Rubino: Ken Stabler doesn't need Hall of Fame validation

Straightforward question: Does Ken Stabler belong in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Be serious. Stabler doesn't have any more right to be in the Hall of Fame than his old Raiders teammate, George Blanda. Oh, wait. That's right. Blanda is in the Hall of Fame, despite his scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel career quarterback rating of 60.6 and a whopping 277 interceptions, including a mind-numbing 42 picks in 1962. OK, forget Blanda for a moment.

Stabler doesn't have any more right to be in the Hall of Fame than Joe Namath. Hmm, you're right again. Namath is enshrined in Canton, Ohio, too, despite his hold-your-nose 65.5 QB rating, 47 more interceptions than touchdown passes and an overall losing record as a starter. OK, forget about Namath for a moment.

Let's try a different playbook.

Stabler doesn't have any more right to be in the Hall of Fame than his Raiders predecessor at starting quarterback, Daryle Lamonica, whose astounding .804 winning percentage dwarfs Stabler's lofty .661.

Nor does Stabler have any more right to be in the Hall of Fame than his Raiders successor, Jim Plunkett, who helped lead the franchise to Super Bowl championships in both Oakland and Los Angeles.

Neither Lamonica nor Plunkett is in the Hall of Fame. So why should Stabler?

The question of whether Stabler is worthy of Canton enshrinement became relevant earlier this month when he was selected as a finalist for the Hall's Class of 2016. This is the fourth time Stabler has been a finalist, but the first posthumous bid (he died July 8 at the age of 69), perhaps giving this go-around a bit more of a nostalgic flavor.

So, on to the straightforward answer to whether Stabler belongs in the Hall of Fame:

No.

Now wait a minute. Before all you older Raiders fans and Snake worshippers make a bunch of Pride and Poise noise in response, take a seven-step drop from the black hole of silver-and-black hype and soberly look at some cold stats.

Stabler has a career quarterback rating of 75.3, which is about as thoroughly mediocre as a quarterback rating can be. Consider that Ken Anderson, a contemporary of Stabler's and far more consistent for far longer, has a career QB rating of 81.9, and Anderson isn't in the Hall of Fame. Or consider that Stabler threw 28 more interceptions than TD passes. For someone whose on-field reputation at least partly rests on his alleged dart-like accuracy, those interceptions stick out almost as much as Snake's long-haired, bearded, swaggering on-field persona.

In a pro career that spanned 15 seasons (with the Raiders, Oilers and Saints) from 1970-1984, Stabler had only three truly outstanding years — 1973, '74 and '76. The rest were either good-but-not-great, just OK or poor. A few were awful. Hardly Hall of Fame material.

Admittedly, there's another side to this devil's-advocate rant. Stabler helped lead the Raiders to the team's first Super Bowl championship to conclude the 1976 season, and he was a key part in a spectrum of vividly memorable Raiders highlights, including dramatic playoff victories against the Dolphins and Patriots, and countless regular-season games. And though there's no clear definition for charisma, Stabler possessed that particular intangible in spades.

Perhaps where Stabler enthusiasts fumble is their fixation on the Hall of Fame itself. It helps to see the Hall for what it is — an attractive, fan-friendly modern museum showcasing the history of football and the public relations colossus called the NFL. It is not a sacred place, and the players elected by the 46-person selection committee represent both the worthy and the dubious. Some are in the Hall of Fame mainly for being famous, like Namath and Blanda.

This isn't to belittle their distinctive careers and stellar achievements. But they did not display consistent, long-term, on-field greatness. The previously mentioned Lamonica and Plunkett had fine careers, too, as did Stabler, but is the Hall of Fame really supposed to be a place to commemorate fine careers?

Look, Stabler is an all-time Raiders hero, and nothing will take that away, not even another Hall of Fame rejection. Nor will a Hall of Fame selection validate Stabler's legacy. It doesn't need validation. The memories he provided will live not in a museum in Ohio, but in the hearts and minds of Oakland Raiders fans.

Stabler certainly is among the best players not in the Hall of Fame. There's no shame in that. Then again, Bobby Layne is in, and Bobby Layne was Ken Stabler — both on and off the field — two decades before Stabler was Stabler.

Robert Rubino can be reached at RobertoRubino@comcast.net.