews, So tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about this because I know you put together a video,
Speaker 1: like an extensive video, and then what happened with that video?
Speaker 1: Where did that video go?
Speaker 2: So first, I did. I wrote a story on forty
Speaker 2: nine ers web zone, and then I took that. Once
Speaker 2: we finished it, I took that and sent it to
Speaker 2: all the guys involved, so Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice,
Speaker 2: Eddie de Bartolo, Ronnie Lott, Brent Jones, Carmen Policy, George Seaffert,
Speaker 2: all of these guys got a copy of that article
Speaker 2: so they could send it off to whoever they wanted
Speaker 2: to send it off to. I then sent it to
Speaker 2: every Hall of Fame senior voter that I had received.
Speaker 2: I don't remember who it was, but somebody had given
Speaker 2: me all of those names. I think it was somebody
Speaker 2: from Eddie D's office. So I sent it all to
Speaker 2: them and some of them responded said thank you, and
Speaker 2: some of them didn't respond. So then about a year
Speaker 2: so later, we did that podcast series that you were
Speaker 2: a part of, and that was you making the Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame case. That was some media people like Matt
Speaker 2: Mayoko and some Hall of Fame voters, and then that
Speaker 2: was the players, you know, Steve Young and Ronnie Lott
Speaker 2: and some of those guys. And so once we finished that,
Speaker 2: we sent that to the Hall of Fame voters as well.
Speaker 2: But there was also an article in there that I
Speaker 2: did that had Mike Singletary and Harry Carson and John Robinson,
Speaker 2: who interestingly, interestingly enough, John Robinson and Dan Reeves both
Speaker 2: at two different times during the eighties, one of them
Speaker 2: in eighty five, one of them in eighty eight said
Speaker 2: Roger Craig is the best running back we have in
Speaker 2: the NFL. I'll remind you that John Robinson coached Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 2: So those are big words, you know. And then Mike
Speaker 2: Singletarry to say, I put Roger Craig right up there
Speaker 2: with Walter Payton. Those are huge birds. So and so
Speaker 2: then Matt and Mayoko did a similar article. I don't
Speaker 2: remember which year it was, but he did something very
Speaker 2: similar where he reached out to a lot of players
Speaker 2: that played against Roger and so he put something together
Speaker 2: and I think through mister Dee's office, they reached out
Speaker 2: to some other players. I don't remember who all that
Speaker 2: they reached out to, but they had they had other
Speaker 2: players contacting the Hall of Fame voters, and so there
Speaker 2: was just this huge effort beyond what I was doing
Speaker 2: to kind of collectively let's just inundate them with with
Speaker 2: with a passionate police and a passionate case on why
Speaker 2: we think Roger Craig belongs to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, statistically, there was no doubt he belonged
Speaker 1: in and anybody could see that. But it's also about
Speaker 1: what is the Hall of Fame? It's you know, and
Speaker 1: who are these Hall of Famers? What's their role? Well,
Speaker 1: they're ambassadors for the sport. Who's a better ambassador for
Speaker 1: pro football and the forty nine ers in NFL football
Speaker 1: than Roger Craig. I mean, seriously, the guy. The guy's
Speaker 1: in you know, testament to hard work. You know, he
Speaker 1: was a workmanlike player. I mean the the workouts that
Speaker 1: Jerry Rice is credited. You know, Jerry runs the Hill.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like that was Roger's workout, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Roger introduced Jerry to the Hill. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: and you know, there's no bitterness at all. But I
Speaker 1: do think it's interesting that Jerry is so great, and
Speaker 1: I think Jerry's a big part of this. To be
Speaker 1: completely honest, and I told you that I really felt
Speaker 1: like the number one reason that Roger Craig belonged to
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame was Jerry Rice, and people would say, well,
Speaker 1: what do you mean. I said, well, Jerry Rice is
Speaker 1: the greatest offensive statistical entity that the league has ever seen.
Speaker 1: He blew out the records by tons. The leagues have
Speaker 1: been a passing league for the last twenty years. People
Speaker 1: are still not even approaching Jerry's records. So he played
Speaker 1: in an era where there was less passing, and yet
Speaker 1: his numbers are so dominating, and it's just like anything else.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you have a two hundred yard receiver
Speaker 1: with four touchdowns, guess what you're running back probably had,
Speaker 1: you know, forty two yards and no touchdowns. And there
Speaker 1: were a lot of games like that where Roger Craig's
Speaker 1: numbers were suppressed because he played with Rice. And you
Speaker 1: could say the same thing about Waters, the same thing
Speaker 1: about John Taylor, the same thing about Brent Jones. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying they all belong in the hall because there
Speaker 1: are a little bit more borderline cases. But when you
Speaker 1: factor in the Jerry factor and how much he dominated
Speaker 1: the ball, and you look at Rogers numbers, there's just
Speaker 1: no doubt that Jerry, even though he's great and there
Speaker 1: was not you know, it wasn't doing anything to Roger.
Speaker 1: But just the presence of a dominant statistical force like
Speaker 1: Jerry suppressed Craig's Hall of Fame resume and and and
Speaker 1: there's just no doubt about that. And it's I'm just
Speaker 1: so glad that the correction has been made, or that
Speaker 1: there were enough numbers out there, there were enough people
Speaker 1: that realized. Did you know, by the way, that sal
Speaker 1: Pallantonio was as passionate about Roger Craig's Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: candidacy as we were.
Speaker 2: Not until he started working, Because I think that somebody
Speaker 2: because he made the last He's the one this this
Speaker 2: past year that made the presentation to the Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame voters on Roger's behalf. And before he did that,
Speaker 2: he reached out to me just because he wanted to
Speaker 2: collect as much information as he could. And that was
Speaker 2: really the first time that I'd ever heard that he
Speaker 2: had any kind of push, you know, in Rogers favor.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you're right, he really was passionate and he
Speaker 2: was pushing for that. And I agree with you on
Speaker 2: the Rice thing. Joe Montana said it, if Jerry Rice
Speaker 2: wasn't there, imagine the kind of numbers that Roger Craig
Speaker 2: would have put up because Roger had his thousand thousand
Speaker 2: season in eighty five. That was Rice's rookie year. And
Speaker 2: so from that point on, I mean in nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: eight when they won Super Bowl twenty three, that was
Speaker 2: kind of when Rice was starting to be known as
Speaker 2: maybe the best wide receiver in football and Roger was
Speaker 2: still Roger was the NFC Offensive Player of the Year
Speaker 2: that year because people who were voting for that recognized, hey,
Speaker 2: this is he's not just a numbers guy. This guy
Speaker 2: means a lot to this Super Bowl winning team.
Speaker 1: No, no question, no question about it. Did mister D
Speaker 1: is such a leader of this franchise and so many
Speaker 1: of his words, I think he was a guy that
Speaker 1: motivated South Palantoni to lead this charge to some degree.
Speaker 1: Do you remember any of the things that mister D
Speaker 1: said about Roger, because I know, you know Rob, you
Speaker 1: know Eddie understands that Roger needed to be in there
Speaker 1: and you know, really champion this, you know, behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm trying to think of what there was something
Speaker 2: that he had said, and I don't remember exactly what
Speaker 2: it was, but I think that he talked about the
Speaker 2: fact that Roger Craig changed Bill Walsh's offense. And I mean,
Speaker 2: you look at today, there's whether it's Kyle Shanahan or whoever,
Speaker 2: there are so many teams that are using at least
Speaker 2: part of what Walsh did. And so I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, when you can say that player changed the
Speaker 2: offense of a guy like Bill Walsh, that's a huge statement.
Speaker 2: And so I think that, if I remember right the Bartolow,
Speaker 2: one of his big things was that, you know a
Speaker 2: lot of people blame the fumble in the NFC Championship,
Speaker 2: and how many people in their life that are very
Speaker 2: successful have a miscue. You know, I'm going to judge
Speaker 2: somebody by one mistake. I mean, before there was the
Speaker 2: catch in that nineteen eighty one NFC Championship game, how
Speaker 2: many times did Joe Montana turn the ball over? It
Speaker 2: doesn't mind. I think that, Yeah, what matters is what
Speaker 2: happened in the end. And so I think that that,
Speaker 2: you know, you don't judge based off one play, but
Speaker 2: that just happened to be his final play with the
Speaker 2: forty nine Ers, And so I even had some forty
Speaker 2: nine Ers fans reach out to me during his time
Speaker 2: and say, I don't think he belongs in the Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame because of that humble and my response ridiculous. Hey,
Speaker 2: maybe maybe you should get a new team.
Speaker 1: Then no, yeah, bro, check yourself. Come on, So what
Speaker 1: Pablo Picasso, It's not it's not really art because there
Speaker 1: was a little yellow speck in the corner. It's like,
Speaker 1: what stop? Uh. A Niner fan sent this sent me
Speaker 1: a note a couple of weeks ago, saying that Roger's
Speaker 1: signature run is an example of his Hall of fame. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know efforts and I and I thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: I can understand that he had that signature run against
Speaker 1: the Rams and it's like everybody thought he was tackled,
Speaker 1: but he kept going and here comes the high knees
Speaker 1: and but every he thought he was tackled, but no,
Speaker 1: he keeps going. And you know the effort and the
Speaker 1: energy and the determination, and it's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it took all of that effort, all of that energy,
Speaker 1: all of that determination to get him to Saturday in Canton,
Speaker 1: and Mark you had a huge hand in it, man,
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to say thank you for what
Speaker 1: you did. You went above and beyond, man. You took
Speaker 1: the baton and you ran with it, and I really
Speaker 1: believe that this day doesn't happen without your efforts. And
Speaker 1: I just wanted to highlight you today on camb Are
Speaker 1: and let people know that story and know what you did.
Speaker 1: And I'm so proud of it, and I'm really I
Speaker 1: feel like we got something. We actually made a difference,
Speaker 1: and we got this guy to a place that he
Speaker 1: rightfully belongs. And I just want to say thank you
Speaker 1: from Niner fans everywhere for what you did. And I
Speaker 1: just want you to enjoy the speech on Saturday. I
Speaker 1: know I will. It's one of my favorite days of
Speaker 1: the year. Raddy and I used to talk about our
Speaker 1: favorite football days, and the one thing we agreed on
Speaker 1: is we both loved the Hall of Fame speeches because
Speaker 1: it's like that, you know, it's the end of a
Speaker 1: guy's football life and there's some great moments there and
Speaker 1: they're thanking people that help them, and nobody gets there
Speaker 1: by themselves, and there's always somebody who helped you, a coach,
Speaker 1: a teacher, or a mentor, or a wife, a girlfriend, whatever.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure Roger will shout out a lot of
Speaker 1: people that helped him. But if it was if everything
Speaker 1: was right in the world. He would shout out your
Speaker 1: name because you had a huge hand in it. Man.
Speaker 1: Congratulations man, and thanks for coming on. Camb are telling
Speaker 1: the story, giving a little background, and enjoy that stuff
Speaker 1: this weekend and way to go.
Speaker 2: My pleasure.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was my honor to be part of it. And
Speaker 2: I'm going to enjoy watching him, like watching him walk
Speaker 2: on the field last night when they when they introduced him,
Speaker 2: and you could just see on his joy, you know.
Speaker 1: The joy.
Speaker 2: And so tomorrow I think is going to be really special.
Speaker 1: No doubt, no doubt. Mark Adams from Fort netter websone Mark,
Speaker 1: thanks again,