Did Willie Anderson Really Shut Out Nine Top Pass Rushers? We Asked Him

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To listen to the Willie Anderson interview, click on the following link: Ep 90: Hall Of Fame Finalist Willie Anderson Joins The Show | Spreaker)

Maybe you don’t know who Willie Anderson is or was, but you’re about to find out. Because Willie Anderson, former star tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals (and, later, Baltimore) is a Hall-of-Fame finalist for the first time.

Anderson broke through last month when the top 15 players for the modern-era Class of 2022 were announced, and it’s about time. He’s in his ninth year of eligibility and the first Bengal to become a modern-era finalist since quarterback Ken Anderson in 1998.

“God is definitely good,” Anderson said on the latest “Eye Test for Two” podcast on fullpresscoverage.com. “I’m so appreciative of it. It’s big moment in time for my family, myself, my friends and my ex-teammates.”

It should be. In 54 years of existence, the Cincinnati Bengals have only one player who spent the bulk of his career with the club enshrined in the Pro Football Hall, and that’s Anthony Munoz, arguably the greatest left tackle in NFL history. But that’s it. Now Anderson, who played right tackle, has a chance to be the second … and for good reason.

He was so accomplished that Hall-of-Famer Michael Strahan called him “the greatest right tackle of his generation.” And he might be right. Because legend has it that Anderson, who played 195 career games, surrendered only one sack to nine of the NFL’s top 10 pass rushers.

That was to Hall-of-Famer Bruce Smith, who set an NFL record with 200 career sacks.

When we had historian John Turney on the “Eye Test for Two” a week earlier, we asked if he could corroborate Anderson's resume. He could not. He said he would have to watch every game of Anderson’s career, and that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

So we did the next best thing: We asked Willie Anderson.

“I know it sounds crazy to people when they hear that,” he said. “It sounded crazy to me when I found that out. Several years ago, I started my academy up (the Willie Anderson Lineman Academy for high-school athletes), and the Bengals gave me my hard drive of all my games -- one of the biggest gifts they could ever give me.

"So we started watching the film … my players … and we started seeing the guys I went up against. And I remember the Bruce Smith game. I showed the Reggie White game on Twitter and Instagram for the last two or three years.

“People never believed it. No one believed that I played Julius Peppers in 2006. Michael Strahan and Warren Sapp, two Hall-of-Fame guys came out and (said) it, ‘This guy is a shutdown guy.’ People thought I was lying when I first said that.

"I loved Reggie White. God bless him. Rest in peace. I wanted to be Reggie White as a kid, as a man. So when I say, 'hey, I shut Reggie White out in ‘98,' who would believe it?”

Good question. Because it’s one Hall-of-Fame voters will surely pose when Anderson is presented as a finalist on Jan. 18, when the Hall’s board of 49 selectors meets virtually for the second consecutive year.

Anderson is a long-shot and may not make the first cut to 10. But that’s OK. He’s in the room, where voters have a chance to dissect his record, and that’s significant. Until 2021 he wasn’t even a semifinalist. But after reaching that plateau for the first time in eight years, Anderson has taken another step forward, meaning voters must like what they see.

Or hear. Like shutting out nine of the all-time 10 greatest pass rushers.

“When I got the hard drive,” Anderson said, “I started showing my game, just for teaching … just to teach my players, teach guys (about) the NFL because, you know, in the social media world I’m an old guy … But in ’99 through ’01, I gave up no sacks and only one pressure. Everything adds up. And the great thing about it is: I have the film. I have the hard drive right in front of me.

“I would just say, Go ask Julius Peppers. Go ask Jevon Kearse. They’ve asked Strahan already. You can ask Terrell Suggs. Ask Jason Taylor. These guys that I faced are on film, and as the old coaches say, the films don’t lie.”