SAN FRANCISCO – Joe Montana threw around his certified clout in summing up Roger Craig’s influence on the 49ers’ Team of the ’80s.
“He meant everything to that offense,” Montana said.
Every indication is that Craig will be among this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class when it is officially revealed at Thursday night’s NFL Honors, as multiple sources have indicated, corroborating a Wednesday report by NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai.
Frank Gore, the 49ers’ all-time leading rusher, is a first-ballot finalist but is not expected to join Craig and get enshrined this summer into Canton, Ohio’s hallowed hall.
The class was selected Jan. 13 by the 50-member voting committee, which, according to ESPN, has snubbed Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft, the former New England Patriots power duo who were coach and owner finalists in the same voting quadrant.
Craig’s 32-year wait ends as he emerges among three Seniors finalists. He also was a finalist in 2010 and 2020, the latter as a Seniors nominee.
Craig, 65, has maintained a low profile in recent years, and although he joined former 49ers greats for a San Francisco dinner last week, he steered clear of joining them at last Tuesday’s “Rise of the 49ers” premiere in the Mission district.
“It’s so overdue,” Montana said last week of Craig’s Hall of Fame case. “There’s another guy in there that has done what he’s done and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be there. Hopefully they give him his due respect and he gets in. We’re all pulling for him.”
Craig was an NFL pioneer as the first player to produce 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving in a season, in 1985. Only 2011 Hall of Fame inductee Marshall Faulk (1999 Rams) and Christian McCaffrey (2019 Panthers) have matched that feat, and McCaffrey nearly did so again this season on the 49ers (1,202 rushing yards, 924 receiving).
“When I hit the 1,000/1,000, he was the firest call, welcoming me to the club, a lonely club at the time, and we both reached out to CMC when he did it,” Faulk said on 95.7 The Game. “I’m happy for Roger. He was a team guy and he didn’t scream for the ball. All they did was win.
“The focus on (Joe) Montana and Jerry Rice and (Dwight) Clark and John Taylor. It was on them,” Faulk continued. “He didn’t even ask for the smoke. He just did what he had to do. … Now he gets his due. I can’t wait.”
As Montana gathered last week with fellow stars from the 49ers’ 1980s dynasty for a screening of AMC’s “Rise of the 49ers” docuseries, several others sang Craig’s praises, as they did at a dinner with him the previous night.
“I remember the first time I came to the Niners, he took me to ‘The Hill.’ It hurt me,” Jerry Rice said of a training run on the Peninsula. “I actually stayed away for a couple of days, then I said I have to go back and conquer that hill.”
“There’s a guy that wasn’t just a runner,” Montana added of Craig. “He’s like a wide receiver catching passes out of the backfield. Today, they’d even split him out and let him run routes out there. That’s the kind of player he is.”
Super Bowl week in the Bay Area conjured up memories of Eddie DeBartolo’s enshrinement a decade ago, when Levi’s Stadium last hosted a Super Bowl.
“Ten years ago, Eddie DeBartolo was brought in (to the Pro Football Hall of Fame). That made a great difference to the team. They felt vindicated,” former 49ers executive Carmen Policy said. “If Roger gets in, this team and this organization and the community is going to feel vindicated.
“He’s the last piece of Bill Walsh’s offense that needs vindication and acclaim,” Policy added. “We’re praying that that happens.”
Other Seniors finalists are Ken Anderson and L.C. Greenwood, and they were pooled with Kraft (contributor) and Belichick (coach) in requiring at least 80% of the votes to make the Hall.
Craig was a 1983 second-round draft pick who won three Super Bowl titles in his eight seasons with the 49ers, before finishing his career with the then-Los Angeles Raiders (1991) and Minnesota Vikings (1992-93). He totaled 8,189 rushing yards and 4,911 receiving yards and 73 touchdowns in a career that included four Pro Bowl nods and 1988 All-Pro and NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Gore, 42, is the NFL’s third all-time leading rusher with exactly 16,000 yards, and he eclipsed Joe “The Jet” Perry as the 49ers’ rushing king with 11,073 yards from 2005-13. Gore’s 241 games (148 with the 49ers) are the most ever played by an NFL running back.
Gore took over the 49ers’ starting role in his second season, and he crested the 1,000-yard mark in every ensuing season with them except an injury-shortened 2010 campaign. After making five Pro Bowls with the 49ers, they cast him loose in free agency, and he played six more seasons — the Indianapolis Colts (2015-17), his hometown Miami Dolphins (2018), the Buffalo Bills (2019; his son, Frank Gore Jr., plays for them now) and the New York Jets (2020).
The 49ers from their 1980s dynasty to reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame are Montana, Rice, Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley, Steve Young, Fred Dean, owner Eddie DeBartolo and coach Bill Walsh.
Only 11 players drafted by the 49ers are enshrined in Canton: Haley, Lott, Montana, Rice, Leo Nomellini, Jimmy Johnson, Hugh McElhenney, Bob St. Clair, Dave Wilcox, Patrick Willis, and Bryant Young.
Two current 49ers, running back Christian McCaffrey and coach Kyle Shanahan, will be part of the NFL Honors show when it comes to end-of-season awards.
McCaffrey is a finalist for AP NFL MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and the Salute To Service Award from USAA.
“It’s a huge honor just being nominated and being at things like the Pro Bowl while you’re around great players,” McCaffrey said Monday at Pro Bowl practice.
Shanahan is up for his first AP NFL Coach of the Year award, after navigating his injury-laden crew through a 12-5 regular season and into the NFC’s divisional playoffs in his ninth season.
