What are we to make of a process that seems to have very little rhyme and even less reason?
Calling the voting process for the Pro Football Hall of Fame “flawed” would be a compliment. Any process that leaves out obvious selections and leaves you scratching your head about others is way past flawed. It’s damaged and needs immediate repair.
Okay, pretend you’re in the room as a member of the selection committee, and Candidate X is presented. All this man did during his 14-year NFL career – in which he never missed a game – was earn 12 straight trips to the Pro Bowl, start 231 straight games, put up the second longest active streak of consecutive games played (behind Brett Favre…and remember, he’s an offensive lineman), block for five 1,000 yard rushers and five more 4,000 yard passers. He was an All-Pro NINE times. He holds the franchise record for games started, and is a member of the NFL’s “All Decade Team” for the 2000’s. Inside that room, they tell you that experts consider this man one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history.
But you decide NOT to vote him into the Hall of Fame.
Laughable, right?
Not so funny, actually. This has actually happened. Former Husker great and College Football Hall of Fame member Will Shields, who spent 14 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, was eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time this month. When the final voting took place the weekend of the Super Bowl, he was one of the finalists who were NOT selected by the brain damaged voting committee. Really.
His backers are supposed to be satisfied that Shields was a “first ballot finalist” for the Hall this year. He was passed over in favor of former teammate Willie Roaf, who was not the player Shields was. Roaf himself told reporters at the Super Bowl, “If you went by resumes, Will would be a lock." So what’s wrong with this picture?
I understand the whole “first time on the ballot” stigma, and that stuff about waiting your turn, paying your dues, etc. I know that John Elway “had to be” the first Denver Bronco inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame – even though Floyd Little, who was inducted several years later, retired from the NFL while Elway was in grade school – just because that’s the way it’s supposed to work. (Still doesn’t explain why former Bronco great Randy Gradishar is still not in, but I digress...)
But last time I checked, there were more than a dozen former Kansas City Chiefs already in the Hall of Fame. So which unwritten rule kept Shield out? Perhaps the one that says players who didn’t play for an east coast team don’t warrant as much consideration? Yes, we all know if Shields had been a New York Jet for just half is career, they’d have waived the mandatory five year waiting period and put him in years ago.
This all just goes to show how totally screwed up the selection process really is. No Bill Parcells, no Chris Carter this year, either? Why? Because they had to put Curtis Martin in first? Huh? Did anyone who watched Curtis Martin play ever think they were watching a Hall of Fame running back? Doubtful. Parcells didn’t get in because too many east coast media guys are still mad at the way he treated them. Nothing to do with his resume. It’s personal bias. Another black mark against the selection process.
Nobody has anything bad to say about Will Shields. The NFL gave him the Walter Payton “Man of the Year” award in 2003 for his plethora of community service. But in his case, the fact that he didn’t play on an east coast team and the east coast media didn’t write about his every week overshadowed his considerable resume, and made Shields an afterthought…for now.
Will Shields will end up in the NFL Hall of Fame – probably next year. As if something he accomplishes between Super Bowl weekends in the next year will make him a more worthy candidate. Maybe someone on next year’s selection committee will take note that he’s already on the Walter Camp Foundation’s College Football All CENTURY team. Maybe they’ll actually look at the facts and be embarrassed by what they didn’t do this year.
It’s time to take a long, hard look at how these selection processes work…and get them fixed.
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