2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Ballot

O.J. is still in.

O.J. Simpson | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site

No one's ever been taken out of the Hall of Fame in any sport once already elected, to my knowledge.

 

That is going to be a fun first-timers debate in 2018 -- You have Moss. You have Ray Lewis. You have Brian Urlacher. You have Steve Hutchinson. That would basically a class plus one spot.

 

There's no reason to think Moss will be first-ballot based on the numbers and what they did to TO

Moss: 982 catches, 15,292 yards, 156 TDS, 6 Pro Powls, 4 first-team all-Pro, 1st team all Decade
Owens: 1,078 catches, 15,934 yards, 153 TDs, 6 Pro Bowls, 5 first team all-pro, 2nd team all-decade

 

Based on their voting patterns, I don't think this is true. As pointed above -- there are only five first-time receivers. T.O. didn't get it despite better numbers and no off-the-field issues. I think they kept him from going in last year

 

There's plenty of reason. The same guys doing the voting are the guys who already decided Moss was better during their primes.

Moss also had much higher heights. TO's career high in TDs was 16 and yards was 1,451. Moss beat the TDs three times and the yards twice.

 

Oh and a tip to the voters -- let's skew back to defense a little bit.

In the last four classes, two of them have only had one defender and seven out of 20. With two offensive spots already spoken for in 2017, let's get going on that side of the ball.

 

Peter King is quoting the voting guidelines when he says that. According to the rules, the voters are not supposed to consider off-the-field issues.

 

And then the following year you get three more with Tony Gonzalez, Ed Reed and Champ Bailey.
We might end up with a defensive player backlog similar to the one we had with receivers the last five or six years.

The receiver backlog, BTW, is the ONLY reason I can think of for T.O. not getting in this year. The voters don't seem too keen on doubling up positions within a class. Harrison had been waiting while the rest of the backlog cleared, and this was his year. My guess is T.O. sails in next year, especially after the uproar this year's snub is creating and before we get to those stacked classes in 2018 and 2019.

 

So someone doesn't get in on the first ballot. Does it make a difference?

 

To be fair about the backlog, they have done a decent job of getting the long-waiting finalists inducted. Jacoby needs to go in next year as an 80s guy but the longest wait for a finalist is about to be four for Anderson and Lynch

 

Jacoby will get in eventually. It took Russ Grimm 5 tries as a finalist and he was considered a better player in his time than Jacoby.

 

I know he will, I'm just looking at where we are with finalists and he's by far the oldest guy among the players. I don't mind making a guy who retired this decade wait a bit, like Faneca or even Pace if it meant Jacoby got his due ASAP or someone like Steve Atwater gets more for a chance.