Jack Sheehan on a great guy - on and off the field - who should be in the Hall of Fame

Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

Offensive linemen in the National Football League are a lot like the third dog from the front in Alaska's Iditarod sled race. The view stinks, they rarely get their mug in the newspaper, and about the only time they get mentioned is when they're injured or penalized for moving out of position.

And yet like each husky that pulls those sleds, offensive linemen in pro football are absolutely essential to their team's success. You hear it time and again from the talking heads who are paid to analyze football teams. You build a championship team by starting with a great offensive line.

If the guys John Madden calls "the big uglies" can move the pile of humanity forward and make holes through which the darting scat backs can run, and provide adequate protection for the matinee idols who throw the ball downfield, their team will control the line of scrimmage and win the game.

That's why year after year in the NFL draft, illustrious quarterbacks like Matt Leinart are passed over by teams choosing instead to draft linemen whom they can count on for 10 or 12 years to put their noses in the dirt and slowly bulldoze their teams down the field.

And that's why in 1969 the Atlanta Falcons chose as the second overall pick in the draft a consensus first-team All-American and honors student from Notre Dame named George Kunz. (The Buffalo Bills had the first overall pick that year, and they chose a fellow out of USC who has gotten his picture in the paper more than all offensive linemen combined since football was invented - a dude named O.J.)

Kunz, who has lived in Las Vegas since 1985 and owns seven McDonald's restaurants here, did the Irish proud in his four years there. He played for Ara Parseghian on Notre Dame's 1966 national championship team, was the school's Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1969 and graduated cum laude from the Communications Department, where he was ranked first academically among all students in his major. Kunz also made every important All-America team for two consecutive years and was voted recently to Notre Dame's all-time team.

When Kunz went to the Falcons, he totally shattered the stereotype for his position. Not only did he not sport an inner-tube around his belly, but at 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds, he was cut from granite. Nor was he facially challenged. He looked more like a candidate to play Tarzan or Hercules in the movies. While most offensive linemen end up with the corn-fed girl who won the yodeling contest at the local grange hall, he married the type of girl who usually ends up with the quarterback. He met his future wife, Mary Sue Harris, when she was the queen of the Coaches All-America football game in 1969 and married her later that year. Their son, Matthew, played football at Notre Dame as a walk-on.

In his 11-year NFL career, first with Atlanta and then with the Baltimore Colts, Kunz made the Pro Bowl as one of the best at his position eight times. The list of others who have achieved that rare honor includes names like Dick Butkus, Deacon Jones, Bob Griese, Art Shell, Mike Singletary, Paul Warfield and Willie Wood. Along the way Kunz was a leader off the field as well, using his communication skills to lecture young people about the dangers of substance abuse as an NFL spokesman for United Way, and working with a number of community organizations in Atlanta and Baltimore. He also did a 17-day USO tour of Vietnam during the height of that conflict to bolster the spirits of our troops there. Suffice it to say Kunz did far more than his fair share in giving back to those cities for the good fortune he enjoyed as a professional athlete, and he continues to do so with numerous involvements in the Las Vegas community.

If ever there was a poster boy for his school and his teams, it was George Kunz. And yet it might surprise you to know that he is a member of neither the College Football Hall of Fame nor the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Over lunch recently Kunz gave some reasons why he might have slipped through the cracks despite having impeccable credentials to qualify for both halls.

"I played for small-market teams, and neither Atlanta nor Baltimore ever got close to the Super Bowl when I was with them," he says. "And certainly as an offensive lineman you don't have statistics that scream out that you belong."

"George has never promoted himself like so many of these athletes do," says Bubba Grimes, a local lobbyist and PR specialist who has taken up a campaign to see that Kunz gets in both halls. "I would say that he is without question the most qualified player that has been overlooked. I mean the guy could be the best offensive lineman Notre Dame has ever had, and his eight All-Pro selections tell you what the coaches and other players in the league thought of him. He also was selected to the all-time Falcons' and Colts' teams, and in 1976 Seagram's asked the NFL's coaches to study game films and rate all the offensive linemen for the purpose of giving an award. Kunz was rated by them to be the best in the league. If you think about it, it's really criminal that he's been passed over all these years."

NFL Hall of Famers like Ron Yary, Tom Mack (also a Las Vegas resident), Jack Youngblood and Dave Wilcox are writing letters to the veterans committee on Kunz's behalf. These former greats realize that unlike noted athletes in professional baseball who bring a load of baggage to the selection process - Pete Rose and Mark McGwire come quickly to mind - Kunz has brought nothing but honor and class to his profession and should be an automatic selection.

With his outstanding achievements on and off the field, if George Kunz doesn't belong in both these halls of fame, one has to wonder who does.