Earlier this season, the Hall of Fame and Van Heusen announced that fans would finally have a voice in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection process. While unclear what role the fan voting at FansChoice.com would actually have, the results of the first round of voting were announced late yesterday, after the actual 2010 Hall of Fame Semifinalists were announced.
There were a total of 11 differences between fan voting and the actual semifinalist lists. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the results expose some flaws in the way voting is being handled on the Fan’s Choice site.
The 11 players/coaches/contributors that fans voted into their semifinalist list that were not amongst the actual semifinalists were QB Randall Cunningham, QB Jim Plunkett, QB Phil Simms, QB Joe Theismann, DB Steve Atwater, TE Todd Christensen, DL Ed “Too Tall” Jones, WR Sterling Sharpe, head coach Tom Flores, game official Jim Tunney, and athletic trainer Otho Davis.
The 14 players that appeared on both semifinalist lists were Cliff Branch, Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Richard Dent, Kevin Greene, Ray Guy, Charles Haley, Lester Hayes, John Randle, Andre Reed, Jerry Rice, Shannon Sharpe, Emmitt Smith, and Steve Tasker.
The actual voting results for the fans are below. The appearance of (by my count) seven Oakland/LA Raiders on the list, combined with trainer Otho Davis ranking #7 on the list, makes me think that the policy of allowing people to vote daily is skewing the results.
Davis was by all accounts a great trainer for a long time for the Philadelphia Eagles–but a trainer being Hall of Fame worthy? Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but as any regulars at YardBarker.com know, the Eagles have a fan base that is very active online–based on the total number of votes he’s received, it’s entirely possible that a relatively small group of Eagles fans could have influenced those numbers.
Similarly, Guy (#3), Plunkett (#8), Flores (#12) and Christensen (#16) all appear relatively high on the list, compared to where they would presumably appear in the actual voters list.
What does everyone else think of the fan’s results so far?
2010 Fan’s Choice Hall of Fame Semifinalists
1. Jerry Rice, WR – 20,599 votes
2. Emmitt Smith, RB – 17,523 votes
3. Ray Guy, P – 12,899 votes
4. Tim Brown, WR – 11,868 votes
5. Cris Carter, WR – 11,720 votes
6. Shannon Sharpe, TE – 11,048 votes
7. Otho Davis, Contrib. – Athletic Trainer – 8,360 votes
8. Jim Plunkett, QB – 7,807 votes
9. Richard Dent, DL – 6,387 votes
10. Lester Hayes, DB – 6,311 votes
11. Cliff Branch, WR – 6,246 votes
12. Tom Flores, Head Coach – 5,688 votes
13. Charles Haley, DL – 5,400 votes
14. Randall Cunningham, QB – 5,143 votes
15. QB Phil Simms, QB – 5,134 votes
16. Todd Christensen, TE – 5,040 votes
17. Steve Atwater, DB – 4,418 votes
18. Andre Reed, WR – 3,188 votes
19. Jim Tunney, Contrib. – 2,565 votes
20. Joe Theismann, QB – 2,530 votes
21. Ed “Too Tall” Jones, DL – 2,274 votes
22. Sterling Sharpe, WR – 2,168 votes
23. John Randle, DL – 2,097 votes
24. Steve Tasker, Special Teams – 1,857 votes
25. Kevin Greene, LB – 1,767 votes
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Atwater, Simms, Theismann, Tunney, Plunkett and Flores deserved to be on the list.
Cunningham, Christensen, Too Tall Jones and Davis were rightly left off the list.
Hayes and Branch were good additions.
I don’t believe Tasker is HOF worthy. If so than you need to add Bill Bates and Larry Izzo and probably a few more.
Finally, I’m surprised how far Kevin Greene was voted down the list when he should a HOFer soon.
Larry izzo my man! We’ll I know he better known as a Patriot or Fin.
Wow What about Linebacker Ricky Jackson He played with the best linebacking corp I can understand the NO. Saints were not great on offense but the defence was great
Given the composition of this list, am thinking there was some serious ballot box stuffing by Raider fans and the Otho Davis Fan Club.
No way on Tom Flores or Jim Plunkett as being worthy of the HoF. Their cases start and end with two Super Bowl wins, and that alone just isn’t enough. Plunkett’s regular season stats are unimpressive, and Flores coached only 12 years and amassed an unimpressive 97-87 W-L coaching record.
I just checked the updated list this morning–Ray Guy is leading the voting, over Jerry Rice (who is #3) and Emmitt Smith (who is #5). Also near the top is Tim Brown (#2), Jim Plunkett (#4), Lester Hayes (#6), Cliff Branch (#7), Tom Flores (#8), and Todd Christensen (#9).
If NFL Network doesn’t change up how people are allowed to vote for this, they’re going to look like idiots announcing this list along side the real inductees…
Thanks for the update — it just confirms my suspicions above.
But given that the NFL Network didn’t seem any too embarrassed about its awful, and sanctioned, “10 worst HoF snubs” list, one might guess this won’t bother them either.