Andre Tippett signs autographs for fans Wednesday after he was honored by the Patriots.

AP / Steven Senne

If — and this is a big “if” — there was an offensive lineman capable of blocking Andre Tippett one-on-one, then it might have been — and I stress might — John Hannah.

There weren’t many — if any — others.

Hannah is the best offensive lineman I’ve seen in more than 30 years of covering the National Football League. He is, as every Patriots fan knows, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Just like Tippett, who this afternoon will join Hannah, Mike Haynes, and Nick Buoniconti as the fourth Patriots player to be enshrined in Canton.

“It’s a very exclusive list,” Tippett said. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Tippett always took pride in his play — although not the kind of pride that is egocentric. Quite the opposite, in fact. His pride was of the sort that emphasizes individual effort to create team success.

“Talk is cheap,” he said late in his career, when the Patriots were struggling to win even a few games a season. “Guys talk about doing this and that. But, on Sunday, I don’t see that. I see too many guys who worry about whether they scored a touchdown, or made enough catches, or got a sack. They should be thinking about making a block, or chasing the ball down if the other team runs a sweep to the other side of the field. Those are the things we have to worry about. All they should be thinking about is winning.”

There is no doubt that opposing quarterbacks thought about Tippett every minute they were on the field. Frequently in their face, he always was in the back of their mind.

Coming off the edge of the Patriots’ 3-4 defensive alignment from his outside linebacker position, he was a fearsome pass rusher. He stood 6-foot-3, weighed a sculpted 242 pounds, and could run like a fullback. Strong enough to be a defensive end, he often lined up as a “down” lineman, in a three-point stance, when the Pats put four men on the line of scrimmage in passing situations.

In any case, he was too quick for most offensive tackles to handle, and too strong for most tight ends. And woe to any woefully overmatched running back assigned to blitz pickup, when he was the only obstacle between Tippett and the quarterback.

To this day, Tippett remains not merely the most productive, but also unquestionably the most relentless pass rusher in Patriots history.

A second-round pick out of Iowa in 1982, Tippett was one of the key building blocks in Dick Steinberg’s assemblage of talent that, under the coaching of another Hall of Famer Raymond Berry, enabled the Patriots to go to their first Super Bowl in 1985 and win the AFC East title in 1986.

The year before New England drafted Tippett, the New York Giants selected a linebacker by the name of Lawrence Taylor, who, with his size, strength, and phenomenal quickness, would revolutionize the game.

The Giants gave Taylor, who had exceptional speed and tenacity, considerable freedom to utilize his unique, playmaking — and, viewed from the offensive side of the ball — play-disrupting abilities.

Tippett, while quick off the ball, wasn’t as fast as Taylor — although he was more powerful — and operated in a more-structured system in New England.

It was his misfortune to always be compared with Taylor, who was to linebackers what Michael Jordan was to basketball players.

“I have so much respect for Lawrence Taylor,” Tippett said recently. “He was an amazing athlete. We all wanted to play and do the things he did. Guys were measured against him.”

Tippett was one of the few who measured up.

“It’s a known fact,” he said, “that I’ve been referred to as the ‘L.T. of the AFC.’ It really doesn’t matter now, because we’re in the same place.”

It’s also a fact that getting to the quarterback is what got Tippett to Canton.

Amazingly, he didn’t have a sack in nine games as a rookie. The following year, Pats coach Ron Meyer decided to use Tippett like a defensive end in passing situations, giving him a role similar to that of the 49ers’ all-pro sack specialist, Fred Dean.

“We need more athletic talent on the rush,” Meyer said early that season. “Plus, I want to get Andre Tippett on the field more.”

That was just fine with Tippett.

“I can see myself doing that,” he said at the time. “I feel like I get off the ball pretty quick. They’d have to work with me. I don’t know if they could expect dramatic changes all at once. But I feel like I can do some things.”

Could he ever.

The changes turned out to be both quick and dramatic, as Tippett recorded a team-leading 8.5 sacks in 1983. That was nothing compared with the 1984 season, when he set a club record with 18.5 sacks.

He had 16.5 when the Pats won the AFC championship in ’85, and went on to rack up a total of exactly 100 sacks by the time he retired after the 1993 season.

Meyer spoke of Tippett in glowing terms: “He’s tremendously strong, he’s explosive, he’s determined, he has excellent speed, he’s a superbly conditioned athlete, and he prepares well for a game. And he produces when it counts. That’s the mark of a great player.”

He certainly was a great pick as a second-rounder.

“Andre is strong enough to throw blockers aside if they get in his way,” Steinberg once said, “and he’s quick enough to avoid them, which is probably the most important thing.”

It’s meaningful to Tippett that he spent his entire career with the Patriots.

“Toward the end of my career,” he said recently, “guys from around the league would say to me: ‘How do you stay there, with all the things that are going on? Why don’t you get out of there?’

“I was committed to the organization. The organization had committed to me. I had a contract, and I honored that contract. I couldn’t see myself going anywhere else. With free agency the way it is now, it’s rare, no matter how good you are, that you’ll get the opportunity to play for the same team your whole career. For me, it definitely is a badge of honor.”

Now, after a stellar career in New England, Tippett richly deserves football’s ultimate honor — a place in the Hall of Fame.

Ceremony On TV: 6 p.m. ESPN

jdonalds@projo.com