I suppose this might go in cycles, but I think it’s interesting to look at the list of Pro Football Hall of Fame 2010 finalists and compare it to the much-discussed Baseball Hall of Fame list.

The standards, procedures and restrictions are different for induction into Canton.  Notably, a selection committee has selected 15 modern-era and two “senior” nominees, and to be enshrined, a player needs 80% of the vote.  Additionally, there is a limit of five “modern” inductees each year.

Just look at this list, and stop me if you see anyone who you think doesn’t belong:

• Tim Brown
• Cris Carter
• Don Coryell
• Roger Craig
• Dermontti Dawson
• Richard Dent
• Russ Grimm
• Charles Haley
• Rickey Jackson
• Cortez Kennedy
• Dick LeBeau
• Floyd Little
• John Randle
• Andre Reed
• Jerry Rice
• Shannon Sharpe
• Emmitt Smith

Contrast this with the baseball ballot, with guys like Kevin Appier, Ellis Burks and Shane Reynolds, all good players but none approaching what these football guys achieved.  And most of them won’t sniff induction.

Russ Grimm has been on this list for 14 (!) years, Roger Craig for 12 and Richard Dent for eight.  They were hugely dominant offensive and defensive linemen, respectively, in the 80s, and they are still waiting at the Hall door.  Has there been a baseball player as good and dominant as Russ Grimm was at football that still awaited induction almost 20 years after retiring?  Not even close.

Maybe it’s because there aren’t any dedicated football Stat-heads, or a grid equivalent of SABR, or maybe it’s so difficult to compare positions, let alone eras, in football.  But I’ve never seen the same outrage in support of Grimm, Craig, Dent or any of these guys who have been snubbed multiple times, that the Jim Rices and Bert Blylevens and Ron Santos have enjoyed.

Smith, Brown and Rice are all first-year candidates and the most likely inductees when the committee meets in Miami on Saturday, Feb. 6, a day before Super Bowl XLIV.  With the five modern player limit and so many deserving names possibly splitting support on the committee, it’s possible that they would be the only three.

Now is the time for the Hall of Fame to either show the committee system can work by getting some of the deserving players like Grimm and Dent inducted, or find another system that will.  It is wrong that these guys, who played at the very top of the sport, are waiting so long to get their rightful place in the Hall.