Put Ken Anderson in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame

Ken Anderson should be in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, but he isn't.

Throughout the decades, dozens of fine players have been selected by the Hall's committee to be enshrined in Canton.

When the Hall revealed its long-list for the Centennial Slate Finalists in 2020 last week (December 19), Bengals fans the world over were expecting Ken Anderson to be on that list.

For reasons best known to themselves, he wasn't.

As fans, we're often emotional about our team and the legends that play for them.

But Ken Anderson's exclusion goes beyond emotion. His exclusion goes beyond reason, too.

Drafted in 1971 with the 67th pick, Ken became the starting quarterback in 1972 and went onto play 16 seasons with the Bengals.

He was an AFC Champion in 1980, he was a four-time Pro Bowler and an All-Pro in 1981. He was named both NFL Offensive Player Of The Year and NFL Comeback Player Of The Year in 1981. He was NFL Man Of The Year (now the Walter Payton Man Of The Year) in 1975.

He was named NFL MVP in 1981.

But consider these statistics that, in some cases, stood the test of time for decades:

At the time of Ken's retirement in 1986 season, he held NFL records for consecutive pass completions (20), completion percentage for a single game (20 of 22, 90.9%, vs. Pittsburgh in 1974) and completion percentage for a season (70.6% in 1982), as well as the Super Bowl records for completion percentage (73.5%).

He led the league in passer rating in 1974, 1975, 1981 and 1982.

He was also the first quarterback to run Bill Walsh's era-changing West Coast Offense, when Walsh was offensive coordinator in Cincinnati.

Ken was ranked sixth all-time for passing yards in a career at the time of his retirement.

His record for completion percentage in a season stood for 27 years after his retirement (broken only by Drew Brees in 2009). He led the NFL in passing yards and completions twice, and lead the league in fewest interceptions per pass attempt three times.

There are many fantastic quarterbacks whose busts are sitting in the Hall Of Fame, but some of them cannot boast Ken's achievements.

Jim Kelly never held an NFL record that stood for almost 30 years. Dan Fouts was never an NFL MVP. Warren Moon never lead the league in pass rating. Ever.

Quite simply, Ken Anderson deserves to be in the Hall Of Fame.

Bengals fans around the world – Bengal Jim's Before The Roar, the Bengals Bomb Squad and the Bengals Trailer tailgate crews, and Bengals UK, the UK-based fangroup – have united to protest Ken's continued omission.

Please sign. Let's get Ken in.