HOF Contributor debate heats up
Long-time colleague Jim Gray called Thursday night to tell me I was right.
I thought he was talking about the Mike Tyson fight, which was a sad affair.
“No, no,” said Gray. “I am talking about Ralph Hay being selected as the contributor by the Pro Football Hall of Fame instead of Robert Kraft.”
After a few moments of silence, I responded.
“Jim, I cannot say that is true, but if it is, the selectors did the right thing. You and I discussed this a while back, and I said Hay would be the best choice. It is embarrassing that the league's co-founder is not already in the Hall of Fame. Where did you hear this?”
“It was reported by Don Van Natta Jr. a Senior Writer on ESPN, take a look,” Gray said.
And there it was, a splashy presentation by a 24-year journalist with stops at The New York Times and The Miami Herald. The lack of journalistic equilibrium is evident in the headline alone:
“Sources: HOF committee passes over Patriots’ Kraft again”
Turns out the Kraft-got-screwed-again angle is popular. Chad Graff and Jeff Howe teamed up to question the selection of anybody but Kraft for the The Athletic/New York Times. They even pretend to know why Kraft is being “passed over.”
While it’s unclear the exact reasons the committee hasn’t yet chosen Kraft to enter the Hall of Fame, it’s possible that the Patriots’ scandals (Spygate and Deflategate top among them) and Kraft’s 2019 misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution charges in Florida, which were dropped, played a role.
Oh, I forgot about that massage parlor incident. These theories will continue until Kraft does indeed have a happy ending, Hall of Fame-wise.
Meantime, I can hardly wait to hear the official word on the 2025 Contributor. I’ve already made my preference known. Historically, it was an easy pick, IMO.
Kraft has done good things for the Patriots and the NFL, and I’m sure it is irritating for such a successful man to wait even for this great honor. But Kraft owes this one to Hay because there wouldn’t be a Hall of Fame or the NFL, let alone the New England Patriots, if Hay didn’t gather the original owners together to form a league in 1920.
The Hall has the Ralph Hay Pioneer Award, formerly known as the Dan Reeves Pioneer Award (named after the one-time owner of Los Angeles Rams), which is presented periodically to an individual who made significant and innovative contributions to professional football.
To mollify the complainers, maybe Kraft can win that one while we wait for the official word on whether the Contributor Committee Selectors did the right thing by nominating Ralph Hay.
