Poor guy. Has a great career and not only does no one care when he retires, the thread created about his retirement is hijacked to talk about Hines Ward.
(playoffs excluded).
I could see this if Mason hadn't appeared in many or any playoff games, but he played in his share. Here are their playoff stats:Mason: 16 games, 49 receptions, 601 yds, 2 td's
Ward: 18 games, 88 receptions, 1881 yards, 10 td's
One of the big reasons that Ward gets mentioned as a HOF candidate is that he came up so big in the playoffs, whereas Mason wasn't an impact player in the postseason, at least not consistently. Ward also has 19 more regular season TD's. And, whether or not you buy into the "Hines Ward is the best blocking WR ever" talk,
I think it's fair to say that Ward was the more complete player.
Look, I like Derrick Mason a lot and I think he had an amazing career. I'm actually not a Hines Ward fan. But your comparison is off the mark in this case. You simply can't discount the post-season numbers.