Patriots Super Bowl Champ Irate Over Lack Of Post-Career Accolades
The names of those in the Cincinnati Bengals Ring of Honor is located on the east façade of Paycor Stadium.
Corey Dillon’s name is not among the six players already inducted into that exclusive group, and to put it quite simply, that’s something that maddeningly frustrates the former star running back.
Before Dillion spearheaded the ground attack of the New England Patriots to a Super Bowl XXXIX title, he made a name for himself with Cincinnati, where he spent the first seven seasons of his stellar career.
He earned three of his four Pro Bowl nods with the Bengals, racking up 8,061 yards rushing and 45 touchdowns. He believes it’s more than enough to secure him a spot in the Bengals Ring of Honor, but voters haven’t seen it that way.
And Dillon sure didn’t hold back his displeasure about that in a recent interview with The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., going on an expletive-laden rant about the recognition he feels he deserves, but hasn’t gotten yet.
“It’s damn-near criminal, what (Bengals Ring of Honor voters) are pulling off, to be honest with you,” Dillon told Dehner. “Did I not play for them? I don’t know, bro. I’m curious about that. Because it looks like they are glossing over me. For what reason? Because I left? That’s not a good enough reason. You are telling me there’s five other guys better than me — at my position? And trust me, this is no knock on whoever is getting in, who goes in, that’s not what it is about. It’s about what is your excuse going to be? I’m pretty sure they will put (expletive) Jon Kitna in there before they put me. Matter of fact, Scott Mitchell will end up in that (expletive) before I do.”
Dillon didn’t just focus his anger on the Bengals, either. He turned his wrath toward the Hall of Fame, too, something Dillion isn’t a part of, either. In fact, Dillon has never been a semifinalist on the ballot for the Hall of Fame.
He could make quite the case for being enshrined, though, given the numbers pulled by Dehner. Dillon is just one of 10 running backs in the Super Bowl era to accumulate 4.3 yards per carry, 70 yards rushing per game and 10,000 total rushing yards in a career. Of those players to accomplish that, eight are in the Hall of Fame or will surely be in when eligible while Fred Taylor and Dillon are the the only omissions.
“That’s why I resurfaced, man. Because there has been a lot of wrong that needs to be un-wronged,” Dillon said. “Nobody gets this. I don’t want to get into people’s personal business, but there are a lot of Hall of Famers that did far more worse (expletive) than I did. We can cancel out that excuse. There is no excuse for that. On top of that, I thought the game was predicated on numbers. Are people looking at the numbers like, ‘Nah, nah?’ I don’t think so.”
Dillon played the final three seasons of his career with the Patriots, his most notable achievement helping them hoist the Lombardi Trophy in 2004. In his tenure with the Patriots, the bruising back ran for 3,180 yards and 37 touchdowns.
Dillon didn’t come right out and say he thinks he should be in the Patriots Hall of Fame, but he didn’t let the organization off the hook, either.
“And don’t make this a Cincinnati thing, because I’m about to get on the Pats’ ass, too,” Dillon said. “It’s coming. I’m coming for it all. Give it to me while I’m breathing. If anybody wants to disagree, just go look at the (expletive) numbers and have a Coke and smile.”
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