No Conspiracy in College Hall of Fame Vote

Pat Tillman, an American hero for having walked away from $millions in NFL salary only to be killed by friendly fire as a U.S. Army Ranger in Afghanistan, was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame last week. Some people fostering conspiracy theories wonder whether Tillman was indeed a Hall of Fame caliber player.

Know one thing: Tillman was not elected by application of a special rule or by a provision dreamed up by an overly patriotic steering committee. By virtue of his selection as a 1997 All-American as an Arizona State Sun Devils linebacker, Tillman was officially eligible to be placed on the ballot.

As a board member of the Valley of the Sun Chapter (Phoenix area) of the National Football Foundation (NFF), I, Bob Boyles, hereby contribute to this blog somewhat reluctantly in that I'll reveal confidences by opening the door to our group's Hall of Fame ballot conversation. I do this to dispel any conspiracy theories and to promote the Foundation, which exists as an organization to promote the game of (amateur) football and the valuable lessons it teaches young men. The NFF also oversees the College Hall of Fame and its selection process. And its members get to vote!

Perhaps the most appealing feature of membership in the NFF is that the national membership participates in the Hall of Fame process. Each member is able to cast his or her votes, and each of the nation's 122 chapters has the right to petition its regional selection committee to get players onto each year's ballot. The latter part of the process allows individual chapters to promote past All-America players and successful coaches from the schools in their region. In our chapter's case, that means the Pacific-10 conference's Arizona State and Northern Arizona of the FCS (Div. 1-AA). So, chapters have clout in helping their local players.

Should you discredit our chapter for pushing Tillman into the Hall of Fame? Interestingly, when this year's candidates were discussed in a board meeting last winter, Tillman's name, on the ballot for the first time in 2009, never came up. Our group, led by Hall of Fame inductee and former ASU coach Frank Kush (in photo), specifically chose to promote the candidacy of Sun Devils Bob Breunig and Curley Culp.

Partly because of the efforts of Kush, who serves on the regional committee that offers names to the national Hall of Fame ballot group, Breunig, an All-America linebacker coached by Kush in the mid-1970s, made his debut on the ballot this year. Bad timing continues to keep nose guard Culp off the ballot; Culp richly deserves Hall of Fame consideration according to his old coach.

Hall of Fame eligibility rules require a player must have been tapped as a first-team All-American by at least one of the (usually five) panels that make up the consensus process. For example, Notre Dame's famously immortal quarterback Joe Montana theoretically will never gain entrance to the Hall, unless he buys a ticket like us mortals. Currently, the consensus panels are Associated Press (since 1945), Football Writers Association of America (since 1944), the Walter Camp Foundation (1972-74 and 1983-present), and the Sporting News (1934-63 and 1993-present). Various other All-America selectors have been acknowledged as consensus in the past, such as Newsweek, NEA and UPI. The idea of using only national sources has prevented (fictitious) Freddie Goldsmith of (fictitious) East Cupcake State University from sneaking in as a consensus All-America because his drycleaner Uncle Ed chose him on the (fictitious) Ed's Friendly Cleaners 1934 All-America Team.

What about the seemingly arbitrary gaps of participation for the Walter Camp and Sporting News? It wasn't that they stopped making All-America picks--indeed Curley Culp was a Sporting News first teamer in 1967--so what forced their choices to the sidelines?

The truth is that discussion within the chapter that had the most to gain by Pat Tillman's induction into the College Hall of Fame focused on other matters. Petitioning the national ballot committee on behalf of Culp and other greats left in the All-America voting gaps was discussed. Our chapter also welcomed about a half dozen new members, buddies of Breunig's who all voted for him without ultimate success.

That's how it worked out. Our chapter is delighted by Pat Tillman's Hall of Fame election. Many of us voted for him. Where else can a member of a non-profit organization make his or her vote heard? Certainly not in Cooperstown or Canton.

--Bob Boyles

New Hall of Fame Class

With so many college football programs, the number of good players to choose from when selecting College Football Hall of Famers is always daunting. The 14 men chosen this year (Dennis Byrd, Ronnie Caveness, Ray Childress, Randy Cross, Sam Cunningham, Mark Herrmann, Clarkston Hines, Desmond Howard, Chet Moeller, Jerry Stovall, Pat Tillman, Alfred Williams and coaches Barry Alvarez and Gene Stallings) are another outstanding group, albeit without too many headliners. In fact the biggest name might be the only deceased member of the group, Pat Tillman, who certainly deserved enshrinement based on both his play on the field for Arizona State in the 1990s and his sacrifice off of it.

You see the College Hall, more than any other, gives a great deal of focus in picking enshrinees on what the player did off of the field. One has to have been great on it, earning All America status, but the criteria for selection also includes classwork and contributions to society, etc. So Pat Tillman, who not only died serving his country but was an honor student at Arizona State, is in, but Brian Bosworth is not, as he is considered a boor by voters and was caught cheating with steroids while at Oklahoma (although he was a good student). Chet Moeller, the fine safety at Navy in the early to mid '70s gets the nod, but Deion Sanders, one of the great defensive backs in college football history has to wait. Deion famously did not go to class his final year once his requirements for eligibility were over. The Hall is reserved for student-athletes, or at least those players who do not mock the idea of going to class.

But let's focus on the positive. Three members of the class, Dennis Byrd, Ronnie Caveness and Jerry Stovall, played before my time but certainly deserved their spots. I especially like Byrd's inclusion as the Wolfpack need some more members of the Hall. The rest of the group all bring back memories as I saw them play or coach. My friends and I actually created a game we called "Sam Cunningham" to honor his leaping ability. Two kids defended the back of a couch and a third had to try to get into the end zone--the front of the couch--by leaping between/through the others. Yes we broke some things, mostly egos. As a Notre Dame fan, Herrmann's career was probably the one I watched the most as he made the Boilermakers formidable in the late '70s. And coach Alvarez was smart enough to build a great system in Madison around what the state grew best: big offensive linemen and hard-nosed defenders.

In the coming days I will include some of the games in our encyclopedia that feature fine play or coaching by the new members. Congratulations to all.

Angst in Ann Arbor

Michigan has slapped themselves on the wrist for violations stemming from extra practice time and, as importantly, the failure of their compliance people to protect its athletes (by complying with NCAA rules). Michigan is trying to shape the view of what they did wrong by making these recommendations for their punishment in advance of their meeting with the NCAA on the matter in August. They even let a grad assistant walk the plank, ie, get fired, for lying to the NCAA, which as we know from the Dez Bryant situation is about as bad as it gets in the NCAA's eyes. And new athletic director David Brandon stressed three things during his announcement: that Michigan has always been clean so the embarrassment of these sanctions is worse than any real penalty, that coach Rich Rodriguez may have made some mistakes but does not fail to promote an atmosphere of compliance as charged by the NCAA and that the penalties should not be worse because Michigan did not get a competitive advantage from these wrongdoings.

Where do I begin to poke holes in all of this Michigan logic? Before I begin let me say that the Wolverines really did not do anything too bad and should not be overly punished, especially with all of us still waiting for some shoe to fall in the USC case. But, the problem folks from the Big Ten have with Michigan is their arrogance, and this press conference reaked of it. Let's touch on Brandon's three points to see how this is so. First of all, stretching back to the history of Michigan football to show how squeaky clean you are is a bit disengenous as no one was getting caught back in those beginning 50 years or so and Michigan was as bad as any other power when it came to paying players (see Heston, Willie of the juggernaut teams of 110 years ago). And why cheat when the referees bend over backward for you? Overall, however, Michigan has done well in regards to rule breaking and deserves credit for it, but that should not effect how the NCAA views this situation--unless of course Rich Rodriguez has been coaching Michigan for 95 years. In other words Rodriguez should not get a pass because Bennie Oosterbaan and Bo Schembechler ran clean programs. Secondly, Rodriguez is not winning and these violations are the type that come from desperate times. Brandon has to protect him regarding the overall atmosphere of compliance because that is where the big penalties will come if the NCAA finds him guilty here. Brandon even went so far as taking full responsibility for the problem despite the fact that he was running Domino's Pizza at the time of the violations. So staffer Alex Herron was fired for lying about his involvement while Rodriguez gets to keep his job--for now. As soon as the NCAA does judge this matter, his clock will be ticking unless he goes 12-0 and that's not happening. Lastly, to claim that they should not get punished too bad because they stunk is funny. He has a point, but that is not how punishment works. If you cheated, and they admit to a lot of it, then you should get punished for it whether you win three games or nine. How can you say that practicing more than your opposition was not an attempt to gain an advantage?

So Michigan deserves whatever they get this August for hiring Rodriguez. It has been less than four years since they won the first 11 games of the 2006 season and were playing Ohio State for a spot in the BCS Title game, but that seems like a lifetime ago. They will get the magic back at Michigan--and Brandon was a backup player during the early 1970s when they aimed for perfection on an annual basis--but it will be a few years before they can return to power. And that will only be with a worthy replacement to Rodriguez.

View From Bennett Avenue

Is it me or did the Big Ten overestimate itself regarding conference expansion? They were supposedly wielding the great prestige associated with Big Ten football for a century of play and the money brought in by large stadiums, key bowl tie-ins and the Big Ten Network. And let's not kid ourselves, money would be the main reason for any program to dump schools it has a bond with to go become a second fiddle in the Big Ten. We have witnessed it before with Boston College leaving a Big East conference they helped establish for a bottom line increase in funds. So for a few weeks we heard about possible overtures to Missouri, Nebraska, Rutgers, et al, with an invitation supposedly in the works for Notre Dame, a school that fits the list of requirements to a tee (tradition, location, publicity, not overly threatening in the major sports, etc).
But if Notre Dame was the big target, the Big Ten miscalculated the quality of their bait. Money alone could not lure the Irish--which is not to say that Notre Dame does not want to maximize every dollar they can make with football--as Notre Dame makes plenty of money from their NBC contract, bowl game take they do not split with anyone, televised games not on NBC (which folks conveniently forget when discussing the monetary differences between what NBC pays and what Big Ten member institutions make from television), etc. Prestige associated with playing in the conference does not enthrall the Irish as they have more than enough of that. And as far as missing out on conference championships, as mentioned recently by Ohio State Athletic Director and former Notre Dame football player Gene Smith, the Irish think of those the way we think of divisional titles in pro sports--nice but who really cares if you do not win it all (as OSU should know from recent years). Notre Dame has never wanted to be limited to a regional schedule as they have a national fan base that is excited about future contests with Oklahoma and Miami. The rumored threats of the Big Ten conspiring to keep Notre Dame off conference schools' schedules to force them to join as they would have no one to play? Ridiculous as losing ND off their schedules would hurt Purdue and Michigan State, the only two traditional rivals of the Irish in the conference, more than it would Notre Dame and the Irish could easily begin new rivalries with programs like Cincinnati. Which matchup would you rather see this fall, ND-Cincinnati or ND-Purdue? And the other perceived threat, that the Big Ten and ACC would raid enough Big East schools to kill the conference and force Notre Dame to join the Big Ten as the other Irish sports, which benefit from Big East play, would be left in limbo is also silly as the loss of Rutgers and Syracuse to the Big Ten is only truly bad for the Big East if the ACC also raids Cincinnati and Louisville. But even if all of that happens, the Big East could survive by making an arrangement with Notre Dame in which the Irish are half independent and half a member of the Big East for football. Add Conference USA teams for filler and in football they are as good as usual and Memphis helps them recover from losing Syracuse and Louisville in hoops. Or Notre Dame will join up with Marquette and others to form another conference for basketball and the other sports.
Whew. That was more than I intended to say. There is also one item about Notre Dame that bears mentioning. This notion that Notre Dame needs the Big Ten because it is becoming irrelevant in football is so stupid I, at first, ignored it. But let me say this. Notre Dame did a lousy job of hiring coaches and paid for it with some mediocre football over recent seasons. Having hired one of the best coaches in football in Brian Kelly--who was inexplicably snubbed by Michigan--will right the ship. Does anyone want to guess USC's record for the 10 years prior to the Pete Carroll era? 65-52-3. Mediocre. Texas for the 10 years prior to Mack Brown's hire? 65-49-2. Mediocre. Oklahoma for the 10 years prior to the hiring of Bob Stoops? 61-50-3. You get the point. The Irish will be back, beginning this season. And joining the Big Ten may actually hurt them in recruiting as playing a national schedule helps them land star players from all over the country. Notre Dame will soon return to the top of the polls, which will only make their demands for accepting membership in any conference greater than they are now coming off a decade-and-a-half of spotty play.
As for the Big Ten, they are now backpedaling. The conference wants to expand but does not want to be stuck with Missouri, Iowa State, Rutgers and Syracuse. Wait they would need a fifth team to get the conference numbers up to 16 (and are they keeping the Big Ten name?). Can the University of Chicago return to football? The Big Ten needs a marquee name and will find it difficult to land one without a better plan than the one they displayed with Notre Dame.

badda-bing

I always liked Sal Sunseri. A leader at linebacker of the great Pittsburgh defenses of the late 1970s, early '80s, Sunseri was a captain and All American in 1981. Since his playing days ended, Sunseri has become a respected coach and is currently the outside linebackers coach for defending national champion Alabama.

From the look of this photo he has found places to get scungilli salad and tripe stew in Tuscaloosa. But that just means there is more of Sunseri to appreciate. That his name ends in a vowel and he makes a good living off of college football is really enough for me but then I find out that Sunseri has another claim to fame. The full name of his son, Tino, a promising quarterback for Pitt, is Santino Michael Sunseri and he was named after two of the Corleone sons from The Godfather. How great is that?

The Death of Norman Hand

It is difficult finding someone with anything bad to say about Norman Hand, a standout defensive tackle at Itawamba Community College, the University of Mississippi and then five teams in the NFL. Hand died last week at age 37 after collapsing last week in his home. Heart disease was the cause and Hand suffered from hypertension. Hand was a good player and even better person, winning the New Orleans Saints' "Man of the Year" in 2002 for his volunteer work with the New Orleans Children's Hospital.

One item that stood out in an obituary I read is that Hand was a standout baseball player, in addition to football, while in high school in South Carolina and was an honorable mention high school All America choice as a tight end and defensive lineman. He even caught 25 passes as a junior for an impressive 526 yards. So while in his teens Hand, presumably, was not the 300+-pound man we remember from his days in the NFL. At what point did someone decide that he could add extra weight without sacrificing too much in terms of dexterity and speed? Did someone determine that Hand's massive frame could add the weight easily enough, or was it difficult for Hand to lose weight thus making him outgrow a position like tight end?

The question is an important one because Hand's excess weight certainly was a factor in his premature death. I have no idea if he was on medication for his high blood pressure and, if so, if he took it, but I do know that weighing well over 300 pounds is bad for anyone's health let alone someone with his medical history.

Which brings us back to the role of major college football and the NFL in protecting the future health of their athletes. When was Hand's hypertension discovered? Hand's role in the NFL was that of space eater and a strict regimen to lose weight to benefit his health would have countered the desire of his pro teams for Hand to be as big as possible to take up as much room as possible. While teaming with Grady Jackson as a potent interior defensive line tandem for the Saints 10 years ago, Hand and his mates were nicknamed "The Heavy Lunch Bunch."

At some point we need to discuss why it is okay for high school, college and professional teams to bulk players up beyond what is healthy. Right now the health focus for ex-players is dominated by concussions and the role they play in early onset of dementia and other nasty side effects. While that is understandable, we seem to be behind in preventing the shortening of life expectancy for the larger men in the sport, who are encouraged to gain excess weight through drug use or "heavy lunches." Unlike concussions, which have been an unfortunate part of the sport since its infancy, bulking up players to well over 300 lbs is a relatively recent phenomena. Joe Greene may have been mean, but he was not fat and weighed at least 60 lbs less than Hand despite being only 3 inches shorter. The same is true for Randy White, another standout defensive tackle from a generation prior to Hand's.

Where will it end? Being that the problem belongs to linemen, no one cares too much. The NFL began worrying about concussions for two reasons: lawsuits and the loss of superstar quarterbacks. Without franchise pocketbooks being hit by Norman Hand's premature death, the trend will continue. And, of course, the players involved bear a great deal of resposibility for their own size. But as long as football continues to create an environment whereby carrying excess and unhealthy weight is an advantage for certain positions they are culpable in this sad situation and we will see more and more retired players dying young.

The View From Bennett Avenue

I am a proud graduate of Bergen Catholic High School, located in Oradell, New Jersey. I went there in the late 1970s and early '80s, during a more innocent time in high school athletics. At the time BC's athletic reputation rested on three sports, track and field, basketball and football. Most of the athletes who played those sports did not look much different than the average student. The biggest players on the football team weighed 210 lbs, give or take a few. I can remember what a big deal it was for our team to beat Montclair, because Montclair had two bookend defensive ends who were 240. They seemed gigantic at the time.

Now 240 barely gets you a spot as the backup center on the high school level. The explosion in the size of high school athletes began right as I was graduating in 1982. While there certainly were improvements in how kids weight trained and understood nutrition, a key factor in all of this was in the relative ease in the ability for suburban kids to purchase steroids. Being a private school in a wealthy area, Bergen was full of students who could had the income needed to become huge through chemistry. The kids that I knew who did it were interested solely in being bigger than the next guy or out-lifting a friend.

So the fact that Brian Cushing, the pride and joy of recent Bergen football teams, has been caught cheating as a member of the NFL comes as no surprise to me. There were not only rumors of his drug use when he played for Southern California--a school that has had a reputation for steroid use dating back to the 1970s--but Cushing had fingers pointed his way while in high school. He has always stressed that he has been clean and continues to do so in light of his recent problems.

Cushing's failed test became more noteworthy than the usual failed NFL test thanks to the recent re-vote for the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award Cushing won easily after a highly successful year playing linebacker for the Texans. For winning that award Cushing ended up being more punished via the continued discussion of his failed test than other NFL cheats, who bettered themselves illegally but did not win any hardware. But that is his problem. Since it is highly unlikely that he is clean he deserves whatever knock his reputation receives. Of course, like Peppers and Merriman and others before, he will go right back to the starting lineup upon completion of his suspension and will return to his big contract.

And I will stop being proud that my high school produced an All America linebacker who went on to be drafted in the first round and then earn honors for his play. We have produced plenty of other folks more worthy of attention than this guy.

There's no Sleeping in Baseball

There is proof now that baseball is boring. Even celebrated players, past and present...well maybe just past, cannot watch the game without snoozing. I can't say that I blame them as too much of the game is spent standing around. If a DH goes 0-4 does he even shower afterwards? You are playing left field with a right-handed ground ball pitcher on the mound, what do you do to stay focused? Yeah, I know greenies. But they are now banned. What if you are the Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder and there are 3,000 folks in the park? Well, at least you would get plenty of action with opposing batters lining plenty of balls your way.

No one is falling asleep at a football game. Keith Jackson is twice as old as Keith Hernandez and he could still call Washington State games if needed. And if he started to doze, the band could just play a little louder.

And, yes, the main reason I posted this was to use this ridiculous photo of Keith Hernandez. As for Griffey, Jr., whether or not he did take a nap during a game is no big deal. Just hang them up soon.

Viva College Football!

They are doing it again. Despite great ratings and soaring popularity, the sport of college football is being reduced to a minor leagues for the NFL, again, by ESPN. Not knowing what to talk about in the off-season, ESPN.com has launched a ridiculous poll and accompanying stories to determine which college program has produced the most NFL stars. The constant focus on the NFL draft, which players will play "on Sunday" and the now crowning of a best program for producing pros, weakens their college football product while constantly reminding folks that the pro game is superior. Add in the fact that the great majority of their analysts consider the BCS and lack of a playoff ridiculous--and constantly say so on television--and the network seems to spend more time pandering to the sports radio callers from the Northeast and less to anyone who actually cares about college football.

Which is not to say that ESPN should become a shill for the NCAA, BCS or any university. I just want them to give me college football coverage that is about college football and not the NFL. I love the NFL and I love college football. They are separate and equal in my mind and should each be treated with respect. No one goes to college football games to see guys who may play on the next level, they go to watch good, hard-hitting football played by guys whose main interest should be winning that game and whose goals should be conference titles and bowl games. Did Texas fans not go see Colt McCoy play because he was not considered a better pro prospect than predecessor Vince Young? Should Wake Forest fans not be grateful for the four years of excellence given to them by departed quarterback Riley Skinner because he was then not drafted by the pros? Should all the teams that beat Oklahoma last year forfeit those victories back to the Sooners because OU had so much great NFL talent on their roster?

College football is a joy for a million reasons. Developing a small percentage of the players into eventual NFL roster fodder is not one of them.

I'm Back

I took a blog-posting break to finish the fifth edition of the USA TODAY College Football Encyclopedia--wherever good books are sold--but am back to post daily from now on. There is always plenty to talk about, and I definitely want to have exchanges with my readers so please comment whenever there is a topic worthy of discussion.

I did want to say that I am getting tired of the continued talk about conference expansion. Yes it is a big story, of course, but we are just receiving speculation packaged as news. When money is on the line these schools do not behave rationally so how is one to predict which programs are going where? Take Boston College. Was it the right move for them to bolt the Big East and jump to the ACC? Absolutely not. While they made more money guaranteed and were worried about the future of the Big East sans Miami and Virginia Tech, there are very few alumni happy about the move and recruiting is more difficult when your new rivals are hundreds of miles away. BC was always a regional university without a truckload of fans spread out throughout the country and could ill afford to have all of their conference road games scheduled hundreds of miles away. Also the Eagles have proven to be an excellent regular season team and just may have earned a BCS game or two when Matt Ryan was at quarterback if they had stayed in the Big East, where the talent is as good as the ACC but there is no pesky conference championship game to get in the way of a BCS run.

While picking on Boston College is easy regarding their choice to jump to the ACC, the lesson may or may not have been learned by others. I think the key to the reworking of the major conferences hinges not on Notre Dame, but Texas. If they stay put, or become their own entity a la Notre Dame then a lot of this maneuvering is just window dressing.