I run my finger down the ballot, 76 names, and do not find a single player unworthy of selection to the College Football Hall of Fame. I would vote for all 76.
I would have voted for those who did not make it Tuesday, those like Vinny Testeverde, Tommie Frazier and D.J. Dozier. I would have put a check next to the names of Eric Dickerson and Orlando Pace.
They are Hall of Famers by reputation and by performance, but they did not make the cut.
I find it amazing that Jim Otis, who is now 64 years old, is not in the College Football Hall of Fame. He was the battering ram for three of the most imposing Ohio State football teams ever. Those Woody Hayes teams went 27-2. And yet Jim Otis remains on the outside, looking in.
If Jim Otis is not in the Hall of Fame, I cannot object to Tuesday’s omission of Tedy Bruschi, Mr. Desert Swarm.
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In a century of college football, more than 5 million men have played at the top division. After 14 were chosen for the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, the list of those honored grew to 880. It is a preposterously difficult process. Numerically, it is much easier to gain admission to Cooperstown, N.Y., in the baseball Hall of Fame, or to Springfield, Mass., in the basketball Hall of Fame.
Over the last decade, the Southern Arizona Chapter of the College Hall of Fame has performed the necessary behind-the-scenes work to get ex-Arizona Wildcats Ricky Hunley, Chuck Cecil and Rob Waldrop inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“It can be an intimidating process,” said Rick Gonzales, president of the Southern Arizona Chapter. “There are so many deserving players. When we accompanied Waldrop to New York City last December, it really hit me how difficult it is to be one of the few selected every year.”
Tedy Bruschi is due. He is not overdue, not yet, but if he is not among those selected next May, for the Class of 2014, tensions will rise.
Read this complete column in Wednesday's Arizona Daily Star.
