This coming week, the NFL preseason kicks off with the annual Hall of Fame game, where the latest Hall of Fame enshrinees will be honored with their induction ceremonies,

This year, there are nine inductees.

Nine.

And Sterling Sharpe still isn't one of them.

It's criminal.

In in his short 7-year NFL career, Sterling Sharpe had 5 Pro Bowls, 3 First Team All Pro nominations, and even garnered some MVP votes.

He dominated the league like few other receivers.

Over the 7 years he played, only the legendary Jerry Rice had more catches or receiving touchdowns than Sharpe. Sharpe was 3rd in receiving yards, but just one long pass away from being 2nd only to Rice in that category as well.

When the only person producing at your level is Jerry Rice, you know you belong in the Hall of Fame.

Rice may have outproduced him (which is no real knock), but Sharpe outproduced Hall of Fame wide receivers like Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Andre Reed, Art Monk, and Michael Irvin during his time in the league.

And Hall of Fame receivers that came after him, like Isaac Bruce and Terrell Owens, may have put together more career stats because they played longer (and in an era where passing became much easier), but neither of them had a stretch of dominance like Sharpe.

Isaac Bruce, for example, played 14 seasons, but never made an All Pro team and had fewer Pro Bowls than Sterling Sharpe had in his 7 year career. Bruce led the league in receiving yards once and never led the league in touchdown receptions... and he had 14 tries! Plus, he was racking up stats as a part of the greatest show on turf.

Terrell Owens started his career opposite Jerry Rice, and his best seasons came when he had Pro Bowl running backs like Charlie Garner and Garrison Hearst taking the pressure of him.

Sterling Sharpe never had that kind of support. He had a quarterback that could get him the ball, and that was about it. 

But a complete lack of support cast never stopped Sterling from dominating.

In 1992, he became just the second player in the Super Bowl era to lead the league in catches, yards, and touchdowns (Jerry Rice is the only other Hall of Famer to do that). But he didn't just lead the league in catches, either - he set the NFL record for most receptions in a season. The second most productive wide receiver on the team that year was Ron Lewis, who had 132 receiving yards. Fullback Harry Sydney was 3rd on the team in receptions. No one besides Sharpe had more than 2 receiving touchdowns or two rushing touchdowns. Their leading rusher was Vince Workman, with 632 yards.

Sterling Sharpe was the only player worth defending on the entire offense, and the league couldn't stop him from breaking the all time record for receptions in a season and winning the receiving triple crown. 

The next year, in 1993, he broke his own record for receptions in a season! Again, he had little help. He was the only non-alternate Pro Bowl player on the Packers offense. Mark Clayton was the next most productive wide receiver with 331 yards, and Darrell Thompson was the team's leading rusher with 632 yards. 

But, once again, the league couldn't stop him from having a historic season.

Hall of Fame receivers like Terrell Owens, Isaac Bruce, Andre Reed, and even Randy Moss never even led the league in receptions once - Sharpe broke the all time NFL record twice!

And each of those players played at least twice as many seasons as Sharpe, had better supporting casts to draw coverage away from them, and played later than Sharpe, into an era where passing was getting easier. But none of them could do what Sharpe did. 

Incredible.

He followed those back-to-back dominant years up with 18 receiving touchdowns in 1994, which still ranks as 3rd all time in NFL history (Jerry Rice was the only player to have more touchdowns in a season up until that point, and he did it against replacement players in the 1987 strike season - no one had ever put up that many receiving touchdowns against regular NFL players).

The wild thing is that he still did it with no one to take the heat off him. He was the only Pro Bowl player on the Packers offense again that year. The Packers second leading receiver had 648 yards. Their leading rusher had 623 yards. Plus, this was the year he broke his neck and kept playing.

Everyone knew he was getting the ball, and they couldn't stop him... even though he was playing with a broken neck! In his final career game, he had 9 catches for 132 yards and 3 touchdowns!

How many other Hall of Fame receivers put up 9/132/3 with a broken neck?

None.

I know, I know, the fact that he broke his neck and had his career cut short after just 7 years is a detractor.

But, despite breaking his neck, breaking ribs, fighting through turf toe and a multitude of other injuries, he never missed a game. He played all 112 games in his 7 year career.

Some people might argue that 112 games isn't enough to warrant Hall of Fame consideration. And for a while, Hall of Fame voters seemed to agree. 

But that's changed in recent years.

Tony Boselli made it in despite playing only 91 games.

Terrell Davis made it in despite playing only 78 games.

Boselli and Davis are both more than deserving of Hall of Fame honors, despite their shortened careers.

So is Sterling Sharpe.

He has the stats, he has the stories, he has the accolades, and he's played more than enough games to get in. His short career outshines a lot of receivers who got in ahead of him.

There's no more excuses left.

It's time to put Sterling Sharpe in the Hall of Fame.