The Pro Football Hall of Fame wanted to make it harder to get in with a revised voting process.
It got what it wanted with the Class of 2026 – just three modern-era inductees in Eric Allen, Jared Allen and Antonio Gates rather than five as we’ve been accustomed to – and just one senior, Sterling Sharpe – out of three seniors, a coach and a contributor.
It’s the smallest class since 2004.
The 49 of us on the selection committee trimmed the modern candidate list of 15 to seven, and then voted for five – and only those with 80 percent got yellow jackets. Of the committee nominations -- three seniors, a coach and a contributor -- we voted for three of five and only Sharpe met the 80 percent standard, or at least did the best. I'm disappointed more didn't get in, because more were certainly worthy.
The nominees lacked a just-say-his-name candidate, which made for some really good presentations and conversations on January 14.
