- Messages
- 79,281
- Reaction score
- 45,652
OVATION FOR MONK A MESSAGE TO SELECTION COMMITTEE
Posted by Mike Florio on August 3, 2008, 6:06 p.m.
An interesting point came up during our Sunday afternoon spot with Dan Moriarty and Lincoln Kennedy of FOX Sports Radio. When Lincoln mentioned the extended standing ovation that the crowd gave to Commanders receiver Art Monk at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night, I said that it was in part a loud and clear message to the Hall of Fame’s selection committee, which took far too long to elect Monk for inclusion.
And that brings us to a broader point — there’s something wrong with the current system of determining who does and doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame. It’s a room full of writers, a 44-person group, with one of them charged with the responsibility of making the case for each potential candidate, and then debate ensuing over which of the candidates will be added to the Hall.
In our view, the body is too big to be consistently effective, the individual members are too susceptible to internal and external pressures, and too many details of the imperfect sausage-making process process leak out to the general public.
A better approach? Let the Commissioner decide who does and doesn’t get in, with the direct input of a small group of hand-picked experts who can assess the attributes of current candidates in comparison to those players who came years if not decades before them.
Though the committee has on many occasions gotten it right, Monk’s case shows that, for several years in a row, the committee got it wrong. For that reason alone, the NFL should reassess whether the current approach is the best one.
Posted by Mike Florio on August 3, 2008, 6:06 p.m.
An interesting point came up during our Sunday afternoon spot with Dan Moriarty and Lincoln Kennedy of FOX Sports Radio. When Lincoln mentioned the extended standing ovation that the crowd gave to Commanders receiver Art Monk at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night, I said that it was in part a loud and clear message to the Hall of Fame’s selection committee, which took far too long to elect Monk for inclusion.
And that brings us to a broader point — there’s something wrong with the current system of determining who does and doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame. It’s a room full of writers, a 44-person group, with one of them charged with the responsibility of making the case for each potential candidate, and then debate ensuing over which of the candidates will be added to the Hall.
In our view, the body is too big to be consistently effective, the individual members are too susceptible to internal and external pressures, and too many details of the imperfect sausage-making process process leak out to the general public.
A better approach? Let the Commissioner decide who does and doesn’t get in, with the direct input of a small group of hand-picked experts who can assess the attributes of current candidates in comparison to those players who came years if not decades before them.
Though the committee has on many occasions gotten it right, Monk’s case shows that, for several years in a row, the committee got it wrong. For that reason alone, the NFL should reassess whether the current approach is the best one.
