Mr. Kraft is a Hall of Fame Semifinalist and Voting Him in is the No-Braineriest Decision in the History of No-Brainers

The NFL Hall of Fame just announced its list of semifinalists for induction in the Seniors and Coaches/Contributors category. And as one would imagine from any list with 54 names on it, there is a wide range of qualifications, from obscure names to marginal candidates to choices so obvious you wonder how they ever managed to slip through the cracks of the regular voting process:

Source - The Hall’s 12-person Seniors Committee trimmed a list of eligible nominees to 25 Semifinalists who advance to the next round of consideration.

They are: Ken Anderson, Maxie Baughan, Mark Clayton, Roger Craig, LaVern Dilweg, Randy Gradishar, Lester Hayes, Chris Hinton, Chuck Howley, Cecil Isbell, Joe Jacoby, Billie “White Shoes” Johnson, Mike Kenn, Joe Klecko, Bob Kuechenberg, George Kunz, Jim Marshall, Clay Matthews Jr., Eddie Meador, Stanley Morgan, Tommy Nobis, Ken Riley, Sterling Sharpe, Otis Taylor and Everson Walls.

Each Semifinalist played his last game in professional football no later than the 1996 season.

Separately, the Hall’s 12-person Coach/Contributor Committee reduced the list of nominated candidates to 29 Semifinalists who advance to the next round of consideration.

They are: K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr., Roone Arledge, C.O. Brocato, Don Coryell, Otho Davis, Ralph Hay, Mike Holmgren, Frank “Bucko” Kilroy, Eddie Kotal, Robert Kraft, Rich McKay, John McVay, Art Modell, Clint Murchison Jr., Buddy Parker, Carl Peterson, Dan Reeves, Lee Remmel, Art Rooney Jr., Marty Schottenheimer, Jerry Seeman, Mike Shanahan, Clark Shaughnessy, Seymour Siwoff, Amy Trask, Jim Tunney, Jack Vainisi, Lloyd Wells and John Wooten.

A couple that jump out are near and dear to my heart. 

The first being Stanley Morgan, the deep threat wideout who was putting up 2020s-caliber receiving numbers for the Patriots of the late 70s and all of the 80s. A first rounder out of Tennessee in 1977, Morgan averaged more than 20 yards a reception in each of his first six years, lead the league in YPR three straight times, and averaged 19.2 YPR for his career, which is 10th best of all time. He made four Pro Bowls, including his career year at the age of 31 when he had 1,491 yards. And he not only still holds the franchise record with 10,352 receiving yards, he lapped the field. Second place on that list belongs to Rob Gronkowski with 7,861, which is just over 75% of Morgan's production.

The second being Bucko Kilroy. This guy had a career like few others. He was a player as far back as WWII, and an executive for almost 50 years after that. After helping to build the great Cowboys teams of the early 70s, he came to New England and helped Chuck Fairbanks do the heavy lifting of taking the worst run franchise in sports into respectability. Before Fairbanks broke his contract and noped back to college ball, he and Kilroy had created an absolute wagon. Thanks to drafts like 1973, where he accumulated three first round picks and used them on Hall of Famer John Hannah, the franchise's all time rushing leader Sam Cunningham, and the late, great Darryl Stingley. In subsequent years he drafted Steve Nelson, Russ Francis, HOFer Mike Haynes, team HOFer Raymond Clayborn, and of course, Stanley Morgan. Kilroy stayed on as Director of Player Personnel and GM through four different ownership changes, then was moved to the scouting department when Bill Parcells took over in the early 90s, and stayed there until his retirement in 2007. So his resume' includes six trips to the Super Bowl and three rings. Not a bad legacy for a 60-plus year career. 

But the name that obviously stands out is Mr. Kraft. And I say this not because he's a close personal friend. Or that he also knows Dave Portnoy. 

But because anything less than him breezing through this process would not only be a grave injustice, it would invalidate the whole process. And diminish the Pro Football Hall of Fame as an institution. 

Many of us have a natural tendency toward hyperbole on these matters when they involve someone we've rooted for. We decide that if any voter stands between Mariano Rivera and unanimous induction, he should have his credentials burned and be force-fed the ashes. I remember the year Derek Jeter got his 3,000 hit, one New York writer insisted he be declared the league MVP without a vote. Thurman Munson died in a plane crash when I was a kid, and there were people demanding the five-year waiting period be waived so he could go into Cooperstown right away. He's still not in. I don't know why all my examples are Yankees, but I stand by them. The point being that we all tend to exaggerate someone's worthiness for honors when they are one of our own. 

This is not such a case. 

Simply put RKK (as I'm allowed to call him) is the pluperfect example of an executive who deserves the immortality of ascending into football's Valhalla. He's done so much for the game - and for America - that they won't have a plaque big enough to list his accomplishments. To include all of them will require etching them in like the circuits on a microprocessor. But just to list the broad strokes, Mr. Kraft:

--Saved football in New England, thereby keeping us from raising generations of Giants fans.

--Turned down the sweetest deal ever, when Connecticut offered to build him a stadium and charge $1 a year rent, with guaranteed sellouts.

--Replaced the worst stadium in pro sports with a state-of-the-art palace, with his own money.

--Created a culture in which players are encouraged/enabled/supported in their charity work.

--Settled the labor dispute of 2011. In between trips to the cancer ward to visit his ailing wife.

--Negotiated all the TV deals that have made players and owners alike rich, and gave us more viewing options than anyone imagined.

--Gave fans free team jerseys in exchange for their Aaron Hernandez ones, like buying guns off the street. At a cost of a quarter of a million dollars. 

--Delivered millions of vital Covid masks from China to hospitals in both New England and New York City, in a moment of desperation in the country when even our governments were essentially useless. 

--And I almost forgot to mention, got Bill Belichick from the Jets in exchange for one first round pick, the greatest swindle in human history. 

That's just scratching the surface. The real tribute will come when this is made official next year. Stanley Morgan and Bucko Kilroy would be nice. Putting RKK in the Hall as soon as possible is essential. Otherwise there will be hell to pay.