A Hall of Fame thought

As in, the NFL Hall of Fame.

How the fuck did Howie Long get in and Richard Dent not?  I know Long is a good ol'boy on the Fox network and his induction was purely political...right wheels greased, etc.  Long was a nice tackle, but HoF?  Nah.  He's a VC vote-in 20 years down the line.  Meantime Dent, who's been eligible for at least 5 years I believe (and yeah I know Long got in awhile ago) had a bit of a career himself.  Lets look at the career numbers:

Long: 179 games, 84 sacks (some sites credit him with 93.5, others with 84...going with the Raiders site stats), 2 interceptions with no TD returns, 10 fumble recoveries with no TD returns, and a Super Bowl ring.

Dent: 203 games, 137.5 sacks, 8 interceptions with 1 TD return (though to be honest he picked it off in the endzone so its not like he had to run 50 yards, but anyway), 13 fumble recoveries with 1 TD return.  And oh yeah, MVP of Super Bowl 20 where he personally ruined the careers of Tony Eason and Craig James in one night.

So let me see if I get this straight...the guy who has 53.5 more sacks, 6 more INTs, 3 more fumble recoveries, 2 more career TDs, and a Super Bowl MVP is NOT in the Hall of Fame, while the networker is.  I get disgusted with the baseball HoF from time to time for crap like this (c'mon, just because you played for the Yankees doesn't automatically mean you get in...does it?  I'm looking right at you, Phil Rizutto) but in this case the NFL HoF takes it up a notch.

There's other injustices of course, but this is currently the most glaring to me because I'm a Bears fan and know the impact Dent had on games.  If Long is in there, Dent should have been in "long" ago.

Growing up the HoF was always a big deal to me as a fan.  I'd look at the guys who got in, larger than life legends who could dominate games and even seasons.  Then I would cheer on my favorite players, hoping some day they could make the HoF of whatever sport they played.  But now as I've gotten older I see what political bullshit it is and just have a hard time caring anymore.