State Your Case: Gene Brito

The Pro Football Hall of Fame loves champions.

The Green Bay Packers won five NFL championships in the 1960s. Twelve players off those Vince Lombardi teams have been enshrined in Canton. The Pittsburgh Steelers won four championships in the 1970s and Cleveland Browns won three in the 1950s. Each franchise has 10 players enshrined from those championship teams.

There are 374 busts in the Pro Football Hall of Fame – 65.5 percent of all those enshrined won championships. Another 75.1 percent of the players enshrined were all-decade selections. So if a player made all-decade and owns a championship ring, he becomes a strong candidate for a bust in Canton.

Let’s shrink the enshrinement pool down even further. Of the 326 players wearing those gold jackets, 200 of them played offense. Only 122 played defense – just 37.4 percent of the Canton’s player pool. So if an offensive player made all-decade and owns a championship ring, he moves to the top of the queue for enshrinement.

A defensive player who didn’t make all decade and didn’t win a championship moves to the bottom of the queue. There are only 16 of those players in Canton – and nine of them were elected as seniors after their 25-year windows of eligibility had expired.

The message is clear – you can’t be a great defensive player on a bad team and get a bust in Canton.

Which brings us to Gene Brito.

Brito is a Hall-of-Fame candidate like no other. He got a late start to his career. He enlisted in the military out of high school and served as a paratrooper in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Upon his return stateside he went to college at Loyola Marymount where he played all sports – baseball, basketball, football and track.

Brito was selected by the Washington Redskins in the 17^th round of the 1951 draft and arrived in the NFL as a 26-year-old rookie — and he arrived as an offensive end. He spent two years catching 45 career passes from Sammy Baugh and Eddie LeBaron before moving to defensive end in 1953.

The NFL wasn’t tracking tackles and sacks back then so his statistics are sketchy. But Brito did recover three fumbles that first season on defense, helping the Redskins to their first winning season in four years and earning his first Pro Bowl berth.

But Brito left the Redskins in a contract dispute in 1954, spending the season with Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League where he earned All-Western Conference honors. He returned to Washington in 1955 and recovered six more fumbles to return to the Pro Bowl – the first of four consecutive appearances. He also was named first-team All-Pro for three consecutive seasons from 1955-57 and second-team All-Pro in 1958.

Brito was traded back home to Los Angeles in 1959 to the Rams but injuries that season limited him to just two games. A healthy Brito collected seven sacks in 1960 – but it would be his final season. He was diagnosed with ALS in 1961 and passed away in 1965 at the age of 39. In 2002, Brito was selected by the franchise as one of the 70 greatest Redskins.

Brito’s Hall-of-Fame resume includes five Pro Bowls and three first-team all-pros. Willie Davis was a five-time Pro Bowler with the Green Bay Packers with a bust in Canton. But he won those five championships and made the NFL’s 1960s all-decade team. Dwight Freeney was a three-time first-team all-pro who won a championship with the Indianapolis Colts and made the NFL’s 2000 all-decade team. He also has a bust in Canton.

Brito didn’t win any championships and didn’t make the 1950s all-decade team. The two ends selected, Len Ford and Gino Marchetti, combined to play on five championship teams. Having been on the winning side in only 44 of the 108 NFL games he played, Brito’s Hall-of-Fame candidacy has been doused by the failures of his team. He has never been discussed by the Hall of Fame selection committee in his 61 years now of eligibility.

He deserves that discussion.