Induction reduction

Hall of Fame spots should go only to the truly great

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor touches on a Hot Button issue each Monday on CNNSI.com. After you read Phil's take, give us yours.

The five men who were voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last Saturday -- Dave Casper, Dan Hampton, Jim Kelly, John Stallworth and the late George Allen -- should be congratulated for having distinguished NFL careers and remembered as among of the best of their eras at their particular specialties. They just shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame.

At least not in my humble opinion. But then, I'm a hard guy when it comes to conferring Hall of Fame status. As much as I hate exclusive clubs, I think it's a shame that the baseball, football and basketball Halls of Fame are becoming easier to get into than a bad junior college. The Halls are getting overpopulated with good players and coaches instead of being what they were meant to be -- home to only the truly great ones.

There are only a handful of players and coaches who are so successful or affect their sports in so profound a way that they become legendary, and only those select few should be in that sport's Hall of Fame. It stands to reason, then, that there would be years in which no one gained admission to the Hall. In fact, those years should be the rule rather than the exception. But that will never be the case as long as there are admissions policies like the one at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where voters must accept at least four people for induction each year.

Baseball has no such minimum, but there are still players with plaques in Cooperstown who really shouldn't get in without paying admission. Phil Niekro was a pretty good pitcher for a very long time, which shouldn't have been enough to get him into the Hall, but he's in. Tony Perez was a solid RBI man for the Cincinnati Reds, for which he deserves credit, but not HOF status. The same is true in basketball, where Dave DeBusschere, for instance, has a spot in the Hall. DeBusschere was a fine power forward who played on some great New York Knicks teams, but he never even made first-team All-NBA. Is he a basketball immortal? I think not.

Some undeserving candidates get into the Hall because of our obsession with statistics. If a candidate has stats comparable to those of a current Hall of Famer, it's often assumed that the candidate should be in as well, but that's not always the case. Other players benefit from having played on great teams, as Stallworth, Perez and DeBusschere did. Although winning titles is one measure of greatness, it's only one. Supporting players on championship teams deserve praise, but not a spot in the Hall. Voting them in devalues the honor for those who really deserve it.

If you catch me in a weak moment, I might grudgingly agree to accept Allen, the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins coach who turned out great teams with players most people considered to be over the hill, and Casper, the Oakland Raider who helped redefine the tight end position with his pass-catching ability, into the Hall. But Kelly, the Buffalo Bills quarterback and Hampton, the Chicago Bears defensive tackle, were never considered the best at their position in their era, and Stallworth, although he was a fine receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty, wasn't even the best wideout on his team. Sorry, but somebody has to be the best player not to get into the Hall of Fame, and these three are perfect examples of the type that should fall just short.

The pro football voters failed to select the most deserving candidate among this year's 14 nominees -- Raiders punter Ray Guy. There's little question that Guy is the finest punter in football history. The concept of hang time was invented to describe his long, booming kicks. He is the standard against which all other punters are measured. That's exactly what a Hall of Famer should be.

But maybe Guy shouldn't be terribly disappointed. After all, the Hall of Fame, any Hall of Fame, ain't what it used to be.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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