Kids in the Hall (of Fame)

Some 28 years ago, Southmoreland High School won an almost entirely nondescript football game against its cross-town rival from Mount Pleasant.

How unremarkable was this end-of-the season game 28 years ago between the two teams from small western Pennsylvania high schools? Let's put it this way. I was at the game and I don't even remember what the final score was.

The only thing worth mentioning — especially now — is that it was the last high school game for the Southmoreland quarterback, a University of Pittsburgh-bound senior named Russ Grimm.

Yeah, that Russ Grimm. The head Hog was a quarterback in high school. But in fairness, Pitt did recruit him as a linebacker.

For Grimm, February of 2005 might turn out to be far more memorable than November of 1976.

He could get the chance to bag a Super Bowl ring as the Pittsburgh Steelers assistant head coach to go with the two he won as a player for the Washington Redskins. Shortly thereafter, he'll find out if he will be head coach for the Cleveland Browns, where he interviewed during the Steelers' playoff bye week.

And he'll find out if he gets into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Grimm was among the 15 candidates listed as finalists for enshrinement into the Hall next summer. The inductees will be named the day before Super Bowl XXXIX.

In a lot of years, the former Redskins' guard would be an easy selection. But among this year's crop, he's no better than a borderline candidate for enshrinement.

Under Hall of Fame rules, a 39-member selection committee is required to choose between three and six inductees in any given year. In 1973 and 1976, the committee has picked the minimum.

That won't happen this year. Like Tommy Lee at closing time, this year's crop of finalists is loaded.

The finalists are, in addition to Grimm and fellow guard Bob Kuechenberg; linebackers Harry Carson and Derrick Thomas; defensive ends Richard Dent, L.C. Greenwood, and Claude Humphrey; wide receivers Michael Irvin and Art Monk; cornerback Roger Wehrli; contributor George Young; quarterbacks Dan Marino and Steve Young; and seniors committee nominees Benny Friedman and Fritz Pollard.

The three no-brainers in the field are the quarterbacks. If you've read this far, there's no need to explain why Marino and Steve Young belong in the Hall of Fame. Friedman's qualifications might need some explaining, if only because he played his entire career in the 1920s and '30s.

Of everybody eligible who isn't already in the Hall, Friedman is probably the one who belongs there the most. Inducting him along with Marino and Young would provide a nice NFL historical bookend — the NFL's first great passer going in alongside the two most recent.

Picking the other three most worthy candidates, at least this season, is best done reality-show style, by kicking nine candidates off the island until only three are left.

George Young would be the first one gone. In a year like this, I wouldn't want to see a worthy player left out of the Hall so a front-office guy could be inducted.

I always thought of Humphrey, a standout on some pretty bad Atlanta Falcons' teams and the Eagles' 1980 Super Bowl squad, as a very good, but not great, player. So I was getting ready to eliminate him too until I looked at his career in "The Hidden Game of Football."

That book includes entries for almost every Hall of Fame contender, with listings for how many times each player was named a consensus first- or second-team All-Pro or named to the Pro Bowl. While the selection process for all-star teams is itself flawed, being named to a team indicates that a player is well-regarded when compared to his peers.

During his 14-year career, Humphrey was a four-time consensus All-Pro, was named to at least one All-Pro team or the Pro Bowl two other times, and was a three-time second-teamer. He did better than fellow Hall of Fame contender Greenwood, who started his career one year later than Humphrey and retired the same year.

Even so, it's not good enough to get in — not this year. But, if Humphrey gets bumped, Greenwood has to go with him.

During his 14-year career (1970-1984), Kuechenberg was named consensus All-Pro exactly zero times. That means he was never considered the best player in the league at his position. Admittedly, there was a logjam in the 1970s with Hall of Famers Art Shell and Joe DeLamielleure at the top, but there are too many good candidates not getting in this year to allow Kuechenberg in now.

Carson went to nine Pro Bowls, but he wasn't even the best linebacker on his own Lawrence Taylor-dominated New York Giants' team during much of his career, so he's gone.

The two receivers, Monk and Irvin, are next out. Both had careers marked by a consistent high level of performance. But neither were the best receivers of their time.

And the next two guys were the best players of their era at their positions and they're not getting in either. Grimm was first-team consensus All-Pro for four consecutive years from 1983 to 1986, and the streak was cut short by injuries that plagued him the final five seasons of his career. Wehrli was a five-time All-Pro.

Both Wehrli and Grimm probably belong in the Hall — and isn't this becoming a familiar tune — but neither are cracking this top six list.

And that leaves (in addition to the three quarterbacks)...

Pollard, who belongs in the Hall, if only because of his historical relevance as the NFL's first black head coach and was a standout player before the league erected a color barrier in the late 1920s. He was named a consensus All-Pro only one time in his seven-year career, but racism probably kept him from being picked more often.

Dent was the best defensive lineman on the mid-1980s Chicago Bears, one of the NFL's best defensive units ever. He also retired with 137.5 sacks, good enough for third all-time. And he saved one of his biggest performances for the biggest stage, earning Most Valuable Player honors in the Bears' Super Bowl XX victory.

As with Dent, Thomas makes the cut because of his status as a pass-rush linebacker. In a career cut short by his death in a car accident, Thomas finished with 126.5 sacks. And he played well in his final season, which indicates that he would have had a couple more years to pad out those numbers.

That makes the Hall of Fame Class of 2005, in order of worthiness: Marino, Dent, Steve Young, Thomas, Friedman, and Pollard — or at least it should be.

But even if Wehrli, Grimm, Humphrey, Irvin, or Monk bump one or more of them, one thing's for certain — there won't be any counterfeit Hall of Famers getting into Canton this year.