Hall of Fame announceent today reminds us how flawed the process is

The Miami Dolphins will not be represented in the Pro-Football Hall of Fame this year but today they will announce the 2019 class.

When the announcement of this years Hall of Fame class comes later today it will remind us all just how screwed up the process of voting actually is. It will tell us once again that the PFHoF is getting more watered down and does not always represent what is the best of the NFL.

For years I have maintained that Michael Irvin should never have been a first year HoF inductee and I could argue he shouldn’t have been in on his 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th attempt. He got in because he is a part of the voting group. No, he doesn’t have a vote but the media control who goes in and the media is very bias.

On SiriousXM’s NFL channel a few days ago I listened to the hosts discussing the fact that more Patriots need to be in the HoF due to their success and Super Bowls over the last 18 years. They were making arguements for guys that played only a portion of their NFL career in New England and used the Super Bowl as the reason they belonged.

Frankly I can only think of a handful of Patriot players in the last 18 years current or former that might belong in the Hall of Fame.

This is not just a Miami Dolphins issue however. As Dolphins fans we would love to see certain players enter the shrine but every team has fans who believe that they too have a player or two that is deserving and overlooked.

In Miami there are in reality three players that have been overlooked for far too long. Richmond Webb, Zach Thomas, and the late Bob Kuechenberg. In the case of Kooch, a decades long feud with the media kept him out and I remember speaking to a voting member years ago about him and they said, “the 1972 Dolphins have enough players in the Hall of Fame”. That was always a bitter pill for me swallow.

If the voters believe that the ’72 team is already well represented then why are they not considering the fact that Miami went to three Super Bowls in a row and the ’72 season was in the middle of that? Yet they had no issues with the number of Cowboys and Steelers that were put in from their ’70’s teams. Kooch belongs in the HoF not because of his year with the ’72 team but because of his NFL career.

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As for Webb, the biggest knock that I continue to hear yearly is that he blocked for Dan Marino whose release was so fast Miami couldn’t have done it without Webb. This despite the fact that in his career he literally owned HoF defensive end Bruce Smith who by the way has acknowledged how hard it was to play against Webb.

Thomas still has a chance but the voters look at the Dolphins playoff wins and the fact the team was mediocre for many of Thomas’ years in Miami. They don’t care about the fact he statistically matches up with other linebackers who are already in.

Today the PFHoF will announce it’s class and all I can say is good for them but until the voting process changes and a players contributions are correctly evaluated, I’ll question the legitimacy of the process and in where warranted, the elected player.

Today’s finalists are Steve Atwater; Champ Bailey; Tony Boselli; Isaac Bruce; Don Coryell; Alan Faneca; Tom Flores; Tony Gonzalez; Steve Hutchinson; Edgerrin James; Ty Law; John Lynch; Kevin Mawae; Ed Reed; Richard Seymour