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Jason Whitlock on the Football HOF
markj111
Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
I am not that big a fan of the NFL, but I found the article interesting.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. | I spent much of my childhood dreaming of getting inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I used to practice my induction speech in front of my mother.
It’s absolutely killing me to watch the prestige of sports’ most important hall of fame get diminished year after year as borderline candidates slip into a Hall best left reserved for the best of the best.
Let me first congratulate Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, John Randle and Dick LeBeau, the four legitimate and deserving inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And let me also apologize to Shannon Sharpe, Cris Carter and Tim Brown, the three legitimate and deserving candidates who were passed over by Hall voters Saturday afternoon.
OK, let me do one more thing before I explain to you why Floyd Little, Russ Grimm and Rickey Jackson have no business with a bust in Canton, Ohio. Let me explain to you why there is virtually no media debate or criticism of football hall of fame candidates and the selection process.
Think about it. There are two halls of fame that really matter in professional sports — baseball and football. Every year, hardcore baseball writers and broadcasters engage in a spirited debate about who does and doesn’t belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame. You’ll read passionate columns blasting the candidacy of accomplished baseball players. You’ll see sports writers on TV making arguments for and against a pitcher such as Bert Blyleven.
You get almost none of that in football. Why?
Everyone has a vote in baseball, so everyone feels empowered to speak their mind. A small group of handpicked selectors — 44 — of varying degrees of qualifications choose who goes into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That group pretty much pledges not to criticize each other publicly. And the sports writers who are not among that group and someday hope to be realize they better not offer a word of criticism.
It’s an un-American process. It’s a journalistically unsound process. It’s a cowardly process. It’s a process that if practiced by the institutions journalists allegedly cover would have newspaper editors joining Sarah Palin at the national Tea Party.
It’s a process — in these economically tough times — ripe for corruption. It’s a process that mostly serves the egos of the selectors.
They live for the “shout-outs,” when a newly inducted player publicly thanks them for his induction into the Hall.
The process has very little real integrity. Pro football players know this. They don’t respect the process. They privately lament the fact that people — some of whom don’t even have a layman’s understanding of a complex game — they don’t respect pass final judgment on their careers. New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson was the first football player to whine his way into the Hall of Fame.
I’m not suggesting that players and coaches should decide who gets in the Hall of Fame. If you watched the NFL Network, which carried Saturday’s announcement, you realized that former players have no interest in offering an objective opinion about their peers. Rod Woodson, Michael Irvin and Steve Young seemed to be campaigning for a class of 50 inductees.
For those of you who hate the media, watch a replay of the NFL Network’s coverage and ask yourself if you prefer the fawning, clueless analysis offered up by Woodson, Irvin and Young.
What we can all agree on is the process needs to be fixed. It’s broken.
Rather than picking the best four or five candidates each year, the selection group seems to be focused on correcting “perceived” mistakes.
Russ Grimm? Are you kidding me? Take away “The Hogs” nickname and Grimm never sniffs the Hall of Fame. He was a very good player on some great Washington teams. So what? Nate Newton was a dominant player for a longer period of time and won just as many Super Bowls.
Rickey Jackson? He was a very good outside linebacker for the New Orleans Saints throughout the 1980s. When hall of fame voters picked the all-decade team for the 1980s, Jackson didn’t receive one vote. You know who did? Carl Banks and John Anderson. Banks and Anderson aren’t going to the hall of fame.
The hall of fame senior committee selected Floyd Little, his 6,300 yards and 3.9-yard average over nine years. Little never played a postseason game. Larry Johnson (6,200, 4.4) is likely to finish with better numbers.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is becoming a bad joke. Shannon Sharpe won two Super Bowls in Denver and was the key addition that allowed Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens defense to win a Super Bowl. Sharpe retired as the most prolific pass-catching tight end of all time.
Next year, Deion Sanders, Willie Roaf and Marshall Faulk will be on the ballot. They are no-brainers. Jerome Bettis and Curtis Martin have first-ballot resumes. The maximum allowed in is five modern players and two senior inductees. In other words, at least three modern players — Bettis, Martin, Sharpe, Carter or Brown — are going to be disappointed again.
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Comments
Obviously you demanded an apology from me, yet are not man enough to admit it was you who was incorrect.
Ripken in the Minors * Ripken in the Minors Facebook Page
<< <i>At the risk of sounding like a broken record you really need to post a link with a one or two sentence summary of the article. What you are doing could get PSA in big trouble with the infringement taking place. I have had my work copy/pasted without credit being given and can tell you from the experience that it stinks. >>
Thanks for the tip. This was from a free site, with appropriate credit given.
If someone were to do that with one of our online articles we would ask that it be removed as well or at least link it back to the site.
Carol
<< <i>Just because you can read it online without a subscription fee doesn't mean it's free.
If someone were to do that with one of our online articles we would ask that it be removed as well or at least link it back to the site.
Carol >>
Thanks for the info. I'll get my kids to show me how to post a link.
Working on the following: 1970 Baseball PSA, 1970-1976 Raw, World Series Subsets PSA, 1969 Expansion Teams PSA, Fleer World Series Sets, Texas Rangers Topps Run 1972-1989
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So he doesn't post a link, big deal. Whitlock is lucky there is somebody even posting what he writes. If he doesn't post it, nobody would even go to his site.
Whitlock is still getting publicity from it(100% more than if it were never posted on here to begin with)...and there is no such thing as bad publicity. Whitlock should be so lucky that somebody is putting his name out there for free.
<< <i>Markj111 is a good guy...cut him some slack.
So he doesn't post a link, big deal. Whitlock is lucky there is somebody even posting what he writes. If he doesn't post it, nobody would even go to his site.
Whitlock is still getting publicity from it(100% more than if it were never posted on here to begin with)...and there is no such thing as bad publicity. Whitlock should be so lucky that somebody is putting his name out there for free. >>
At the risk of sounding like a jerk Mark has been reminded more than once about the rules of copyright infringement by more than one person. Pointing out the legality does not mean anyone is saying he is or is not a good guy.
At the end of the day it is not just about an author receiving credit for their work. Websites cost money. Traffic and ads help pay for the site itself and the salaries of those associated with said site. When someone takes an article away from a site without even posting the link it removes any possibility of traffic unless someone looks for the page. Going a step further, what if someone reads the PSA board, thinkgs it's a good article, then links the PSA forum discussion on another board? Before you know it PSA begins to profit on traffic for an article that is not their property.
Whether you like Whitlock or not there are laws that have to be abided by on this subject.
Ripken in the Minors * Ripken in the Minors Facebook Page
<< <i>Markj111 is a good guy...cut him some slack.
So he doesn't post a link, big deal. Whitlock is lucky there is somebody even posting what he writes. If he doesn't post it, nobody would even go to his site.
Whitlock is still getting publicity from it(100% more than if it were never posted on here to begin with)...and there is no such thing as bad publicity. Whitlock should be so lucky that somebody is putting his name out there for free. >>
Has nothing to do with cutting Mark slack, especially considering how many times people have asked him to post links. Forgetting once or twice is understandable but when it becomes your MO, then it's totally different.
Hypothetically, let's say you made money on your statistical research via page views on a website. Doesn't matter if people agree with your opinions or not; by diverting the traffic, it's stealing and a violation of copywrite laws.
Mark, when you want to post another article, simply copy and paste the url, just as you copy/paste text. It's really not complicated at all.
Rickey Jackson & especially Floyd Little are very questionable. There's a lot of players ahead of these guys that should be getting in...
Erik