George Starke Sees Similarities of Hogs to What Shanahan is Building

We'll be posting a lot of stuff on our trip to Canton the next couple days. Up first is part one, including our interview with George Starke, which you can listen to it in it's entirety after the jump. There are some great quotes in here, but what really rings true is not just who Shanahan is over-hauling the offensive line with, but how is he over-hauling it. Starke highlights how the Hogs were not so much a big line as it was their technique. Sound familiar to the success of Shanahan's run scheme? Read on. 

Mike Richman (Redskins Historian), Ken Meringolo, and I discussed the significance of Grimm's induction to the Hall. When George joined us, the first question I asked was, "If the Hogs were to play today, how would they do given they were one of the largest lines back in the 80s, but they'd be one of the smallest in today's terms?

Starke: People thought because we were so effective we were the biggest. I was a RT in my 10th year, I never played above 260. Next to me was Mark May - Mean Dean - he played around 270. Jeff Bostic, who's here, played the same size he is now...255. Russ Grimm was always kind of portly...he was around 285. Jake's just a big guy...315 but a lean 315. We were so effective as a group which no other offensive line could do was take over the game all by itself. It didn't matter who the QB or RB was, we could take over the game.

The other coaches looked at that and said, 'We want to do that too.' And it must be because they're so big. We're the reason there are so many 350 pound offensive linemen in the business, but the truth is, it was not a size thing. We were just good at what we did.

Now you have a lot of big, fat guys that can't run. Linemen don't pull anymore. You know...the counter-trey, all that stuff. You don't see lineman doing that because they're too big and fat for that. We were very athletic.

Which is what Shanahan seems to be bring back.

Starke: I read about that. He is right. You want your lineman to be able to move.

Starke then answered questions on who the real trash talker was for the Hogs:

Starke: I got Two Tall...my hands are full as it is. May's got Dutton. Bostic is not covered. Russ has got Randy, and Jake has got Harvey. The only person...Russ is not going to try and antagonize Randy..he's got enough already. Bostic is a mean guy. Bostic would say to Randy [White], "This is coming at you...you better get a little lower." Russ God bless him would knock Randy out of there. Mark May for some reason, I'm not sure why he did this. Mark would go over after every play, leave his guy alone, and kick Randy in the leg. Randy White would get up and punch Russ in the face and Russ would be like, "I didn't do it!"

Football always comes to coaching. There's a talent piece. There's very little variation in talent from team. Everybody is strong and tough and mean. It's really coaching.

Me: Well, Boss Hog coached this OLine the last few years which was pretty unsuccessful.

Starke: You got to have some talent.

On when Jacoby will get into the Hall of Fame...

Starke: I find the process to be bizarre. Number one, they need to change to change how they do the Hall of Fame. They need to consider groups. It's only individuals that can go in. This is not baseball where someone hits 60 homeruns a year. Football is not like that. The Fearsome Foursome with Deacon Jones, the Purple People Eaters, to the Steel Curtain, it's groups of men working together. Sometimes a guy has to take a hit so another guy can get a sack. It's about groups and the Hall doesn't recognize that. The Hogs as a group should go in but there's no way to do that. To take individuals out of that I think is strange to begin with. Should Jake be in there? Yea. Should Bosco? Yea.

With that we ended the conversation but I threw in a quick question....who had better hair...Mark Moseley or Joe Theismann?

Starke: Mosely worked on his hair longer...maybe checking his chromosomes.

Full clip...