Hardy Nickerson Belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame

When most sportswriters chronicle a franchise’s turning point, it’s usually attributed to the hiring of a coach or a number one draft-pick QB who goes on to a Hall of Fame career. One where the culture of an organization completely shifts because the team has a pivotal player and focal point to build around.

Well….not exactly. Enter Hardy Nickerson.

Most try to equate the turnaround with the drafting of Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks, but the direction was set in motion several years before these two Hall of Famers were drafted in ’95.

Let’s take you back to the early 1990s. Tampa was a desolate outpost no one wanted to play for. It was a rudderless franchise that had just finished the 1992 season by setting an NFL record with its 10th straight double-digit loss season.

The culture was so demoralized that, just eight years before, 1st-round draft pick Bo Jackson refused to play for Tampa. He elected baseball instead. USFL refugee Steve Young was so disheartened with the situation that he only played two seasons. After a 3-16 record as the starter in ’85 and ’86, Young asked owner Hugh Culverhouse to allow him to leave. His trade paved the way for a Hall of Fame career out in San Francisco and gave Tampa the chance to draft ’86 Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde.

Testaverde toiled in Tampa for six seasons, never winning more than 6 starts and exited in the first season of free agency for a backup assignment in Cleveland. Yet before the door shut Hardy Nickerson was the first big free agent to sign on and step through.

Nickerson became the centerpiece of Defensive Coordinator Floyd Peters’ 4-3 at Middle Linebacker, and a terror was set loose. He became a sideline-to-sideline tracker and hit everything in sight. In ’93 he led the league in tackles with an NFL record 214 while making his 1st Pro Bowl and being voted 1st-team All-Pro. It was only the 4th time a Tampa Bay defender was voted to the Pro Bowl in Hawai’i and only the 2nd All-Pro selection since the team’s inception in 1976.

His play was so dominant he broke the team’s single-season tackle record in a Week 15 win over Chicago. There were still 3 games to go in 1993! So his 1st season ended with 214 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception.

Or think of it like this… he recorded 96 more tackles than his Hall of Fame teammate Derrick Brooks (118) recorded in ’02 when Brooks was NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Chew on that for a second…

He brought an intensity that was infectious and the Bucs began to stand and fight with their foes instead of conceding defeat. In 1993 Nickerson and the Bucs weren’t highly ranked but held 4 teams to 10 points or less. A Taylor Blitz defensive staple. To match this total, not including season finales where teams and the Bucs had packed it in… you have to go back 6 years to 1988 to tally 4 teams held to 10 or fewer points.

Earlier in his career he shared the inside linebacking duties in the Steelers 3-4. Yet now he became the successor to Mike Singletary’s Middle Linebacker throne in the old NFC Central. Over the next 7 years Nickerson averaged 119 tackles 2 forced fumbles as he led his young teammates in to battle as they chased the Green Bay Packers in the NFC North who had risen to become league champion.

From that point on the organization geared their personnel decisions on teaming Nickerson with blue chip defensive talent. Gone were the high profile offensive players that turned the “Yucs” into the laughing stock of the NFL. Replaced by one forged of grit and toughness that thrived on the visceral edge of football. This culiminated with the 96 draft and twin #1 selections Derrick Brooks & Warren Sapp along with promoting SS John Lynch up from special teams.

The season opener in ’97 was the seminal moment when Nickerson’s defensive mates showed they had grown to match his intensity and tenacity. Perennial power San Francisco came to Tampa and was hammered 13-6 as Steve Young was sacked and knocked from the game by Sapp. Young returned a few quarters later, only for Nickerson to sack him as part of his 6-tackle performance. Brooks had 10 tackles, and Sapp finished with 2 1/2 sacks.

It was this game that made the league take notice of the defensive monster rising to prominence in the NFC Central.

With playmakers all over the field in Tony Dungy’s new “Tampa 2,” Nickerson’s stats took a hit. Yet in ’97 he recorded his 2nd-highest career total with 147 tackles, 1 sack and 2 forced fumbles. Hardy was named 1st-team All-Pro and made the 3rd of his 5 Pro Bowl appearances.

However, had he made the ’95 Pro Bowl, he would have finished the 1990s with 5 straight Pro Bowl selections and 6 overall. Yes, Ken Norton and Jessie Tuggle were great that year, but let’s take a closer look…

Nickerson – 143 combined tackles, 1 1/2 sacks 3 forced fumbles 3 fumble recoveries
Ken Norton – 96 combined tackles, 1 sack, 1 ff, 3ints for 2 TDs (same game)
Jessie Tuggle – 152 combined tackles, 1sack, 1ff, 3ints

Kenny, Kenny, Kenny Norton…. sigh… yet this is what the players voted, and he was on the #1 defense in San Fran that year. This catapulted Norton’s profile, and Nickerson was robbed… I meant snubbed. Yet I digress.

The ’97 Bucs finished 3rd in defense and made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, where they lost to the Packers. It ushered in an era where the Bucs finished in the top 3 in both ’98 and ’99 and became a playoff staple under Tony Dungy.

Unfortunately, ’99 was the last season for Nickerson with the Bucs. Although he was 34, he finished with 110 combined tackles, 1/2 sack, 3 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions. He made his 5th and final Pro Bowl. His final game with Tampa was the NFC Championship, where the Bucs held The Greatest Show on Turf to 11 points and held a 6-5 lead until the final 5 minutes of the 4th quarter. Uhhh… yes, 5 points for a team that had scored 526 points during the regular season, which was 3rd-best in NFL history at the time.

Nickerson left Tampa after that stellar defensive performance and played for both Jacksonville and Green Bay before retiring.

Yet the men Nickerson helped usher into an era of defensive excellence went on to win Super Bowl XXXVII a few years later. Once the final minutes counted down, the first two members of the Tampa Bay family I thought of were former head coach Sam Wyche and Nickerson. It was the late Wyche who signed Nickerson and set him loose in his defense.

For his career Nickerson made All Pro 4 times, the Pro Bowl 5 times and was a member of The All Decade Team of the 1990s. Do you realize he is the only true Middle Linebacker on the all decade team?

Where Heisman Trophy winners Vinny Testaverde and Bo Jackson, and Hall of Famer Steve Young, failed to change the culture of the organization, Nickerson succeeded. The fortunes of Tampa’s franchise changed from the moment he took the field.

Name a better and more consistent Middle Linebacker from the NFC side of the ledger during the 1990s? I’ll wait here.

His signing at the advent of the 1st season of true free agency in 1993 has to be viewed as being as important to Tampa Bay as Reggie White’s was to Green Bay. It resurrected a franchise and ultimately led to Super Bowl triumph. It was Nickerson the Buccaneer franchise was building around when they drafted future Hall of Famers Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch and Ronde Barber

I think those in the Hall of Fame should lend more of a voice in Hardy joining them. In a new Top 50 All Time Buccaneers list Tony Dungy narrates this video on Hardy’s greatness playing for the franchise:

To see that his number isn’t retired nor is he in the Buccaneers Ring of Honor is a complete travesty. The relative wealth and prestige of the franchise took off the moment Nickerson signed on, and they should have a statue of him out front. I can’t help with the politics as to why he isn’t in Tampa’s Ring of Honor. Well, challenge accepted… let’s push to get him into Canton first.

Please lend your thoughts as well by writing in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame to the address below. Be respectful and positively lend your voice:

Please write & nominate Hardy Nickerson
Send letters to:
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Attention Hall of Fame Selection Committee
2121 George Halas Dr NW, Canton,
OH 44708

For induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame I present to you Hardy Nickerson!

There had been a fan vote on the PFHoF website. Will update when they have again. Below are Tampa fans comments from an earlier post.

The Chancellor’s other articles advocating players and coaches in Canton. Fifteen of my first twenty-two have been enshrined: