Football Hall Finalists for 2011: How do you pick just 7?

I don't know is this is a current list.

Arizona Kent Somers, Arizona Republic
Atlanta Len Pasquarelli, The Sports Xchange
Baltimore Scott Garceau, WMAR-TV
Buffalo Mark Gaughan, Buffalo News
Carolina Darin Gantt, Rock Hill Herald
Chicago Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune*
Cincinnati Joe Reedy, Cincinnati Enquirer
Cleveland Tony Grossi, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Dallas Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News*
Denver Jeff Legwold, Denver Post
Detroit Tom Kowalski, Booth Newspapers
Green Bay Cliff Christl, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Houston John McClain, Houston Chronicle*
Indianapolis Mike Chappell, Indianapolis Star
Jacksonville Sam Kouvaris, WJXT-TV
Kansas City Bob Gretz, KCFootballReport.com
Miami Edwin Pope, Miami Herald*
Minnesota Sid Hartman, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
New England Ron Borges, Boston Herald*
New Orleans Pete Finney, Times-Picayune
New York (Giants) Vinny DiTrani, Bergen Record
New York (Jets) Gary Myers, New York Daily News
Oakland Frank Cooney, The Sports Xchange
Philadelphia Paul Domowitch, Philadelphia Daily News
Pittsburgh Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
St. Louis Bernie Miklasz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
San Diego Nick Canepa, San Diego Union Tribune
San Francisco Nancy Gay, FoxSports.com
Seattle Mike Sando, ESPN.com
Tampa Bay Ira Kaufman, Tampa Tribune
Tennessee David Climer, The Tennessean
Washington David Elfin, AOL Fanhouse
PFWA Darryl Ledbetter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At Large Howard Balzer, The Sports Xchange
At Large Jarrett Bell, USA Today
At Large John Clayton, ESPN/ESPN Magazine
At Large John Czarnecki, FOXSports.com*
At Large Dave Goldberg, AOL Sports/Fanhouse*
At Large Peter King, Sports Illustrated
At Large Ira Miller, The Sports Xchange*
At Large Len Shapiro, Miami Herald*
At Large Vito Stellino, Florida Times Union
At Large Jim Trotter, Sports Illustrated
At Large Charean Williams, Ft. Worth Star Telegram

 

Dr. Z's discussions of the process are greatly missed.

 

Yeah, it's absurd how secretive they are.

 

Hell, Facenda should be in the Hall.

 

It's extremely odd that football has so many diehard fans yet it lags so far behind baseball in the statistical area. I checked the numbers for the three wide receivers, and it seems clear that Carter was the best of the three. He scored 130 TDs. That's 25 percent more than Brown scored and 35 percent more than Reed scored. Carter also caught 122 passes twice, and that's one short of second place in the all-time rankings. Reed never caught more than 90, and Brown only hit 90 or more twice. Brown's best season was 104 catches.

What is sorely missing, though, are YAC and dropped balls. Another factor to consider is a little more subjective. Who made the tough catches? All three had great hands, obviously. Something that will be overlooked is blocking. I seem to recall that Reed was an incredible blocker.

 

Carter's touchdown catches are on average worth .7 of Brown's catches.

 

Seriously, though, stats are much tougher to draw a line across in football as opposed to baseball. The game has radically changed in the last last 10 years alone (and 10 years before, etc) that it is not wise to compare players from different eras.

Also, there are too many drastically different skills to categorize. For example, you can measure all batters on avg., hr, rbi, r, sb, ops, etc....pitchers have a skill set as well. Yes, there are subsets and differences in each, but you can draw a line.

In football, you essentially have different stats for qbs, wrs, rbs, kickers, punters. Defensive stats can be hard to judge...a bad/young corner gets thrown at more and therefore will have more interceptions. A DE may have less sacks because teams scheme for him and less tackles if teams run away from him. Tackles in general are kept team-to-team, so you have wild differences. While some people have tried to come up with offensive lineman stats, it is a crapshoot.

 

Is Tim Brown really a Hall of Famer?

http://www.mercurynews.com/sports-headlines/ci_17264723?nclick_check=1

 

When he's the third best receiver in the class, he's definitely not a lock for anything other than to wait another couple years.

 

He's always thought of himself as a cut above, despite racking up a lot of yards for ordinary teams.

Andre Reed affected gameplans, not Brown.

 

Didn't Brown have a reputation for dropping passes? I ask because I remember hearing it from a few guys in passing, but I never really watched Brown play. I always noticed he had big numbers at the end of the year and would make the Pro Bowl.