Prisco: Pro Football Hall of Fame voting process is in need of a major overhaul
MINNEAPOLIS – I felt like I went to a party, and wound up at a wake.
That's the only way to describe the scene inside the cramped room at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton late Saturday afternoon, a room that was supposed to be a celebratory spot for Tony Boselli, but instead turned into the room with a deserving man getting his Pro Football Hall of Fame dreams crushed again.
The call from the committee came moments before I arrived, so when Boselli, who played eight years for the Jacksonville Jaguars, opened the door to let me in, he dejectedly gave me the news.
"I didn't make it," he said.
What?
"Nope," he said. "They just called."
With that, he was back waiting and wondering if it would ever happen. Boselli handled the news like he did for years when he was a player and I was the beat guy covering the team: With class.
Like after a bad loss, he always stood in front of his locker and talked. He did so here too, but never bashed the process like I did as we talked.
"All great players," he said later in a text when the class was announced.
The second-best left tackle I've ever watched (Anthony Munoz is the first), a player who had his career cut short by injury, might now be turned into Jerry Kramer. The former Green Bay Packers guard got into the Hall Saturday as a seniors selection, but he had to wait over 40 years and is now 82.
Here's hoping the wait isn't that long for Boselli, but you never know with this process. As a side note, the Jaguars remain the only team in the league without a Hall player, coach or front-office executive who has been associated with the team. Being in a small market has beaten the team up when it has come to Pro Bowls and All-Pros in their history, and it's now hurting them in the Hall process.
It's a process that needs major revamping. On the elevator down from Boselli's room I noticed a Hall representative in the same car. I looked at my longtime buddy, John Oehser, who now works for the Jaguars, and said this:
"Two words: Bad process."
The Hall representative gave me a bad look.
Oh, well.
Even before Boselli had come this close, I thought the process was flawed. There are 48 voters, one from each NFL city, and 12 at-large selectors. They have a hard job and I have worked with a lot of them for years and respect them for their long careers and what they have done for the game and the media business.
But that doesn't mean this doesn't need changing.
The basics of it are wrong when you have to be convinced to vote for a guy. If given the honor to be a voter, there should be no political maneuvering to convince others to vote for your guy or visa versa. No block voting. No regional voting.
Let the voter do his own work. He should call coaches. Call former players. Call GMs. Watch the tape. Do your own legwork and then vote. Do it in private, not with some local writer convincing you to do so.
That's problem No. 1.
Problem No. 2 is limiting the number of eligible players. Football has 22 players on the field at all times, the most of any of the major sports. It also has the biggest rosters. So why not expand the number of players who can get in each year? Right now, it's five modern-day players and as many senior or contributor candidates that get 80-percent of the vote.
That's not enough. The class this year is impressive, but how do you not include one offensive lineman in the class? There were five eligible, and they obviously cannibalized each other for votes.
That's another problem. Aside from word of mouth, how can you analyze lineman without studying their tape. Is Alan Faneca better than Steve Hutchinson at guard? The tape will tell, not Pro Bowl lists or All-Pro teams.
Make the All-22 tapes from all lineman nominated available for all the voters. Then again, that doesn't mean they will get it right. Just make them do the work.
Another idea would be to include league personnel and former coaches and general managers. Wouldn't Bill Polian be great on a committee? Just make them abstain from voting for their own guys.
It's a flawed process and, yes, I know it's a tough job. And the class they picked has deserving players, even if I didn't agree with a few. There are better ways to do this picking.
Tony Boselli should have been thinking about his bust Saturday. Instead I saw his mom, his wife and one of his football-playing sons baked in disappointment as he failed to get the call to Canton, a room stunned by the call telling him he had missed out.
Boselli wasn't alone in his disappointment. There were 10 others who missed out, and many deserving of getting a bust.
So let's change the process. Aren't parties a lot more fun than wakes?