Ernie Adams Explains Why Leon Gray Earned Patriots Hall Of Fame Enshrinement
BOSTON (CBS) -- There are many, many Patriots fans walking the earth at this moment who are fully grown adults, who have witnessed the Patriots win three Super Bowls, and who have absolutely no idea who David Patten, Roman Phifer and J.R. Redmond are. They may even be slightly fuzzy on the playing career of Rodney Harrison, who will don a red jacket as a 2019 Patriots Hall of Fame inductee on Monday evening.
That may be disturbing to hear for people of a certain age, but it is nevertheless the reality of a dynastic run of dominance that is now pushing 20 years.
So, certainly, if there are fans of the current Patriots who were not old enough to know some key members of the first run of three Super Bowls in the early 2000s, then you can bet that there are multiple generations of Patriots fans who are unfamiliar with the work of 2019 Patriots Hall of Fame inductee Leon Gray.
That is, of course, in part because Gray played for the Patriots way back in the 1970s, and because Gray played on the offensive line next to Hall of Famer John Hannah. Generally speaking, when a Patriots lineman from the '70s is discussed, it's Hannah.
And with Gray posthumously getting inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame on Monday (Gray died at the age of 49 back in 2001), fans may be interested to know more about the former left tackle. And, really, there's no better place to gain that information than the Patriots' own human encyclopedia, Ernie Adams.
It's rare to see Adams speaking publicly, as he seems to prefer to function in the background. Yet the impact of Gray on the field for those Patriots in the 1970s was so significant that Adams stepped in front of the camera to share the following:
"Leon Gray was everything you would want as a left tackle. There are very few teams in the history of the National Football League that have run the ball over the course of a season for 200 yards per game. The '76 Patriots and the '78 Patriots were two of those teams. A lot of it was Sam Cunningham running behind Leon Gray."
"When you think of left tackle, you can think of Leon Gray. Somebody who plays the position like that, that's what you want."
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Adams, who worked for the Patriots during Gray's playing career, said that instead of Hannah making Gray play at a higher level, the opposite was actually true.
"John Hannah could very well be the best offensive lineman in the history of the league. Everybody remembers John. He played right next to Leon. I think John would probably be the first one to tell you how a big part of the reason he was so good was he knew he was going to get great play from left tackle."
Indeed, praise for Gray is not difficult to find, with perhaps the most convincing case being made in his obituary in The Hartford Courant, written by the late Alan Greenberg.
"Although Bruce Armstrong, whose number the Patriots retired in September, played left tackle longer, nobody played it better than Gray," the story read. "The two-time Pro Bowl selection played for the Patriots in 1973-78, before being traded to the Oilers in 1979. That broke up his partnership with Hall of Fame left guard John Hannah, ending the greatest blocking tandem in Patriots history. Largely behind them in 1978, the Patriots rushed for 3,165 yards, a NFL single-season rushing record."
So, while Harrison is sure to receive the lion's share of attention at the induction ceremony, Patriots fans can at least be heartened to know that the man going into the Hall of Fame beside him was every bit as worthy of enshrinement, too.
