NFL Hall of Shame: After Bypassing Tim Brown, It's Time to Retire The Fossils

It's about time to change things that no longer work, for a better way.

The antiquated system known as the NFL Hall of Fame nominating committee toyed around for almost seven and a half hours...only to bungle yet again.

From all the hype, Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Richard Dent, Steve Sabol and the two Senior Committee selections were given free passes to the Hall of Fame, meaning that their actions will continue the logjam at WR for another season.

But this year's selections highlight even more problems that exist within this fraternity of ego-driven, media writers. Some writers clearly show a bias, that has cost players years, like Dr Z's running hatred with Ken Stabler. Other examples that come up from time to time, is the argument that Lester Hayes shouldn't be elected, because of Stickum. Then why did Fred Biletnikoff get in?

More importantly, how are good players, years ago retired not allowed in while mediocre players with questionable skills allowed in?

Pretty simple, bias exists in the media. Deny it all they want; you can look at examples like Cliff Branch, Ray Guy and now Tim Brown.

For Cliff Branch, here was a 1970's WR who played well into his 30's, and managed to win three Super Bowls. He had more career catches than Lynn Swann, more touchdowns in Super Bowls, with one less ring, but yet while Cliff isn't in, Lynn is, but why?

For Ray Guy, this is an endless argument dating back to when he should have been a shoe in. He retired back during the 80's, when his records were fresh on the books. Now in this day and age, they are hard to find because in the last 20 plus years, the punting game has changed radically. A good portion of it could be attributed to Ray's development of the position.

For Tim Brown, the nightmare is that he retired, and was the number two WR in the NFL for yardage. Some felt that if he would have had a good QB, and not several retreads like Jeff Hostetler, Jeff George and in the end some good seasons with Gannon, him and Jerry Rice would have had similar career numbers. It's also interesting that Tim Brown also was sixth in returns, at the time of his retirement.

Apparently the committee didn't even give Tim Brown 10 minutes to consider him worthy of the top ten, they had their favorites already circled.

From the group that made it, you had the media darling in Deion Sanders...as well as Supermouth, Sharpe. You had one, that had been stuck for several years, in Richard Dent. A well-fought media blitz helped Steve Sabol get in, that selection I would agree with, along with Faulk, going from the Colts to the Rams was the missing cog that team needed to win it all.

But it's about time to put control of the voting in the hands of those who buy the tickets, pay for the items and spend their money to support their players, the fans.

A media person can sit there watching the game and try to evaluate how you compare a quarterback to a linebacker. But in the long run, they run into the same problem that congress does, bias. And if you want someone to vote for your guy, you better help out someone else.

Likewise, if you have some old guy who harbors bitterness, he will never change his opinion. And by either giving the fans a choice to really vote (and not that crock called the Van Heusen website), or giving the fans the ability to vote out the media professionals that no longer hold the local interests at heart.

People vote out representatives all the time; it's time to change this fossilized nightmare.