Hall will call Polamalu, but Faneca will fall short

Troy Polamalu? Absolutely. Alan Faneca? One day, hopefully, but probably not this year. Hines Ward? Not going to happen, unfortunately.

Antonio Brown? Now, that is a fascinating possibility.

Saturday is the day when Pro Football Hall of Fame voters meet at the Super Bowl to decide on the rest of the 2020 class. Polamalu and

Faneca are among the 15 modernera finalists from whom five will be chosen for induction. Ward did not make that list. Brown won’t be

eligible until five years after he retires.

Polamalu is easy. The voters inducted former Ravens safety Ed Reed on their first ballot last year. Polamalu was every bit the impactful safety, although I’ll never forget the grief former Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians took here for suggesting Reed was a hair better.

I’m just hoping Polamalu shows up for the induction ceremonies in August.

I am only half-joking. “To me, that’s not the greatest honor. The greatest honor in the greatest team sport is winning the Super Bowl,” Polamalu told me during an hourlong interview late in 2014, his final season.

“My uncle texted me the other day about legacy. I said something in my mind like, ‘Who really cares about legacy?’ I don’t care. How I’m remembered, if I’m remembered. I think the great thing about my life experiences is what I can share with my children. That is the value. That, to me, is what life experiences are about.”

I’m guessing Polamalu will be happy to share his Hall induction with his kids.

Faneca, in his fifth year of eligibility, is looking at another long day, waiting for Hall of Fame president Dave Baker to knock on his hotel door with good news. Faneca has acknowledged the process is brutal, especially because he knows he belongs.

Faneca ranks with Hall of Famer Mike Webster at the top of the list of the Steelers’ most honored offensive linemen. He is a six-time, firstteam All-Pro and two-time, second-team All-Pro.

“Alan’s athletic ability and physicality at the guard position set the tone for their whole team,” Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher said this week. “They won up front. They ran the ball. They protected their quarterback. Like I said, that started with him. He was the guy up front.”

Added Bill Cowher, who coached Faneca for the first nine of Faneca’s 10 seasons with the Steelers: “He’s the best run-blocking left guard that was ever in football.”

There is no question Faneca belongs.

But there is a cruel reality to Faneca’s Hall situation: Polamalu and Cowher are working against him, unintentionally, of course.

Let’s assume Polamalu gets in. Cowher and Donnie Shell also will be enshrined in August as parts of the NFL’s Centennial Hall of Fame class. Voters aren’t likely to put in another man with Steelers ties, no matter his qualifications. There definitely is a bias among the voters, a Steelers fatigue if you will. The best thing that probably could happen to Faneca, short of induction, is that one of the other offensive lineman finalists — Tony Boselli or Steve Hutchinson — gets voted in to clear a better path for Faneca next year.

I know, that’s hardly fair. That same anti-Steelers bias is working against Ward, the same way it did against Andy Russell, L.C. Greenwood and Larry Brown, the same way it did against Cowher and Shell before their inclusion in this special Hall class. Ward deserves induction based on his statistics, his amazing ability and willingness to block and his MVP award from the Super Bowl in 2006. But I don’t see it happening. I hate writing that. That leaves Brown.

He is the best wide receiver I’ve seen in Pittsburgh, and I watched not just Ward, but Hall of Famers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.

Brown will make the Hall of Fame even if he never plays again.

Brown was terrific during his eight-plus years in the NFL. His six-year run from 2013-18, when he averaged 114 catches, 1,524 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns a season, was the best six-year run by a receiver in NFL history. He also was a wonderful punt and kick returner.

Brown hurt his chances with some Hall voters by quitting on the Steelers before the final game of the 2018 season, his final season here. Longtime voter Peter King said he didn’t put Brown on his 2018 All-Pro team because of it.

Some voters will hold Brown’s relatively short career against him, but not enough. The majority will make an exception for a guy who was the best at his position during his time in the NFL. Think Gale Sayers, who had just five marvelous seasons.

What won’t keep Brown out of the Hall is his abhorrent behavior off the field. You know about his many deplorable transgressions, from the rape and sexual assault accusations against him, to the video of him abusing police and the mother of three of his children with the kids watching, to his arrest last week on battery and burglary charges. There is no morality clause in the instructions given to the football Hall voters. They are told to consider only what a player did on the field.

That makes Brown a Hall of Famer.

There shouldn’t be much debate.