The NFL celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2019.
Canton, Ohio, should figure prominently in the celebration. That's the city where it all started for the NFL back in 1920 when the owners of football teams throughout the Midwest met at an auto dealership there to transform a bunch of barnstorming gridders into a league. Hall of Famers George Halas and Jim Thorpe attended that historic meeting.
The first step the NFL can take in honoring its heritage is to award the 2019 draft to Canton. The second step should be undertaken by the Hall of Fame itself -- increasing the size of the induction class for the Class of 2019.
I spent a few days in Canton this week attending a Hall of Fame committee meeting. We brought out safety Kenny Easley as our senior candidate and Jerry Jones and Paul Tagliabue as our contributor candidates for the Class of 2017. We're going to get through the list of deserving contributors in the next 4-5 years. But we're never going to get through the list of deserving seniors.
As a member of the senior committee, I've compiled a list of players whom I believe deserve to have their careers discussed by the full Hall of Fame selection committee -- league MVPs, passing, rushing and receiving champions, sack and interception champions, all-decade players, multi-time Pro Bowlers... Essentially, players who, for whatever reason, have fallen through the cracks.
I'm not saying that these players all belong in Canton. But they deserve to have their careers discussed and judged against players who already have busts in the Hall of Fame.
My list includes 229 names of men who played through the 1990s and are Hall eligible. The list includes 95 all-decade players and three more off the NFL's 50th anniversary team. There are 10 NFL MVPs, seven defensive players of the year, five single-season passing champions, 14 rushing champions, 16 receiving champions and six interception champs.
Of those 229, 202 have never even been in the room to be discussed as finalists. There are seven players on the list that went to at least eight Pro Bowls -- and five of them have never even been finalists. Eight Pro Bowls ought to punch anyone's ticket to the finals.
If you were the best player in the NFL for a single season -- or deemed one of the best players of your generation by decree of an all-decade selection -- then you deserve to be discussed, your candidacy scrutinized.
Yet the senior committee is asked to resurrect the candidacies of just one or two players each year. So most of the men on my list will never get into the room to be discussed as a finalist. There aren't enough slots to accommodate this waiting room. And that's a flaw in this process. We haven't cycled enough worthy candidates through the room over the years.
The Hall of Fame has a chance to ease the strain on the senior committee just a bit. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the NFL, I propose an amnesty year for seniors in 2019. How about a 10-player class of seniors, one in honor of each decade the league has been in existence?
That could give linebacker Maxie Baughan, who went to nine Pro Bowls in the 1960s, a chance to become a finalist for the first time. Cecil Isbell of the 1930s Green Bay Packers is one of only 21 quarterbacks ever selected to an NFL all-decade team. He's also the only one not enshrined in Canton. An amnesty class could give Isbell a chance to finally become a finalist for a hearing before the full committee that his career so richly deserves.
An amnesty class could give Duke Slater, the NFL's first African-American player and a three-time all-pro, a chance to finally have his case heard and his historical impact on the game weighed. It could give first-team all-decade performers Al Wistert and Drew Pearson a chance to finally have their candidacies scrutinized. It could give overlooked AFL stars Ed Budde and Winston Hill a chance to finally be recognized.
Not all those worthy of a bust in Canton have them yet. An amnesty class would make life a little more fair for 10 of those players.
Listen to Rick Gosselin at 10:50 a.m. Tuesdays on Sportsradio 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket with Norm Hitzges and Donovan Lewis, and follow @RickGosselinDMN on Twitter.
Twitter: @RickGosselinDMN
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