A Hall of Fame Comparison – GEORGE SAIMES

Yes, Saimes and Robinson would’ve made quite a pair. In those days the Chiefs generally employed a dual free safety system rather than one free & one strong.

Too, the ‘other’ safety who in fact ‘was’ Robinson’s partner on defense wasn’t too shabby either: Bobby Hunt had 42 career interceptions and was also an All Pro / Pro Bowler / All Star (too many categories – he was just ‘good’, in the parlance.)

An aside: while the 32-year old Robinson had a ‘league leading’ 10 ints in 1970 as an NFL safety the combined leagues same (take note Hall of Fame voters and AFL detractors), the ‘great’ Wilson had only 5 ints (for the record, Saimes 0 and Hunt had already retired.)

Upshot: Robinson was the best, with no apologies to Wilson. As well, Saimes was right there with the two aforementioned players – George must have been pretty good to make AFL All-Time First Team Member; that he did so with 22 ints in 10 seasons compared the 57 of Robinson in 10* (as a safety) & the 52 of Wilson in 13 seasons speaks volumes that mere ‘flash’ the form ‘stats’ does not alone tell the ‘Tales from the American Football League’ or any other, NFL etc.

Good argument for him. Bills had great teams in 64-66, almost went to first Super Bowl but lost to Chiefs. Sestak, Stratton, Saimes, great players. I’m always excited when an old AFL player is put in the Hall of Fame, Would be great if it happened with Saimes it probably won’t though. Thanks for teh story though.

Seems to me I remember hearing that George was the AFL originator of the safety blitz. Not sure who did it first, him or that other guy from that other(inferior) league

Just yesterday I received the latest issue of The Coffin Corner (January/February 2012), the official magazine of The Professional Football Researchers Association. There’s a very good article titled: “George Saimes, Star Safety.” The author is Greg Tranter. It sounds like this guy named Saimes deserves The Pro Football Hall of Fame–especially in light of the Bills defense allowing the explosive Chargers a TOTAL of 7 points in TWO championship games.

As far as Bills players go, I think the first order of business is to get Cookie Gilchrist enshrined. Saimes should be on the list to get elected, though. And to think, I’d never even heard of him until February 22, 2013 ! ! !

George Saimes was probably smaller than his listed 5’11”, 186 lb stat. So I’m guessing that to get a title like “best open field tackler,” George had more heart than a little bit. Like most of us, he rarely got to tackle someone smaller than himself, so I take my hat off and offer condolences to his family today.