Art Monk deserves spot in Hall

Art Monk is a finalist again. The Pro Football Hall of Fame electors will meet in Houston the day before the Super Bowl to decide if Monk is Hall of Fame material.

This should be a no-brainer — if any of them watched Monk play for the Washington Redskins. But if the electors are looking for the flash, the noise, the circus act that seems to garner attention in today’s “SportsCenter” world, Monk will be shut out of Canton.

Monk wasn’t a “SportsCenter” type of receiver — more like a “Masterpiece Theatre” type. You wouldn’t see Monk pull out a Sharpie to sign a ball after scoring a touchdown. He was the anti-Terrell Owens. Heck, Monk wouldn’t talk, period.

He embodied the old school, and for that alone he should be enshrined so that when a father takes his son through the Hall of Fame, he can say, “Son, here is a man who once caught 106 passes in a season when no one was catching 100 passes. Here was a man who caught a pass in 183 straight games. And not once did he ever pull a cell phone out to make a call after any of those catches.”

Monk’s numbers are Hall of Fame-worthy. He caught 940 passes in his 16-year career (14 with Washington) for 12,721 yards and 68 touchdowns. He was not a home run receiver. Football is a game of first downs and Monk was the receiver who would move the chains.

On Oct.12, 1992, he became the NFL’s all-time leading receiver, with 820 catches. He has since been passed in this pass-crazy era, but in the context of when he played, Art Monk was a Hall of Fame receiver.

He did this while never playing with a Hall of Fame-caliber quarterback. Monk sustained his greatness from Joe Theismann to Jay Schroeder to Doug Williams to Stan Humphries to Mark Rypien. Critics will say Monk benefited from playing in Joe Gibbs’ system. What might be the case is that the Gibbs system benefited from having Monk.

If you are looking for testimony of Monk’s greatness, you can find it on, of all places, the Indianapolis Colts’ Web site. Bill Polian is the president of the Colts. He built the team that will face the New England Patriots tomorrow in the AFC Championship game. Before coming to Indianapolis six years ago, Polian built the Buffalo Bills dynasty. He recognizes greatness.

On the Colts’ Web site, Polian does a weekly interview called “The Polian Corner.” Recently, Polian was asked who he thought were the best receivers of all time. Among those he named were Monk.

“I believe he’s a Hall of Famer,” Polian said. “I was a pro scout when he was playing, so it was my job to know who those guys were. I would put Art in that category, but apparently there are a lot of Hall of Fame voters who don’t feel Art Monk was in that category. It’s hard for me to believe they ever saw him play.”

With the arrival of Joe Gibbs at Redskin Park, there isn’t a lot for Dan Snyder to do these days. Hopefully, he is out of the fantasy football business for now. Maybe he could use his free time and that marketing genius of his to promote Monk for the Hall of Fame in these next two weeks.

That would be a more noteworthy accomplishment than anything else the Redskins owner has done since he bought the team in 1999 — of course, with the exception of bringing back Gibbs. Helping Art Monk secure his place in Canton would be icing on the cake.