That's who i wanted to be as a kid. I followed him closely and emulated him. People called me little Barry, everyone knew how much i loved that guy. He'll forever be my favorite athlete of all time.

All that to say, Barry Sanders was the GOAT (ot at least in the convo) but he never really did jack in the playoffs...and the Lions were in the playoffs almost every year during his career. He just never came up big. He's among the most obvious no-brainer first-ballot HOFers ever...purely on the strength of his regular-season greatness, totally ignoring his postseason mediocrity.

If regular-season greatness and postseason mediocrity gets you first-ballot, then the flip of that should at the very least get you serious HOF consideration. Julian Edelman has been consistently great in the biggest moments of the biggest games over and over again, year after year, throughout his career.