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How the Hall of Fame selection process has failed a number of Dallas Cowboys

FRISCO -- The Pro Football Hall of Fame was designed to be an exclusive fraternity.

It's reserved for the best of the best, the giants of the game. It's supposed to be difficult to gain entry. But it's not supposed to be impossible.

Yet that's what it has become for far too many qualified, Hall of Fame-worthy players. An impossibility.

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And that's my biggest complaint with the Hall of Fame selection process. Not enough names are cycled through the room as finalists. If you've never been a finalist, your career has never been discussed by the selectors. And if you've never been discussed, frankly, you've never been a Hall of Fame candidate.

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Too many worthy candidates have fallen through the cracks over the years without ever having been discussed as finalists and now find themselves in the abyss that is the senior pool.

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I'll be returning to Canton this week when the senior committee meets to choose its two candidates for the Hall of Fame's Class of 2018. Every franchise has its guy. Green Bay has Jerry Kramer. Kansas City has Johnny Robinson. Cincinnati has Ken Anderson. Oakland has Cliff Branch. Atlanta has Tommy Nobis. Detroit has Alex Karras. Minnesota has Jim Marshall. Miami has Bob Kuechenberg.

The Cowboys ... well, they have lots of guys. Drew Pearson was a first-team NFL all-decade wide receiver for the 1970s. The other three all-decade receivers from the 1970s have all been enshrined -- Lynn Swann, John Stallworth and Paul Warfield. But Pearson has never been a finalist, so his candidacy has never been discussed by the selection committee. He's been waiting for that moment for 29 years.

Pearson deserves to be discussed as a finalist.

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So does Ralph Neely, an NFL all-decade offensive tackle from the 1960s. He's never been a finalist. Nor has Harvey Martin, an NFL all-decade defensive end from the 1970s. Martin set what would be an NFL record with 23 sacks in 1977... except that the NFL wasn't counting sacks back then. Pearson, Neely and Martin are now in the senior pool because their cases have never been discussed and debated by the selection committee.

And that's wrong. If you are voted one of the best players of your era by this same selection committee, you deserve to have your career measured historically against the best who have ever played your position. But the Hall's selection process has failed those Cowboys.

It's also wrong that linebacker Chuck Howley has never been a finalist. He intercepted 25 passes, recovered 18 fumbles, went to six Pro Bowls and was the MVP of a Super Bowl. Guard John Niland also went to six Pro Bowls in his nine NFL seasons with the Cowboys. That's twice as many Pro Bowls as Jerry Kramer, by the way. Yet he's never been discussed.

Cornell Green went to five Pro Bowls as both a cornerback and safety. He's another Canton after-thought. So is Everson Walls, sadly. He's the only cornerback in NFL history to lead the league in interceptions three times. His 57 career interceptions are more than Darrell Green, Deion Sanders and Champ Bailey. Yet he's never been a finalist. And Walls is coming up on his final year of eligibility as a modern-era candidate.

I'm not saying all these players are Hall of Famers. For that matter, I'm not saying that any of these players are Hall of Famers. But they all deserve to be included in the process. They deserve to have their careers discussed and debated by the selection committee. Then let the process play itself out. If they belong, vote them their busts. If they don't, move on.

But to date all those Cowboys have been excluded from the selection process. And they are not alone. There are 79 all-decade position players through the year 2000 eligible for the Hall of Fame but not enshrined in Canton. Sixty-nine of them have never even been discussed as finalists.

Linebacker Maxie Baughan was not one of those all-decade players. Yet Baughan went to nine Pro Bowls in the 1960 decade alone but has never once been a Hall of Fame finalist. Nine Pro Bowls. Winston Hill went to eight Pro Bowls as the protector of Joe Namath's blind side with the Jets. The selection process has also frozen him out.

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The process has failed too many players. I'll be reminded of that again this week when the senior committee convenes. And we only get to rescue two of them.