I'm curious about what people think of a player like Rudi Johnson when it comes to the Hall of Fame. In his regular season career, he has the 14th most rushing yards and 13th most rushing TDs. Very good, but not quite HOF worthy.

How much weight should post season success have on a player's HOF candidacy? Rudi is by far the #1 rusher in playoff history and was a huge reason we made 6 of 8 World Bowls in the 80's.

Is that enough to overlook his injury prone career? Knowing how people feel about this will help me figure future ballots.

It's not just Rudi either, but there will be plenty of future retired Showboats, Gamblers, etc that could fall in the same category as Rudi.

I think it is here that real life and sim life diverge.

In real life, truly great players elevate their game in the postseason. They make memorable plays when under the most pressure.They show us strength of character in the face of adversity and rise to the occasion when on the biggest possible stage.

In sim life, there is no human performance factor. The players are collections of numerical attribute ratings. Those ratings don't change in the postseason. Sim players don't elevate their game. Sim players don't deal with additional pressure. Sim players don't demonstrate character in the face of adversity. They perform as their numerical attributes suggest they should.

But, if you wanted to make the case that postseason stats were accumulated against a higher quality of opposition, I could not argue that.

Both good points, and I'd like to add that obviously, post season games are more important than a random regular season game.

If we look solely at the numbers generated, we should combine regular and post season yardage to build one's case. Adding post season totals, Rudi moves from 14th to 7th in all time rushing yards, and his 50 total rushing TDs would have him in a tie for 6th. He also was named Offensive MVP of 1987.

I feel like Lynn Swann is the poster-child for this discussion. His career stats were lacking, even compared to his contemporaries (let alone compared to the inflation of WR stats from the 80's to current day.) Although, his post-season performances were grand enough to make him deserving of the NFL HOF.

Personally, what you have done in the postseason means a ton. Compiling regular season numbers is great but its what you have done when the games matter most to seperate the men from the boys.

If you are Dan Marino it's the regular season but if you are Joe Montana....its the 4 rings that matter most.

Dominating in the postseason should count big. Rudi Johnson is clearly a Hall of Famer for his postseason accomplishments and his regular season stats aren't bad either.

My opinion