From: Washington Times Redskins Fan Forum, by Robert Janis
If you read my first blog last week, then you know that I don’t want the travesty Art Monk had to tolerate before he was finally named into the Pro Football Hall of Fame fall on any other Redskins player we feel is worthy of the honor. So I am hoping to get you guys off your behinds to work on a campaign to get those worthy Redskins the recognition they deserve. Many of you thought that Jerry Smith, Larry Brown, Chris Hanburger and Pat Fischer among others deserved to be in the Hall. I suggested that we first start out with Smith and Brown.
The only criteria for a player to be considered for induction into the Hall is that he must be retired for at least five seasons and he had to have been named to at least one Pro Bowl team. Anyone, including a plain ordinary fan of the sport, can nominate a player for enshrinement. Players who have been retired for 25 years or more are considered by a senior committee, which includes seven veteran members of the overall Selection Committee.
Members of the Selection Committee receive a list of 100 or so names. This list consists of players who have been previously considered as well as new names that had not been considered before. The members of the Committee vote to reduce the list first down to 25 and then down to 15.
The Saturday before the Super Bowl in the city that is hosting the game, the members of the Selection Committee meet to consider the 15 as well as two players categorized as seniors and vote for the player they believe should be in the Hall. A class of no more than six and no less than three is selected.
Since Larry Brown and Jerry Smith left the NFL more than 25 years ago, the members of the Senior Committee would be involved with their nomination. Here are the members of that committee:
Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News*
John McClain, Houston Chronicle*
Edwin Pope, Miami Herald*
Jerry Magee, San Diego Union Tribune*
Ira Miller, San Francisco Chronicle*
Len Shapiro, Miami Herald*
Dave Goldberg, Associated Press*
So let’s start off by sending e-mails to these people to get them thinking about Larry Brown and Jerry Smith. I think it would be a good idea for the e-mail to include their stats, any testimonials by people who knew or know them, and personal experiences you may have had with them. Any information on their community service should also be included.
Next we can’t take anything fore granted. We have to assume that many of the members of the committee have not seen Brown and Smith play or have simply forgotten. I know that NFL Films probably have films of both playing. We can try to get parts of these films online in a YouTube or some other venue and then later we can encourage the members of the committee to go to the site to see Brown and Smith perform.
Later we can try and get former Redskins who had played with them to comment to the members of the committee concerning their leadership and involvement with the team.
More ideas can be employed here. If you have any ideas please describe them in your comments.
So let’s go to work.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Robert Janis