CANTON, Ohio - Merton Tucker didn't get drafted in the first round. Not the second, not the 3rd. Not until halfway through the second day did a team end his misery - the Atlanta Falcons snapped him up in the 5th round, #151 overall, and made him a 4th-string RB.

Why did he fall so far? "Beats me," says the tailback, who in a career that spanned 15 NFL seasons, rushed for an all-time career high of 22,930 yards. Needless to say, the Falcons made a good choice taking that 5th-round flier on Merton.

The knock on him was his durability, his ball handling, and his pass protection. Mert played 220 NFL games through his 15 seasons, and missed a total of 9 starts. Durability? He was a workhorse for the Falcons, 4,831 times over this career, just during the regular season alone. In 2014, Mert carried the Falcons through a 4-overtime slugfest against the Giants and carried the ball 51 times that afternoon.

Hands? Mert knew he would never be mistaken for a receiver, but he was good enough as a receiver and blocker to stay on the field for 3rd downs, after taking huge strides after his first couple seasons.

Some say that he was what Bo Jackson could have become, without the baseball and without the injuries. "He's definitely the finest athlete of our era," said Jim Bates, the man who drafted Mert. "You have a guy who is that big, that strong, that smart, and can run that fast...he made plays out there, and we would just watch them over and over on film, wondering how the heck he did that. I coached against him a couple times, our whole gameplan was based on containing him, that's the only way we had a chance to win."

But you can't compare Mert to any other back, really - he didn't really have a running style. "I just ran," he says. He ran, and ran, and ran. By the Falcons' count, Mert broke a run of 20-yards or more at least 108 times in his career. That's over three times more the count of other standout backs of Mert's era. "If you missed him, he was gone, 6 points," said Rick Owens of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who was a teammate of Mert's for 3 seasons with the Falcons, and then faced him twice a year with the Bucs. "The thing is, linebackers had trouble catching him, and defensive backs had trouble bringing him down. How do you stop a guy like that?"

Mert wasn't all speed - he packed quite a punch in his 6'0", 238 lb. frame. "I hated tackling the guy," said Saints defensive Back Adam Fischer. "If you tried to put your head down and take out his legs, he would just put a move on you and he'd be gone."

Merton was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today, in his first year of eligibility. "It's a great honor to be mentioned with some of these names, some of these guys who were played before I was even born. To be honest, I didn't even have all this in mind when I first came into the league - I was just trying to make the team that first season."

The induction of Merton Tucker is also believed to be the first time a Hall of Famer has been presented by a "website guy" - Mert asked his longtime friend "Mad Cat" to speak at his induction ceremony. "Mad's saved me a ton of time over the years, this is the only way I could think to repay him," said Merton Tucker.

- Merton Tucker's Career Highlight Video (10.2 MB, requires Windows Media Player 9 Codec)

I was nervous as heck yesterday standing up in front of all those people. I'm not a big people person, which is why I'd prefer to do a website than talk to the media - so I was afraid I'd do something stupid and embarrass myself up there. It's different than a football game, because then you've got your helmet and pads on, you're in the game, this is way different.

My speech was pretty vanilla, I'm not a creative speaker, pretty much what I've just done, thanking everyone, a little reminiscing about the past. Most of those guys were in attendance. I had Mad Cat, who I've collaborated on the site with since 2007, present me - he didn't have much to say, really, just rattled off a bunch of numbers, statistics, and dates, which is what I expected, he's a stat freak, I let him handle that and he did a good job. I don't think my bust really looked what I did when I was playing, but I'm not complaining. I've never visited the Hall of Fame until this weekend, I think it might take a little for all of this to sink in, and I'm actually represented in there, with that bust, and a couple other things, like some of my game jerseys and cleats.It's been a long road - I was getting ready for my first preseason game against the Seahawks, 20 years ago, to the month. And now, I'm in the Hall of Fame. Unbelievable. I mean, I'm not at all surprised that I was selected - I'm not ignorant, I know where I stand in NFL history, to tell you the truth, I would have been shocked if I was not selected. Not to be arrogant, but I think my career speaks for itself.

One of the best decisions I ever made was staying in Atlanta, back in 2011, signing that deal to re-up with the team. I had the luxury of running behind one of the greatest offensive lines of our era, guys like Roberto Garza and Bob Whitfield, who spent their entire career with the Falcons, Travis Claridge, who blocked for me a couple seasons, Mike Williams late in his career, Isaac Quick, who was a main factor in me deciding to stay that season, when the team drafted him #1, and all the other guys - you know who you are. A special thank-you to Donny Glaser, who paved the way for me so many times, making my job easy, giving me the crack I needed to get into the open. It just wasn't the same when he retired. Warrick Dunn was one of the best teachers I could hope for, I was a little dumb back when, when we were on the same roster, but even after he retired and accepted a coaching job, he would still call me from time to time and give me pointers, and answer questions - and he wasn't a bad back in his own right. Emmitt Smith, who was my coach for a couple seasons - another great teacher.

I would have loved to win another Super Bowl ring, but I'm thankful for the one that I've got, the one I won in my first season as the starter - I still remember everyone thinking that we weren't going to do anything that year, no running game, and then shocking them and winning it all, against the Ravens. I've gone from that Super Bowl, to the low point, the season after, struggling through a tough year, and fighting back. I remember all the rushing titles, the Pro Bowls in Hawaii, all the career milestones, the 2,000-yard seasons. All the "fumbles" that were never overturned via replay challenge (by my count, I only have about 10 career fumbles), and that 4-overtime playoff game up in New York, just walking off the field in disbelief, physically and mentally exhausted, after losing to the Giants. That night in Dallas in 2012, breaking the single-game rushing record against the Cowboys, a mark that still stands - I don't think I fully appreciated what I did until later in my career, when I passed Ricky Williams' All-Time Career Mark late in my final season. That's when the magnitude of my career hit me.

And I still remember my rookie season, standing on the sidelines and getting the nod late in the game from Jim Bates, giddy with excitement, my first-ever NFL carry, getting that block from Martin Bibla. I remember thinking, I would never forget those beginnings, unless I got a concussion, or something - and I haven't forgotten. I was a 5th-round choice trying not to get cut, hoping for blowouts so I would get to play, standing on the sidelines with a clean white uniform, when guys like T.J. Duckett and Brent James would talk by with mud all over them. And then there I was, a couple seasons later, in the opposite role - watching the young guys play in the 4th quarter.

I also remember the fans - writing to you guys on a weekly basis, win or lose. The flights home, sitting with my laptop, pounding away on the keyboard, posting my thoughts and feelings, the highs and lows - thanks for listening and sharing my NFL experience. Thanks for putting up with me, and setting me straight during the times when my head was getting to big. And thanks for supporting the Falcons, coming out to show your support, win or lose.

This will be the final update to the website (barring any typos or errors...). It has come a long way, from The Falcon's Nest around October 2003, to the period around February when I almost quit the franchise, to what the site is now. I never expected Mert to do what he did, to be honest, I figured he would bounce around to a couple teams as a Special Teams player, running down kickoffs and punts, since I was getting kind of sick of playing as the Falcons and in the NFC South anyway... =)

But the way things turned out was fine, too.

I don't have as many thanks as Mert did, I'd just like to thank Brad and "Mert's friend", MADCAT (and BT-EZFM), which kept the franchise going, and all the readers of this site and the old one, the guys from Football-Freaks, MaddenMania, and MaddenNation who were regular visitors, the guys who stumbled onto the sites, the guys who had it bookmarked and checked every week or so, and the guys who were bored at work and used my site to keep themselves entertained, the guys who send in "Mailbags", the guys who found out about it near the end and took the time to read through 8 seasons of archived content, and anyone else who thinks they deserve a "thank-you".

In case you missed "The Falcon's Nest" - I dug up my final update on that website, the 2007 NFL Draft. As you can see, I was excited about Mert (one reason chose him in the first place), but he was little else than a big guy with lightning speed back then. This was from before I got the idea for this website.

- The Falcon's Nest Screenshot

As for Madden 2005 franchises? Still undecided, but if you don't see anything from me in a couple months, feel free to drop me a line at BullDwg34@Yahoo.com and find out.

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