The process behind cutting down my list to 25

	Troy Aikman has a good chance of being enshrined in the next Hall of Fame class. Al Bello/Getty Images
	MAILBAG Dr. Z will answer select user questions each week in his NFL mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

I have in front of me a list of 112 names. Soon it will be 25 names, because from the big list I have to come up with 25 people I think should progress to the next round of the Hall of Fame balloting. In the past I would list everyone in my column, the prelim fighters as well as the main eventers, which prompted the Flaming Redhead to ask, "Are you trying to rewrite the phone book?"

Well, that problem doesn't exist now, because at the moment she's in Paris, reminding them they didn't build the Eiffel Tower high enough. But I won't list all the names anyway, mainly because the style here is to run all names in bold face, and they told me to go easy or they might run out of dark ink.

I like this process because I can mention people I know won't have a prayer of getting enshrined. But they'll still get some recognition here. Who knows, if enough people feel the same as I do about them, they might have a chance to progress one further step to the round of 15 (13 modern candidates, two seniors). And those are the names destined for the final enshrinement meeting the day before the Super Bowl.

I have until Nov. 10 to get this ballot in. My thinking isn't entirely crystallized yet, but here is where I stand right now. By positions:

QUARTERBACKS

There are eight of them. I have checked off three; Troy Aikman, Ken Anderson and Warren Moon. I think Aikman is one of the front runners for enshrinement in a year that is as loaded as 1985, which had some very gaudy names. And don't forget, one more person was allowed in then -- a maximum of seven in the old days, six now. Don't start reading me stats, because Aikman was the quintessential winner who sacrificed personal stats for team goals. He could have put up the big numbers anytime he wanted to.

Anderson was underrated. He had all the skills, including great courage. Moon was a legend. Seems that he played forever. I'd have been interested to see what kind of marks he would have left, if he hadn't spent the first six years of a 23-year career in Canada. And tell me that NFL personnel people understand the quarterback position. Sure they do.

The other five (Jim Hart, Jim Plunkett, Phil Simms, Ken Stabler and Joe Theismann) were all fine players, but historically, I feel, , just a notch below the three I've named.

RUNNING BACKS

Only six -- O.J. Anderson, Roger Craig, Chuck Foreman, George Rogers, Thurman Thomas and Herschel Walker. I voted for Thomas. Jim Kelly once told me that Thomas was the heart and soul of the K-Gun offense that got the BIlls into four Super Bowls, the K-Gun being the first cousin to the Run 'n Shoot. "Notice," Kelly said, "that run is listed first when they say run 'n shoot."

I'm bitter about Thomas. I'm bitter that the lasting legacy of this great player might be the Super Bowl game in which he missed the first snap because he couldn't find his helmet. I'm bitter because in the Super Bowl against the Giants, in which Thomas almost singlehandedly brought the Bills into position to win the game, the MVP went to Anderson, who had nowhere near Thomas' statistics or effect on the outcome.

I was an MVP selector then and I went storming up and down the press box, lobbying hard and ungracefully for Thomas. "Can't pick a guy from a losing team," were the mumbled responses I heard. "No, no, no!" I hollered. "There's no such rule. Chuck Howley made it in '71." Anderson won it. Next year I was no longer a selector. Oh yes, I do love the NFL.