An essayist for NBC.com has gone off the rails. He needs to obtain a reality check.
Mike Florio has opined that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his head coach Bill Belichick deserve to be inducted immediately into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after their retirement from the game.
Stop! Get real! Do not go there, National Football League gurus!
The NFL places a five-year waiting period on those who retire from the game before inducting them into the hall of fame. Why? They don’t want them coming back to the game after their induction. It works well for the NFL, just as it works for Major League Baseball.
There should be only one reason to waive the five-year wait for induction: the death of a shoo-in inductee.
Major League Baseball waived the waiting period in 1973 for the great Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente, who was killed in a plane crash in December 1972 while transporting relief supplies to Nicaragua, which had suffered a terrible earthquake.
Clemente was a sure-fire bet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. His death meant he wouldn’t be coming back. That’s when a friend and former colleague of mine, the late Joe Heiling, stepped in. Heiling — with whom I worked at the Beaumont Enterprise — was a baseball beat writer for the Houston Post when Clemente died; he was serving as president of the Baseball Writers of America, which votes on the Hall of Fame induction. Heiling proposed that the BBWA waive the rule and include Clemente immediately on the next Hall of Fame ballot. The BBWA agreed, Clemente’s name was added and he was elected overwhelmingly into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Do we waive the five-year rule for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick? No! As long they still draw breath on this good Earth, they need to wait their turn.