Daily Madden: Ray Guy Opens Door To Hall Of Fame For Punters
OAKLAND (KCBS) - As the first of his kind inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Oakland Raiders great Ray Guy drew a crowd of fellow punters to the weekend ceremony.
"Those guys supported Ray Guy and supported his candidacy to get in," John Madden told the KCBS Radio crew. "Sean Landeta, who is one of them, brought up to me years ago -- he said, 'Does a punter have a chance to get in the Hall of Fame and who is going to be the punter?' And I said 'none of you is going to get in until Ray Guy gets in.' And then Ray Guy is going to open the doors for you... All these guys knew that Ray Guy represented all punters and the possibility of them getting into the Hall of Fame."
Madden, who introduced Guy at the Hall of Fame ceremony, recalls that some Raiders players thought Guy's punts might be too long.
"There was an old saying at the time that I hated -- 'He's going to out-punt his coverage,'" Madden said. "So we have the first round pick, we have the greatest punter that ever played, and some guy is telling me that they're not going be able to cover. And I said, 'Hey look, I'm not going to get rid of Ray Guy, Ray Guy is going to be here. So if we're having a problem of out-kicking the coverage, we're going to get new coverage guys...' That's the thing that they didn't understand, that if they have to cover a 50 or 60 yard punt, they had a lot of time to cover it because Ray Guy didn't kick line drives. Ray Guy kicked the ball real high."
Madden spoke to KCBS from the Madden Cruiser in Wyoming on his way back from Canton. (6:35)
Daily Madden
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