Five more busts were added to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (Pro Football HOF)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
MIAMI BEACH, FL
David Baker, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, instructs voters at the onset of the annual selection meeting that we’re about to “change lives.” It sets the tone for hours of heart-wrenching debate to follow.
Perhaps you’ve seen video of the larger-than-life Baker knocking on the door to break the news to the overjoyed newest inductee sequestered in a hotel room.
Or, this year only, when Baker tip-toed onto the sets of the CBS and FOX NFL studio shows to inform Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson of their selection to the special Centennial Class last month, bringing both former coaches to tears.
What you never see is the other part of Baker’s job. He has to inform those who didn’t make it this time but can get their hopes up again next year.
That’s why Baker’s face took on the pallor of the Ghost from Christmas Past at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. After seven hours of debate and votes inside the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, it was time for Baker to deliver the bad news one-by-one to 10 finalists who didn’t make the Class of 2020.
“This is the worst part for me,” Baker said.
It’s such an excruciating, emotional day. Only five of 15 finalists make it all the way through.
The official announcement recorded live as part of the NFL Honors TV show later in the night is a joyous occasion. But nobody sees the anguish in making the cutdowns from 15 to 10 and then to five.
When all the ballots were tabulated and verified by the Ernst & Young accountants, the Class of 2020 was comprised of:
Denver Broncos safety Steve Atwater, St. Louis Rams receiver Isaac Bruce, Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings guard Steve Hutchinson, Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals running back Edgerrin James, and Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.
The total process consumed about seven hours -- two hours shorter than normal because of changes in the voting process due to the one-time Centennial Class to commemorate the 100th birthday of the NFL.
A Centennial Class of 15, including three contributors and two coaches, was selected by a special Blue Ribbon panel in January. That left the regular selectors with the task of winnowing down just the 15 modern-era finalists.
To assure the modern-era vote by the regular committee brought the total class to 20, a final vote on each of the five finalists was waived. Thus, the top vote-getters on the cutdown from 10 to five made it, even if they didn’t carry the 80 percent vote of all 48 selectors, per usual.
The biggest issues this year were separating the merits of multiple players at the same position, balancing lengths of careers among equally deserving candidates, and weighing candidates who were finalists longer than others.
I always clock the discussions on each candidate because the longer debate usually indicates the difficulty voters had in making decisions.
So here is how the debates timed out. They are listed from longest to shortest, not in the order of how they were presented.
Tony Boselli: 35 minutes, 42 seconds.
John Lynch: 27:17.
Sam Mills: 24:45.
Edgerrin James: 23:47.
Isaac Bruce: 22:14.
Steve Hutchinson: 21:41.
Steve Atwater: 19:57.
Zach Thomas: 19:12.
Richard Seymour: 16:45.
Torry Holt: 16:00.
Troy Polamalu: 13:04.
Bryant Young: 12:09.
LeRoy Butler: 12:03.
Reggie Wayne: 11:54.
Alan Faneca: 9:29.
Some takeaways:
1.Eliminated in the first cutdown from 15 to 10 were Butler, Holt, Mills, Wayne and Young.
2.None of the three candidates with the longest discussions made it all the way through. Boselli and Lynch were eliminated on the second cut from 10 to five. Boselli’s discussion, as usual, focused on the fact his career was cut short to 97 games over seven years because of a shoulder injury and reported botched surgery. But he gained traction in his fourth time as a finalist by the realization that shorter careers will become more commonplace in the future. Currently, 13 percent of Hall of Famers played in fewer than 100 games.
3.The selections of Polamalu and Atwater continue a crackdown on the formerly-ignored safety position and increase the likelihood of Lynch and Butler gaining entrance soon.
4.I believe Faneca may have been hurt by “Steelers fatigue.” Cowher and Donnie Shell had already been selected by the Centennial Class, and Polamalu was deemed a first-ballot inductee. It was never mentioned in the room that four Steelers in one class was a bit much, but it had to be on the minds of selectors, fair or not. Faneca clearly was as credentialed as any of the three offensive linemen among the 15 finalists and also was a finalist more times (five) than Hutchinson (three). Boselli is a four-time finalist.
5.Mills’ advance into his first finalist appearance was the biggest surprise to me on the cutdown (by mail vote) in December from 25 to 15. He received a lengthy airing, which proved he was a worthy finalist.
The consolation of coming so close is that most inductees have to keep banging on the door before it finally opens. That’s because there is such a backlog of deserving candidates.
The problem for next year, however, is that three candidates easily could get in on the first ballot. Among the eligible for 2021: Peyton Manning, Calvin Johnson and Charles Woodson.