Meh. It is the same way that HOF's across almost all sports have been doing it for a long time. It is only getting contentious as time goes by because the fans see all the players now. It wasn't that long ago that you never saw players outside your region so you really had no idea. Now we can all see these guys play and read their stats. Top that off with the nonsense and waste of time debates about who is and isn't HOF worthy and it just gets really dumb really quickly.
I think Frank Gore is a really good NFL player. Has been for a long time. If you don't enshrine the 3rd highest rusher in the history of the sport -- who the heck do you enshrine? Is he the most dominant guy ever? Nope. Is he going to make any of those "Best NFL RBs of all time lists"? Likely not.
But I have never understood the constant hand wringing about the benchmarks and criteria the various HOFs use. If you care about it -- great! Have a tremendous amount of fun and enjoyment thinking about it. I mean that in all seriousness. But I have just never gotten it. For some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, the HOF stuff just never really interested me. I have opinions and whatnot, but just can't seem to find the energy to really care...
For the guys you KNOW belong there, it's a mere formality; there was never any doubt.
For guys who you're on the fence about, even if they get in, it's still like, "Meh, I guess."
Either way it doesn't change much.
The only times I get that interested in HOF discussions are the rare cases when a guy who probably should've gotten in doesn't. (Roger Craig comes to mind, among others.) Then there's something to talk about.
See you Space Cowboy ...
Most of the time I don't even manage that. I'm not sure I could name more than a dozen players that I'm certain are in the Hall. Can't explain it but I have zero interest. I'm honestly on this thread because I don't want to be doing what I sat in front of the computer to do.
Could not have said it better myself. Peter King has this weird way of making everything about him and what he is going to do for the game. Like he is some authority on what is and isn't good for the NFL. He also loves to name drop, which leads me to believe its all about Peter King not the players in his eyes.
I love your suggestions 86, some really good ideas there. Especially the weighting of votes.
MLB is the toughest sport to make the HOF and it's not close .... The NBA is the easiest .... The NFL is in between
But the NFL is the only sport you can be in the HOF because of only one game or a guarantee (Joe Namath) or 2 great playoffs run as probably Eli Manning is going to be there ... He deserves all the credit for 2011, but 2007, Eli was very good in the playoffs but it was more of a team effort.