Texas A&M Football: Did Von Miller cement status as a first ballot HOFer?

For Texas A&M football fans, the Super Bowl may not have meant much. There wasn’t a representative in the big game from the state of Texas, with the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys each falling well short in 2022. But there is still NFL interest for A&M fans.

This week, Aggie fans held stock in the Super Bowl via a former Aggie football player. That player is Von Miller.

Miller isn’t new to the Super Bowl, either — the former Aggie linebacker has become one of the most memorable defensive players in the history of the competition, winning a Super Bowl MVP award back in 2016. He hasn’t slowed down at all — at least not as a winner.

Von Miller now shares the all-time Super Bowl sack record with another lights-out performance

I want to clarify that I’m referring to Miller’s Super Bowl performance as “lights out.” Thankfully, there were no lighting issues this year — Super Bowl XLVII is punching the air right now.

The former star linebacker for the Texas A&M football team is still tearing it up in the NFL, having one of the best performances for a Super Bowl-winning team on Sunday. Miller would finish the game with 2.5 sacks, which tied him for most sacks in Super Bowl history with Charles Haley.

Miller didn’t just record sacks, either — he recorded three total QB hits on Joe Burrow with a deflected pass, continuing his NFL Playoff hot streak.

But Miller hasn’t just had two strong playoff performances.

In fact, to track his prowess when it matters most, you can look at a number of playoff appearances for the star NFL linebacker, beginning in his rookie season in 2011, where he recorded three QB hits, two tackles for loss, and a sack in two playoff games.

He’d continue this the next season, recording nine total tackles, a QB hit, and a half-sack in just a single performance. Two years later in 2014, Miller showed out in another loss, putting together a stat line that consisted of five solo tackles, two for loss, and a QB hit.

The 2015-16 season, however, was where Miller really put his stamp on the game. The former Aggie defender had one of the most dominating playoff performances in NFL history from start to finish, with a particularly impressive stretch in the AFC Championship and Super Bowl games. These two games saw Miller record five sacks, 11 total tackles, six QB hits, and two forced fumbles.

So with all of these elite performances in mind, a single question arises — has Von Miller cemented his status as a first-ballot Hall of Famer?

The short answer is yes. The Ram linebacker has the stats and career accolades to back it up over virtually any player you can name. This includes 115.5 total sacks and 27 forced fumbles. He’s also a two-time Super Bowl Champion, eight-time Pro Bowler, three-time First-Team All-Pro linebacker.

To put it simply, if he’s not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, people might riot (and they should).