Surprise vote

Non-supporting casts don't foil Hall of Fame careers

SAN DIEGO --- As one of the 38 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors, it's my privilege on the Saturday morning before the Super Bowl to sit in judgment of the current 15 candidates for Hall admission. Today was one of the most interesting and surprising gatherings of the 11 years that I've served.

It was interesting because it came out very differently from the way I had expected. In the end, we whittled the class of 14 -- excluding former coach Hank Stram, who was considered as the senior candidate -- down to these six: guard Joe DeLamielleure, defensive end Elvin Bethea, wide receiver James Lofton, running back Marcus Allen, and a pair of Giants -- the late former general manager George Young and inside linebacker Harry Carson.

After three hours and 20 minutes of debate this morning, the list was cut from 14 to 10 in a secret vote, and then trimmed from 10 to six in another secret ballot. After that we voted for the six remaining finalists, one by one, yea or nea, in private ballot. That final vote yielded this 2003 class of Hall of Famers: Allen, Bethea, DeLamielleure, Lofton and Stram.

• King: Bucs' defense rests its case • Banks: Bucs' Johnson validated • Banks: No. 1 D the difference • Donovan: Raiders too slow • Donovan: Controversy burns Raiders • Statitudes: Havenots can have faith • Statitudes: By The Numbers • Mandel: Broadcast took its time • George: Super Bowl ads fun again

The reason that I was so surprised by today's events is because Lofton, Bethea and DeLamielleure spent good chunks of their careers on losing teams. And because Carson, a personal favorite of mine since I know the impact he had on those great Giants teams of the '80s, had previously been ignored by Hall voters, probably because he had been so overshadowed by Lawrence Taylor. I applaud the guys in that room at the San Diego Convention Center this morning. And applaud a couple of absolutely terrific presentations by my peers: Cliff Christl of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was positively eloquent in stating Lofton's case, and Vinny DiTrani of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) did a great job quantifying how important George Young was in Giants -- and NFL -- history, while making the case that Carson was a lot more than Lawrence Taylor's caddie.

I know there are a lot of you out there who feel that the Hall of Fame voting is handled stupidly by a bunch of know-nothing sportswriters. I must say that thought has crossed my mind as well a couple of times over the years. But trust me when I tell you this today: The reason fan favorites such as Ken Stabler and Art Monk didn't make it is because other guys were better in the eyes of 38 people who tried to leave all personal and football prejudices at the door and do the best job for football.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. He will file daily for CNNSI.com throughout Super Bowl week. Click here to send him a comment.

 

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