Jon Heath is the owner and lead blogger at BroncosZone.net. He contributes to BroncoTalk.net. And like many of us at Zoneblitz.com, he’s heavily interested in the NFL Hall of Fame and the process by which the enshrinees are selected.
Heath got to watch running back Floyd Little enshrined in 2010 and he’s excited about the upcoming ceremony for tight end Shannon Sharpe. But before those guys were picked, he felt Denver was underrepresented in Canton, Ohio. Actually, he still feels that way. And he wants to do his part to help.
After seeing the work some of his fellow Broncos fans have done in pushing past-Broncos for the Hall, he decided to start a new blog dedicated to marketing guys like Terrell Davis and Steve Atwater for enshrinement in future years. It’s called: GetThemInTheHall.com.
I don’t agree with all of the people he thinks should be in the Hall and I don’t disagree with them all either. But I mainly highlight the site because I think it’s an interesting illustration about how fans can get themselves involved and play a role, by contacting voters, by being educated on how the process works and by presenting coherent, educated arguments on behalf of the players they support.
Here’s what Mr. Heath had to say:
Zoneblitz: What is the history of the site and what gave you the idea to start this site?
Get them in the Hall: Well I actually started the site just earlier this month. I had some experience in blogging and setting up a website. I got the idea after seeing how Bronco fans teaming up and spreading awareness about Broncos that should be in the Hall of Fame was working, so I started a website to help the cause.
Zoneblitz: What do you hope to accomplish?
GTITH: What the site hopes to accomplish is to have a part in getting more Denver Broncos into the Hall of Fame. All the things the site promotes (writing the voters, raising awareness about the deserving players and emailing the voters) has played a huge part in getting Gary Zimmerman, Little and Sharpe enshrined over a span of four years. If the site can get more fans to write the voters and as a result, get more players in, that would be great.
Zoneblitz: Every team has a few players who could have been in the Hall. Is your sense that the Broncos are snubbed more than others?
GTITH: Yes, I think they are, especially up until recently. Up until 2008 the Broncos really only had legendary quarterback John Elway representing the team in the Hall of Fame and they are one of the most historical and successful teams in the games history. Since then however, we have gotten three players in over the past four years and that’s a great start!
Zoneblitz: What do you do and what do you ask your readers to do?
GTITH: I am a member of the MHR Hall of Fame Committee (a group branched off of MileHighReport.com) and have written letters to the HOF Voting Committee and emailed the Senior Voters. On GetThemInTheHall.com we ask the readers to do the same.
Zoneblitz: I note that you have a contact list for Hall of Fame voters on your site. Have you gotten any response or feedback from them on this project or on the efforts you’ve made on behalf of Broncos players?
GTITH: Personally, I have not gotten any responses yet. But I know some of the other members of the MHR HOF Committee have good fan-to-voter relationships with the voters.
Zoneblitz: Floyd Little and Shannon Sharpe have been elected in consecutive years. What kind of impact do you think the blog has had in that?
GTITH: Since the site was just recently started I don’t think it had any impact. But I do know that what the site promotes (writing the voters, raising awareness about the deserving players and emailing the voters) has had a huge impact. I also believe that Mile High Report and the MHR HOF Committee has also had a part in getting the two players in back-to-back. Many sites did a fantastic job of getting fans to write the voters on behalf of Floyd Little (BroncoTalk and MHR among them) and hopefully GTITH will have similar success.
Zoneblitz: What do you think of the current Hall of Fame process? Are there aspects that you think need to be changed?
GTITH: I think it should be easier for the fans to get more of a say in who gets voted in, but other than that I think it’s pretty good.
Zoneblitz: Who are a couple players you think are still most deserving of enshrinement?
GTITH: That is an easy question. Running back Terrell Davis, linebacker Randy Gradishar and safety Steve Atwater. Just read their bios on the site or watch this video we put together and it will be impossible for anyone not to agree that they should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Zoneblitz: You say it should be easier for fans to get more involved – what about the inherent bias of being a fan? Is it possible that could become a conflict?
GTITH: You bring up a good point and I think that is why they are not very involved in the process. However, some players were just so good (the ones that are really HOF worthy) that even fans of rival teams cannot deny it. I am a Broncos fan, yet I would vote for Jerry Rice, LaDainian Tomlinson, and maybe even Philip Rivers someday. Even though I loathe the teams they played for, I have respect for them and know they were among the game’s greatest (maybe not Rivers, we’ll have to wait and see there but you get the idea).
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Some of the players listed at this site are ones I can easily get behind, specifically Steve Atwater, Randy Gradishar, and Lionel Taylor. And I won’t gripe if Terrell Davis gets elected someday. But there are two problems here:
–quality control. Efforts such as this one have a tendency to not be selective enough, and watering down your list hurts credibility and throws focus off the most deserving.
–there are serious questions about how effective such campaigns are. One wonders if all the hearty and vociferous squawking from Redskins fans about Art Monk and from Vikes fans (and others) about Cris Carter helps or hurts their candidacies.
“One wonders if all the hearty and vociferous squawking from Redskins fans about Art Monk and from Vikes fans (and others) about Cris Carter helps or hurts their candidacies.”
I have in the past read comments from more than one HOF voter on just this issue, that targeted efforts at voters to get certain players elected or more representation from a particular team are often not very effective and could backfire. Now I am not so sure that is the case and perhaps any effort is worth taking.
My only problem is that for almost every team in the NFL, certainly those with a long history and high profile, equally strong cases could be made for perhaps 10-20 players for each team. But with elections limited to no more than 7 per year, every team will continue for ever to have long lists of players never selected – it is as its basic level a numbers game.