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by bagobonez » Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:03 pm Not Even Irvin Can Break Hall of Fame Barrier
By MICKEY SPAGNOLA
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
Feb. 5, 2004, 3:22 p.m. (CST)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Numb. Just numb.
Last year, it was plain outrage. More like, how could they - how could the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee tease the Dallas Cowboys so, voting Bob Hayes and Rayfield Wright into the final six of the process and then voting them both out when it was allowed to select six.
But this year, after the final six selections were read - Harry Carson, Benny Friedman, Michael Irvin, Dan Marino, Fritz Pollard and Steve Young - I simply braced myself, as if I had just bet someone they couldn't knock me out with one swing and I knew the punch was coming.
There was a short pause when the envelop containing the Hall of Fame class of 2005 was being delivered to the podium, giving me time to think, oh God, not again. This can't happen again. Not to the Cowboys.
The only thing more cruel than and unjust than the Cowboys having only five players in the Hall of Fame, especially when there are Steelers galore, is to progress through the voting process as these three Cowboys have over the past two years, from 90 to 25 to 15 to 10 to six and then not hear your named called again.
My mind raced to Hayes and Wright, and even Cliff Harris, who was eliminated on the cut from 10 to six last year. Surely after the backlash following last year's vote this committee wouldn't do the same thing again - not give Michael Irvin 80 percent of the vote to prevent the Cowboys' all-time leading receiver, five-time Pro Bowler and owner of three Super Bowl rings from gaining entry to the Hall of Fame when he was working at Super Bowl XXXIX right here in his home state.
And I thought of you guys, too, how outraged you were last year and have been for so many years that a franchise which has played in eight Super Bowls, winning five, and has been one of the league's most successful in its 45 years of existence, has been so routinely snubbed in this voting process. Thought about all your passionate emails, causing me to quickly conclude this can't happen again.
Then here it came, the names. First Friedman, one of the two Seniors Committee nominations, a quarterback from way back in the 1920's and '30's who I had never heard of until now, but probably should get to know, his career spanning eight years with the likes of the Cleveland Bulldogs, Detroit Wolverines, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.
That meant, in this alphabetical order process, Irvin should be next. He was awaiting word just outside this Meeting Room C at the convention center. Knowing Irvin, he probably already had broken out in a sweat. He wanted this. He wanted it bad, even though it was the first time he was eligible to be on the ballot.
And the next words I heard were "Dan Marino."
Nuh-uh. Wait. That's out of order. I is before M. I mean I caught myself, double checking the order. Or maybe they weren't going in alphabetical order. No way.
"Fritz Pollard, Steve Young" is what I heard next.
That was it. No Irvin. Once again, no Cowboy - none since 1996.
Bam - punch delivered.
But wait. This is, after all, Florida. Isn't this the home of hanging chads? Lets at least call for a recount - a hand count. Something, no?
Irvin retreated to his hotel. He, too, was numb. Distraught might not be extreme enough. He didn't want to talk at the time, and that probably was a good idea. No sense alienating at least the eight people who failed to vote yes. They probably will have a say again next year, and God forbid, the next.
But former sidekick James Washington didn't have to be politically correct. Then again, Drive By rarely was when he played those five years (1990-94) with the Cowboys.
"I think it's bull-----," Washington said in a break while doing his national Fox radio show. "And you can write it. James Washington said, 'Bull----."
So James, you thought Michael Irvin, with his club-leading 750 career catches, club-leading 11,904 receiving yards, his 15.9-yard average - ranking sixth all-time among the league's top 20 receivers (catches) - the guy with the most Super Bowl Rings as a starter of any of those six finalists and the fact he was a human highlight film, especially in big games, should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer?
"You tell me Steve Young goes in, and we'll get back to Michael, and Richard Dent doesn't go in?" Washington reasoned, probably knowing Young won only one Super Bowl in San Francisco as a starter and had a 1-3 record in NFC title games as a starter. "When you say Chicago Bears, you say defense. That was Richard Dent - Super Bowl MVP.
"Now Michael Irvin, here is a guy who changed the way you played defense, changed the way teams drafted cornerbacks. Teams would stack against Emmitt and double Mike, and he still makes all those plays.
"Michael changed the way you played football."
He meant teams were forced to start finding bigger corners, guys who could muscle up with Irvin at the line of scrimmage; guys who couldn't be pushed off during routes; and guys who wouldn't be out-muscled on a jump ball.
As we've sat here all week in the media workroom, the NFL Network continuously broadcasted, showing highlights of Super Bowls and playoff games and whatever else, and seemingly every time you looked up, there was 88 with the star on his helmet making another catch - another spectacular, game-changing catch.
What in the world?
Who knows.
After talking with roughly 10 guys on the selection committee - by the way, they all said they voted for Irvin - the only logical explanation, short of leaning on the Cowboys bias, is that not enough of the committeemen thought Irvin was a first-ballot Hall of Famer. That he should not be put in the same category as a Marino or Jerry Rice to come.
"The encouraging thing for Michael is he got to the final six in his first year," said Peter King of Sports Illustrated, who said he voted for Irvin throughout the process. "I think Michael will get in (eventually).
"But in the immortal words of Bill Parcells, they don't sell insurance for these types of things."
You will hear this theory of an Art Monk backlash, that only one of those guys was going to make it to the Final Six, and that those pushing for Monk then took it out on Irvin on the final vote. But don't immediately indict all the Washington writers.
Len Shapiro of the Washington Post said he voted for Irvin, and that he just has a hard time accepting how cruel members of the committee are when they vote somebody out of the final six when the Hall will accept as many as six.
So said Peter Finney of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
So bias?
"(The Cowboys) aren't the only franchise jobbed over time," King said.
Maybe, but can we talk here? Do you realize that in the past two years, four guys have been voted out of the final six. Three have been Cowboys. What is me supposed to think?
Do you realize, and I'm not going to begrudge Friedman or Pollard, the first black coach in the NFL, their entrance thanks to the Seniors Committee recommendation, but please. Friedman-Hayes, Pollard-Hayes? Where is the justice?
Irvin has to be disillusioned. You have to be disillusioned. And I wish there was something that could be said to make this all seem right.
But there isn't. It's like this bad: Only two of the 17 Hall of Fame wide receivers have more catches than Irvin. Only three have more receiving yards. Only two have more Super Bowl rings, and you don't need me to tell you which two those are.
So you know what? Maybe this is not about Irvin. Maybe indeed this is about the Cowboys. Of the 193 players in the Hall of Fame, only five are Cowboys. Then there is Tom Landry, one of the 20 coaches, and Tex Schramm, one of the 17 contributors. Heck, even the Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals have five, and I know they haven't won five Super Bowls.
Now it would be easy to say there is always next year for Irvin. But is there? You know who is eligible next year don't you? No. 8. And after all this, you think this HOF committee is going to elect two Cowboys in the same year? I think not no matter how deserving.
I'd like to tell you Troy Aikman will be a slam-dunk first-ballot Hall of Famer, just like Marino and Young. But I can't. If he is, Irvin will have trouble making the cut next year. And once you start sliding . . . well, ask Art Monk.
And I'd like to tell you wait until next year. But I can't. Just can't. In fact, shudder at the very thought.
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Interesting stat. Of the 17 wide receivers in the Hall of Fame, only 2 have more receptions, and only 3 have more receiving yards.
How did Irvin not get in again? Oh that's right, the Hall of Fame committee consists of a bunch of anti-Cowboy punks.
And the off-the-field issues shouldn't be an issue. The voters are told not to consider off-the-field issues, plus guys like OJ Simpson and Lawrence Taylor are in, and they've had just as much if not more issues than Irvin.
I hate the HOF committee.
