Darryl Talley Does Not Make Semifinalist List for Pro Football Hall of Fame

Another year, another Hall of Fame snub for Mountaineer great Darryl Talley.

Talley, made quite the impact at WVU, amassing 484 career tackles and earning a consensus All-America nomination in 1983. His prolific career helped put West Virginia on the map nationally at the onset of the Don Nehlen era of WVU football. Talley’s extraordinary college career earned him a spot in the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and a recent induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

Jul. 20, 2012; South Bend, IN, USA; Darryl Talley of West Virginia waves after receiving his blazer at the Hall of Fame blazer Presentation at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Darryl Talley also had quite the prolific professional football career as well. Talley combined with defensive end Bruce Smith and linebacker Cornelius Bennett to give the Buffalo Bills a championship caliber defense in the early 1990s.

That talented Bills defense was paired with an equally potent k-gun offense featuring Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed.

But as Talley and all Bills fans are painfully aware of, the Bills lost four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s to the NFC East. While Super Bowl losers are rarely heralded, the Bills of the early 1990s are one of the greatest teams in NFL history.

Consider the fact that the Bills were able to be such a dominant force in the AFC at a time when the Steelers, Oilers, and Chiefs were perennial contenders.

That kind of four year dominance shows that the Bills, had they won one or two of those four Super Bowls, would be referred to as one of the NFL’s great dynasties.

Many of Talley’s teammates are already enshrined in Canton, including Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, James Lofton, Bruce Smith, and coach Marv Levy.

Two other members of those great teams made the 2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame semi-finalist cut: Andre Reed and Steve Tasker.

Talley has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame several times over the past few years, but has yet to crack the semi-finalist cut in any year. That is a shame, given that he is a two-time Pro Bowl and two-time All-Pro selection as well as a four-time Super Bowl participant.

It would appear as though Talley is frozen out of the semi-finalist cut for the foreseeable future given the log jam of 1990s candidates that have yet to be enshrined. Talley might have to wait until he is up for senior committee nomination to gain traction in his Pro Football Hall of Fame campaign.