In giving gold jacket and ring to Pat Bowlen’s family, Hall of Fame contradicts itself

Rusher

Well-known member
Mar 19, 2019
1,845
0
gettyimages-586857312-e1555279960466.jpg

Getty Images

As to the late Pat Bowlen, the Pro Football Hall of Fame did the right thing. As to the late Ken Stabler and the late Junior Seau and any other members of the Hall of Fame who were inducted posthumously, the Pro Football Hall of Fame continues to do the wrong thing.

“Pat Bowlen is the first individual to pass away between the time he was elected and formally enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” Hall of Fame spokesman Pete Fierle told Mike Klis of 9news.com. “The process was underway to create his Hall of Fame Gold Jacket and Hall of Fame Ring of Excellence. As previously planned prior to his death, the Gold Jacket and Ring of Excellence will be presented to the Pat Bowlen estate to be displayed in the front lobby of the UC Health Training Center [in Denver].”

That’s fine, but it flies in the face of the reasoning provided three years ago, when the Hall of Fame stubbornly refused to give the jacket and the ring to Stabler’s family.

“[T]he Hall of Fame Ring and Gold Jacket are items presented to living Hall of Fame members to be worn exclusively by them as evidence and pride of their having been elected to sport’s most elite fraternity,” the Hall of Fame said in refusing to give the items to the families of Stabler or Seau.

Now, the Hall of Fame is pretending that it never said what it said in 2016, hiding behind the notion that, because the process of making the jacket and the ring already had begun, the items would be issued even though they never will be “worn exclusively” by Bowlen.

This isn’t about keeping the items from Bowlen’s family. This is about ensuring that the families of all deceased Hall of Famers get the same treatment. Unless and until the Hall of Fame will be confiscating the jacket and the ring from every Hall of Famer who inevitably dies, the family of every deceased Hall of Famers should receive the jacket and the ring.

This situation easily can be fixed. Commissioner Roger Goodell and several owners (including Cowboys owner Jerry Jones) have spots on the Hall of Fame’s Board of Trustees. If they order the policy to be changed, it would immediately be changed.

So how about it, guys? Make that one phone call and insist that the right thing be done.
 
Top