I’d vote for Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Tim Brown, Charles Haley, Russ Grimm and Dick LeBeau. WR Cris Carter and TE Shannon Sharpe should eventually get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But, unfortunately for there are a lot of top WR’s in this crop. Jerry Rice is in his own class - arguably as great a player as Jim Brown and Sammy Baugh from previous era’s. -George Allen

Let the arguments begin

The following is presented simply to open the discussion for the week on the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010. The 44 selectors for the Hall gather at 9 a.m. Saturday for this year’s selection meeting in Fort Lauderdale. I don’t throw out the Hall of Fame tote board to say that after locks Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice the guys at the top of the list will definitely get in; the odds are simply my gut feeling from years of being in the Hall of Fame voting room as one of the 44 selectors. But my jaw usually drops the same as yours when some of the votes are made public with the announcement of the new class each year. (We vote by secret ballot, so we don’t know who’s in until the class is announced by the Hall the afternoon of our vote. This year, the class will be disclosed at 5 p.m. Saturday.)

There are 15 modern-era candidates and two Senior candidates. A maximum of five modern candidates can be chosen; after Rice and Smith, though, 13 candidates are left to joust for three spots. The two Seniors, running back Floyd Little and cornerback Dick LeBeau, are voted in or out independent of the modern-era candidates. They need 80 percent of the vote to earn entry to the Hall.

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