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Hall of Fame passes over LeBeau -- again
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The rain is making Ed Bouchette grouchy as he checks in from the Steelers South Side headquarters:
Here's some disgusting news: Dick LeBeau, one of the great cornerbacks and interceptors in NFL history with the Detroit Lions, is not even on the ballot as a seniors candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
There are 17 candidates for the two names the seniors committee will deliver to the full board of selectors, who will then consider them in their Hall of Fame vote the day before the Super Bowl. I'm on that board, and I have no input into the Seniors candidates selection. I merely vote on the final two men who are brought to us by that committee.
Seventeen candidates!!! And LeBeau can't make it? Nor Jack Butler, the great cornerback of the Steelers?
I hear similar things from fans of modern candidates (why can't Art Monk/Donnie Shell/L.C. Greenwood make it?). L.C. Greenwood, by the way, is among those 17 seniors candidates after failing to make it in his last try last year as a modern candidate. But how you can even come up with 17 all-time greats to consider for two spots and LeBeau and Butler not be among them is a travesty.
There's a report that the Eagles are set to release middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, a Pro Bowl player. The report says he lost a step.
Here's another thing I've heard: The Miami Dolphins are prepared to offer him a contract with a $12 million signing bonus. Lost a step? So what, the Dolphins are thinking. He's been great in this league and once he comes to Miami, the heat and the humidity will turn him back into the great player he once was.
They plan to put him on the other side of Manny Fernandez. And once Joey Porter's knee heals, they'll have some defensive front of former Pro Bowl players.
The Steelers have moved practice up to 1 p.m. today. With all the rain, there's a logjam at their indoor practice facility. Yesterday, before the Steelers ended practice, the Pitt team filed in, waiting for them to finish.
In the old days, before the bubble, the Steelers would have taken a bus to Pitt's indoor facility in Oakland to practice if there was this much rain (for those reading this out of town, there's been non-stop rain for three days). In the real old days, when Chuck Noll was coach, they would have practiced in the rain at Three Rivers Stadium. Chuck's explanation: You play in the rain, you can practice in the rain.
First Published August 21, 2007 1:45 pm
