Pro Football Hall of Fame's voting change could lead to embarrassing result

There's been widespread if not universal consternation among the 48 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors — including this Minnesota selector — since last week's announcement that the Hall's board of directors amended the selection process bylaws for next year's Centennial Class.

Per the unprecedented policy change, selectors will vote on some of the candidates as a bloc rather than individually, as selectors have done for all 326 Hall of Famers over 57 classes since the Canton shrine opened in 1963.

The Hall's hope is for a class of 20 in 2020, the NFL's 100th anniversary. The 20 finalists will include five modern-era players, to be voted on individually, and the 15-person bloc of 10 senior candidates, three contributors and two coaches.

The 15-person bloc will be chosen by a 25-member "Blue-Ribbon" committee made up of current selectors, former players and industry experts who have in-depth knowledge pro football's many eras. After multiple days of consideration, candidates will need 80% of this committee's vote (20) to join the bloc of finalists that will be presented to the full selection committee.

At that point, the bloc needs 39 yes votes for enshrinement. In other words, 10 selectors voting no would blow up the Centennial Class and create a major embarrassment for the Hall.

And it could happen. Selectors take their gatekeeper role seriously and already are voicing concerns to the Hall about essentially being asked to potentially rubber stamp some individuals hastily in order to save the bloc.

What happens if a selector approves of 10 finalists and disapproves of five? What if it's 13 and two? Is even 14 and one enough to justify granting that one person the first-ever free ride-a-long to the pinnacle of pro football?

Besides being unprecedented, it just doesn't feel right that the résumé of any one finalist could be tied to that of another finalist, whether it's favorably or unfavorably.

And if the bloc does get in, we'll never know if there were individuals who wouldn't have made it in on their own. Does that taint the whole bloc and isolate it from its gold-jacketed brethren in a shrine that touts its members as being on the same team for eternity?

Another concern is the policy change itself. The Hall has made it clear the policy change was done for the Centennial Class. But presumably if the change was made once, it can be done again.

It will be interesting to see how the Blue-Ribbon Committee handles its assignment. The presumption here is a Centennial Class will require a deep dive into the pro football's earliest decades.

Having worked in Canton, Ohio, from 1987 to '99, the feeling here is Ralph Hay should finally get in as a contributor. A, he owned the league's first dominant team, the Canton Bulldogs. And, B, he's the guy who kick-started pro football.

If the Blue-Ribbon Committee addresses some post-1961 Senior candidates, there are three Vikings who will be on the front burner: Jim Marshall, Joey Browner and Chuck Foreman.

Marshall has been discussed previously by the Senior committee, which handles players retired for at least 25 years. The other two haven't. Foreman and Browner have been retired for 39 and 27 years, respectively.

Marshall is 81. The Centennial Class will be his best shot at enshrinement.

What a shame it would be if: A, He made the bloc, got in and his class was less revered historically than the others; or B, He made the bloc and it got voted down because of someone else.