Every year it happens, and it happened again the other day.
The day after the NFL inducted five new honorees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, I get phone calls, e-mails and texts asking the same thing:
“Why isn’t Mark Bavaro in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?”
As if I’m an expert on these matters. Though I did have the privilege of covering Bavaro’s playing career as a Danvers High All-Scholastic, Notre Dame All-American and a two-time All-Pro (1986, 1987) while starring at tight end for the New York Giants.
The 6-foot-4, 245-pound Bavaro played a key role in both Giants’ Super Bowl wins — XXI vs. Denver, XXV vs. Buffalo — catching a combined nine passes for 91 yards and a touchdown in the former contest.
Those last two credentials, his ardent supporters in Metropolitan New York and here on the North Shore argue, should be enough to earn Bavaro a bronze bust in Canton.
Those folks are in the same camp as the late John Madden and fellow coaching legend Bill Belichick, who led the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories and before that served as an assistant coach under Bill Parcells during the Giants’ Super Bowl successes in 1987 and 1991. In both of those seasons, Bavaro was a key blocking and receiving cog.
Now 63 years old, Bavaro was a sensation during his three breakout seasons with the Giants, including his rookie campaign. That’s when he gained major plaudits from Madden, the most popular analyst on NFL telecasts at the time, and becoming a legend among diehard Giants fans. They called him ‘Rambo’. He was by far the most popular Giants player during his six active seasons with the team.
Sadly, the biggest issue that held back Bavaro’s ‘Hall’ candidacy (he is no longer eligible) was his lack of stardom longevity due to a history of injuries.
He did not miss a game during his first four seasons with the Giants. He, in fact, played six games with a broken jaw in 1986 and received nourishment in that time through a drinking straw. Bavaro wound up sixth in MVP voting that season, his second in the league.
Then debilitating injuries followed. He played through a painful turf toe condition during a terrific 1987 season before undergoing surgery in the offseason.
After never missing a game his first four seasons with the Giants, knee injuries in 1989 limited him to seven games.
Despite a degenerative knee condition, he played in 15 regular season games in 1990 and made five catches for 51 yards in the Super Bowl that helped his team escape with a 20-19 win over the Buffalo Bills.
Believing their fan favorite — a two-time Sports Illustrated cover boy —was on the downside of his career, the Giants brass cut Bavaro in July 1991. Determined to prove them wrong, he returned to the NFL in 1992 and played for the Cleveland Browns and their head coach, Bill Belichick.
Bavaro, considered by then one of the toughest tight ends and one of the best receiver/blockers the NFL had seen in decades, played all 16 games for the Browns that season, making 25 catches for 315 yards and two touchdowns.
He then moved to the Philadelphia Eagles for his final two NFL seasons, playing 28 out of a possible 32 games, making a combined 55 catches for 706 yards and nine touchdowns.
In 126 career NFL games (123 of those starts), Bavaro caught 351 passes for 4,733 yards, averaging 13.5 yards per grab, with 39 touchdowns. More than 68 percent of his receptions (239-of-351) went for first downs.
Even as the NFL’s full-time writers acknowledged Bavaro’s determination and resilience in playing three additional seasons after knee problems that would have ended most tight ends’ careers, they believed his nine-year active career merited only lukewarm Hall of Fame consideration.
He received modern era and senior preliminary and official nominee status, but never attained finalist status.
From this observer’s prejudiced perspective, Bavaro’s playing excellence before the injury jinx struck, combined with his courageous final three seasons, was more than enough evidence to make him worthy of Hall of Fame election.
Those NFL ‘Hall’ voters missed the boat on this one.