Walls was selected to four Pro Bowls and was named first-team All-Pro once and second-team twice in his career. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Projected over a 16 game season, he would have equaled the 13 that Lester Hayes had in his near record breaking campaign in 1980. Former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Everson Walls is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Everson Walls. He is a member of the 1,000-catch club, finishing his career with 1,078 catches for 15,934 yards and 153 touchdowns. Change ). Walls was not selected in the 1981 NFL Draft despite leading the nation with 11 interceptions, a school-record, as a senior at Grambling State University. Overlooked For So Long, Everson Walls Excited About Being HOF Finalist Nick Eatman DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer / Senior Manager, Digital Media. Everson Walls has been overlooked by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for years. Walls immediately turned heads during the preseason when he intercepted three passes, recovered a fumble and scored a TD on a blocked punt to earn a roster spot. Now that is an encore. So he was a Super Bowl champion, so scratch that off the list of why he doesn’t belong. Although he kept up his high level of play, Walls was one of the few bright spots on an aging Dallas team for the last half of the 1980s. Its time to give credit where credit is due. A maximum of five can be elected from the modern era. While most short sighted columnists would remind you that his Dallas Cowboys never won a Super Bowl as for reason for the snub. Jones was the defensive end on Walls side but that isn’t true. "The first list I would come out, I would make it initially and then got voted out anyway," he said. Walls won a Super Bowl with the Giants after the 1990 season. However in 1985 he re-emerged to lead the NFL again with 9 interceptions. While pundits duked it out over which cornerback was the best of the new breed, Walls interception totals didn’t drop over the ensuing years as Hayes did once stickum was outlawed. Stephen Jones says Dak Prescott remains the face of the Dallas Cowboys’ future at QB, TCU’s Patterson weighs in on Dak’s injury and Andy Dalton taking over as Cowboys QB, ‘Go win this for No. He finished the year with a team-record and NFL-leading 11 interceptions to earn consensus All-Rookie and Pro Bowl honors. He was a 4 time Pro Bowler yet was a first team All Pro just once. Everson Walls battling a rookie Jerry Rice in 1985 One of the reasons that Walls gets overlooked is he played for the Dallas Cowboys after their Super Bowl appearances of the late 70s. To be elected, a finalist must get a minimum of 80 percent of the votes cast by the selection panel. He also led the team in passes defensed (17) and recorded 58 total tackles. Everson Walls never concerned himself much with time. Much of this can be attributed to the 1981 NFC Championship Game in which Dwight Clark soared high to make “The Catch” and Walls was falsely treated as a goat for allowing it. Enter Everson Walls, a lanky fast cornerback the Dallas Cowboys drafted out of Grambling in 1981. Everson Walls battling a rookie Jerry Rice in 1985. — Everson Walls (@Walls_24) February 3, 2018 All HOF finalists who fell short rode same bus to honors event. They prevailed 30-27 but a defensive back upgrade was top priority in the 1981 NFL Draft. Walls’s high-level defensive effort was not short-lived. In his three years with the Cowboys from 2006-08, Owens posted 1,000-yard seasons with double-digit touchdowns in each. The Cowboys were penalized after losing the Battle of Champions to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XIII, and the fallout includes the early 80s Cowboys when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration. Coming a year after Lester Hayes breakout 1980 campaign when he totaled 13 interceptions, Walls season was somewhat overlooked. He started every game at left corner and led the club in interceptions with six for 80 yards and his only career TD return. Former coach Jimmy Johnson did not receive enough support to advance past the semifinalist round. The day of the super physical Mel Blount type cornerback was over and a new type of player would emerge. ©2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame All Rights Reserved. So we tend to think of defenisve linemen or linebackers first. Former cornerback Everson Walls was recently named a finalist for the Class of 2018. He was a key figure in the Cowboys’ postseason berths in four of his first five seasons which included two appearances in the NFC championship game. Everson Walls has been overlooked by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for years. Labeled as too slow to play cornerback in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys signed him as a free agent. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Walls tallied 57 quarterback takeaways during his 13-year career, which ranked eighth all-time at the time of his retirement. They gave up 311 points or nearly 20 a game. In ’77 the Cowboys were the last team to win the Super Bowl with a team that was #1 on offense and defense yet the highest interception total was 5 by Benny Barnes. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! 155 yds, 1 TD) of the Atlanta Falcons in a playoff game known for being Danny White’s first great comeback. The Dallas Cowboys of 1980 saw a secondary in flux with many of their great ’70s players aging, and teams piled points on ’em  after years of abuse. So losing an All Decade performer in Cliff Harris and injuries to Randy Hughes magnified Cowboys problems. This was the era in which the Dallas Cowboys lost three consecutive NFC Championship games, so the stars of this time weren’t lionized by NFL pundits like their 70’s counterparts.