Update: I added comment below from Scott Michaux of the Augusta Chronicle, who did not enjoy covering Haley.
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It looks as if some football reporters are continuing to get their revenge on Charles Haley.
For the fifth time, Haley failed to get into the Hall of Fame Saturday. This is the same Haley who treated the writers like absolute jerks while playing for Dallas and San Francisco.
Thursday, I did a post with Leonard Shapiro, the former Washington Post NFL writer who was a long-time HOF voter. I wrote:
“He was surely, mean, arrogant. A rotten man,” said Shapiro, who was a long-time football writer for the Washington Post. “I thought he was despicable and a discredit to the game.”
Shapiro never voted for Haley during the 29 years he served on the committee. When asked to assess Haley as a player, “He’s in the hall of great. Whether he’s a Hall of Famer is debatable.”
Would Haley already be in the Hall of Fame if he was a good guy to the media? He definitely would have a better chance.
Shapiro said there are plenty of voters in the selection room who feel the same way he does about Haley’s treatment of the media.
“Are there guys in the room who think, ‘What an asshole, I’m not going to vote for that guy,’” Shapiro said. “You’re damn right there are guys who think like that.”
Haley clearly isn’t a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. However, it appears as if he isn’t going to get the benefit of the doubt from football reporters required to put him in the Hall.
In David Moore’s story in the Dallas Morning News, Troy Aikman knocked the process. Moore writes:
Haley’s abusive behavior during his playing days won few friends in the media.
Aikman has the same questions.
“I don’t like the process,” said the quarterback who joined the Hall in 2006 in his first year of eligibility. “I don’t like the way that it’s done.
“I do believe he should be in the Hall of Fame. I’ve said that. I’m biased because I watched him every weekend. I’m amazed that he’s not in the Hall of Fame.
“I’m sorry, but if him being rude to some writers or not being accommodating to those in the media keeps him from being in the Hall of Fame, then I really disagree with the process, because that’s not what this is about. I don’t know what happens, but I know he was largely responsible for a big amount of the success that we had during those years.”
You know what they say? What goes around comes around.
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From Michaux:
He was not merely “rude” to the media. He was hateful and treated media (and others) as if they were beneath him. I say this as a rookie writer during his prime who tried (and failed) to cover him and share his successes with the folks he grew up with at his hometown newspaper.
The Hall of Fame should require more than just skill between the lines. Being a Hall of Famer should require some measure of human decency, even from football players asked to put that aside 60 minutes a week. You don’t have to be accommodating or quotable or even nice. You just have to treat people with respect if you want to ultimately be respected in the end.
The HoF process certainly has its flaws, but holding people accountable for ALL of their actions as representatives of the NFL isn’t one of them.
He was not merely “rude” to the media. He was hateful and treated media (and others) as if they were beneath him. I say this as a rookie writer during his prime who tried (and failed) to cover him and share his successes with the folks he grew up with at his hometown newspaper.
The Hall of Fame should require more than just skill between the lines. Being a Hall of Famer should require some measure of human decency, even from football players asked to put that aside 60 minutes a week. You don’t have to be accommodating or quotable or even nice. You just have to treat people with respect if you want to ultimately be respected in the end.
The HoF process certainly has its flaws, but holding people accountable for ALL of their actions as representatives of the NFL isn’t one of them.