It’s time for Cowboys legend Drew Pearson to get ‘the call’

For years Dallas Cowboys legend Drew Pearson has been waiting on “the call”. Specifically, the one that comes from the Pro Football Hall of Fame to immortalize an elite player amongst the ranks of the game’s greatest legends. In other words, Drew Pearson is waiting on the call to go where he’s deserved to be ever since he left the sport.

After not being enshrined as a member of last season’s expanded class, Pearson is the lone player to be a senior finalist for this year’s class of 2021. To be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he will need at least 80% of the vote from the selection committee that will meet on Saturday, prior to the Super Bowl.

With the exception of last year’s expanded centennial class, since 2009, 17 of the previous 19 senior nominees have been elected to the Hall of Fame. The two who weren’t, former defensive end Claude Humphrey (2009), and former guard Dick Stanfel (2012), were both ultimately inducted a few years later (Humphrey in 2014 and Stanfel in 2016). The senior finalist designation makes Pearson a near-lock to finally receive his long-overdue recognition and become the latest Dallas Cowboy honored in Canton, Ohio.

Drew Pearson deserves to be a Hall of Famer

Drew Pearson played his entire 11 season career with the Dallas Cowboys and joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 1973. Over the course of his time in the league, he racked up 489 catches, 7,822 yards, and 48 touchdown receptions (though he recovered two fumbles for a score and threw three touchdowns to give him 53 total), all to go along with averaging 16 yards per catch.

In 22 postseason games, he added another 68 receptions, 1,131 yards, and eight touchdowns. In 1979 Pearson, along with wide receiver Tony Hill and Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett re-wrote the record books as they marked the first time in NFL history that a team had two 1,000-yard receivers and a 1,000-yard rusher in the same season. He missed the playoffs just once as a player and was a key member of the Cowboys team that won Super Bowl XII.

The statistics that Pearson racked up might seem modest when compared to modern wide receivers, but that undercuts just how great he was for his era. In a word, Pearson was elite. He was a three-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro who was an indispensable member of one of football’s most iconic teams. He’s also currently the only offensive or defensive member of the 1970’s All-Decade team to not have a bust in Canton.

He may have topped 1,000 yards just twice in his career. However, NFL offenses were far less pass-happy then than they are today. During the Cowboys’ championship run in 1977, he led football in receiving yards with 870.

For perspective, in 1977 the league’s leader in passing attempts was Joe Ferguson of the Buffalo Bills. Ferguson was the only quarterback to throw the ball 400 times that season, and his 457 attempts were 64 more than the next player and 96 more than Dallas’ own Roger Staubach who ranked third. For comparison’s sake, in 2020, 22 quarterbacks attempted at least 400 passes. The least among them, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, had 402 in just 10 games.

Drew Pearson was also on the receiving end of what has become arguably the most iconic play in football history. So iconic in fact, that it spawned new vocabulary for the sports lexicon. You know, just a little play called the “Hail Mary” from 1975 against the Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Drew Pearson and number 88 have always meant more to the Dallas Cowboys

The number 88 has a special reverence in Dallas. Whenever a Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver has been bestowed it, the way rookie CeeDee Lamb was last season, Dez Bryant before him, and Michael Irvin before him (we can just quickly skip over players like Antonio Bryant) it’s a statement from the team to the player and the fanbase. A statement that dates back to Drew Pearson. He wasn’t the first player in franchise history to wear No. 88, but he was certainly the last to make it just another number.

Even long after his playing career, Pearson has been delivering absolutely iconic moments for the Dallas Cowboys. Remember when he trolled Philadelphia Eagles fans on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the 2017 NFL Draft? As a resident of the greater Philadelphia area, I can tell you this still lives rent-free in the minds of many Eagles fans. This man is a Cowboys lifer and an absolute legend.

Pearson wasn’t just one of the greatest wide receivers of his era, he was one of his era’s greatest players. You simply can’t tell the story of professional football in the 1970s without talking about the Dallas Cowboys. Furthermore, you can’t tell the story of the Dallas Cowboys and America’s Team without talking about Drew Pearson.

For decades the Pro Football Hall of Fame has had a Drew Pearson sized hole amongst its elite ranks. As a finalist this season he’s a virtual lock, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is long past time that he receives the recognition he’s earned. Hopefully this weekend, he finally gets the call to the hall he so long has deserved.