Deion Sanders was a great enough NFL player that he could have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame without any debate needed at Saturday’s meeting of the Hall’s selection committee.
But in reality, the committee had a long talk about Sanders.
Vic Carucci of NFL.com writes that his biggest surprise from the meeting was that Sanders wound up being the topic of one of the longest conversations.
Sanders wasn’t always the friendliest fellow with the media, so it’s easy to envision a scenario in which some members of the selection committee had to be talked out of their personal ill will toward him. But fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be what happened here: We heard from another member of the selection committee who confirmed that there was a long conversation about Sanders, but that committee member said the discussion was really just a matter of everyone wanting to get their two cents in, rather than a debate over whether Sanders was worthy.
I’d like to see more transparency in the selection process, with voters explaining who they voted for and why. If Sanders was worthy of a long conversation behind closed doors in the selection committee’s meeting room, that conversation is worthy of being aired publicly.
