Belichick part of controversial special committee for Hall of Fame class.
Arizona Cardinals insider and NFL writer Bob McManaman shares his observations and thoughts about what’s going on with the Cardinals and the rest of the league in his weekly offering that we like to call Tuesday’s Takeaways:
Imagine what would happen if the Baseball Hall of Fame decided that 72.91% of the regular voting base was suddenly prohibited from voting on next year’s induction class.
We’d never hear the end of it, and rightfully so. It would be a travesty of untold proportions that would tear apart the very foundation of our national pastime.
Well, guess what? It’s happening right now with the Pro Football Hall of Fame and nobody seems to give a snit about it. They should, because 35 of the 48 duly-appointed members of the selection committee – 72.91% of them – aren’t being allowed to vote for 75% of the upcoming 2020 Centennial Class.
Here’s the deal. To further capitalize on the NFL’s 100th season, the league got together with the Hall of Fame Board of Directors and it was determined the Hall of Fame would create a special Centennial Class comprised of 15 players, three contributors and two coaches. Players under consideration have to have been retired for at least 25 years.
As first reported by ProFootballTalk, the Hall of Fame last week sent a memo to the section committee informing them that a special “blue-ribbon” panel would instead be voting on the 15-person centennial mega-class. What’s more, according to the report, is that the choices of the 25-person “blue-ribbon” panel will be final, with no vote at all by the full 48-member selection committee.
The regular selection committee will get to pick the five modern-era players who ultimately get enshrined out of a list of 122 eligible candidates. But as for the special Centennial Class, only 13 members who already have Hall of Fame votes will be able to make selections.
Those 13 join the “blue-ribbon” panel that now includes Ernie Acorsi, Bill Belichick, Joel Bussert, Joe Horrigan, Dick LeBeau, John Madden, Ozzie Newsome, Carl Peterson, Bill Polian, Chris Willis, Ron Wolf and Elliott Harrison, an employee of the league, which is usually forbidden for Hall of Fame selection purposes, as pointed out by ProFootballTalk.
That leaves 35 regular members of the selection committee out in the cold, and they’re not happy about it. One of them told me privately he may resign out of protest. I wouldn’t blame him. The league and the Hall of Fame want to ramrod their agenda through no matter the circumstance or the consequence – one of them being that the regular selection committee might vote “no” to the entire process.
This also means that some people who probably wouldn’t check all the boxes of the selection committee, say former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, for instance, now stands an excellent chance of being inducted. It’s ridiculous, even if this is allowed to happen for only one year.
Peter King, weekly author of “Football Morning in America,” probably put it best when he penned the following thought on the matter:
“In the 56 years of Hall of Fame history, 326 football legends in 56 classes have been enshrined by a vote of the selection committee. But not this year. Fifteen men will enter the Hall through a different gate, likely to be viewed by history with an asterisk.”
Things I liked in Week 9
It took four years, but quarterback Brandon Allen finally saw the first action of his NFL career and he led the Broncos to a 24-19 victory over the Browns. Allen, a sixth-round pick by the Jaguars in 2016, completed 12 of 20 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns in place of the injured Joe Flacco.
“It’s tough and there are a lot of guys that will tell you, this league is tough,” Allen told reporters after the game. “You get cut, traded, waived, whatever. It’s all about perseverance and getting that opportunity to see what you can do. A lot of guys don’t even get that opportunity, so I feel blessed.”
There were three starting quarterbacks with the last name of Allen that played in Week 9. All three of them won, as Josh Allen of the Bills and Kyle Allen of the Panthers joined Brandon Allen in the victory column.
The job Justin Pugh did for the Cardinals by sliding over from left guard to right tackle, filling in for the injured Justin Murray in a close Thursday night loss to the 49ers. Pugh’s played a bit of right tackle in the past for the Giants, but it’s not a position he wants to man longer than necessary.
Pugh said it’s like being a fish out of water, although he used a more colorful metaphor from former NFL guard Josh Sitton to describe it instead.
“He’s the one who explained it perfectly,” Pugh said. “Go home, go to the bathroom, and wipe with your other hand. See how that feels. It’s a little messy sometimes, but it gets the job done.”
Things I didn’t
It’s becoming almost impossible to like the Browns anymore – and they were a team that entered the season with so much intrigue. Besides not being able to back up any of the tough talk, they’re in danger of becoming downright clownish and unwatchable. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Always.
The clincher wasn’t their latest loss or that Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry apparently can’t follow standard NFL dress code. It was the wildly inappropriate and threatening postgame tweets from Browns safety Jermaine Whitehead. Great move by Twitter for suspending his account. Even better move by the Browns for releasing him.
Watching Adam Vinatieri’s potential game-winning, 43-yard field goal attempt go horribly wrong in the Colts’ 2624 loss to the Steelers. Instead of winning their fourth straight, the Colts lost when Vinatieri’s kick turned into an ugly duck snap-hook that sailed wide, wide, wide left and is probably still hooking.
The NFL’s all-time leading scorer, Vinatieri won last week’s game against the Broncos for the Colts with a 55-yard field goal, but he’s missed five field goals and five extra points already this year. Yes, the laces were inadvertently facing in on Vinatieri’s 43-yarder, but that was no excuse, according to the 46-year-old kicker.
“I just missed it,” he said. “I have to do better than that.”
That it took until Week 9 for Cardinals rookie wide receivers KeeSean Johnson and Andy Isabella before either scored his first touchdown. They each caught a TD pass from Kyler Murray in the loss to San Francisco, but after all the hype we kept hearing about these two, not to mention fellow rookie receiver Hakeem Butler, who isn’t eligible to play because he was placed on injured reserve before the team finalized its initial 53-man roster, we all expected more.
“Just keep believing,” Isabella said when asked about trying to make an impact.
“You go through a whole journey, a lot of ups and downs and twists and turns. But what I think KeeSean and I have done so well is just keep fighting, showing up every day and keep putting in the work.”