Does This Hall of Famer Believe Terrell Owens Should Be Inducted?

This past week on Levack and Goz the guys were joined by Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Haynes. The All-Pro defensive back believes this is the way he evaluate a Hall of Famer candidate.

Q: You're wearing the gold jacket. Saturday, another Hall of Fame class is going to be inducted. What's the lead-up like to that? And do you have any people in particular you think that might be in this year's class?

Haynes: Well, this year is the first year I didn't really look at the list. When I say that, the Hall of Fame sends up a list since I don't really have a vote, but they let us look at a list and pick and then they look at the guys that we picked. I didn't do that this year. But I just got through talking with Rod Woodson and he did it. He picked his top four. It's always really hard to pick the guys. And we got into this discussion about should your off-the-field or anything off-the-field have anything to do with you getting into the Hall of Fame. A lot of guys, including myself, used to believe that it shouldn't. It should be whatever you did on the field. That should be the only thing that matters. But now that I've been in the Hall of Fame for a long time, I really have changed the way I feel about it. I really feel like the guys who have good character, who have demonstrated good character, they should be the guys that maybe get in first. I think everybody that deserves to be in should be in, but I think it'd be hard to be a first ballot guy if you weren't a good person as well. So when I say that, what a lot of guys don't realize is, the person that stands up and says why that guy should go into the Hall of Fame is a reporter. It's not a former player. It's a reporter in that city, you know? And so if that reporter was not getting respect from that player for the 8 year or 9 years that he was covering him, how can you expect that guy to step up and when his name does come up to go into the Hall of Fame that this guy should go in the first ballot? You think he's going to really make the best effort to get that guy in? (The one) that's been treating you with no respect? I don't think so. Those are the little things, we don't get a vote 'cause I think if the guys in the Hall had a vote, we would just say you gotta be a good football player and that's all you need to do to get in. But the other guys, they're looking at a bigger scope and now I'm starting to see what they see. It's a community out there that looks at football, that looks at the industry, and you want your kids to see a good image. If that guy is a Hall of Famer, he's the best that ever played, but guess what? He's also a good person. He cares about good character, he's going to demonstrate good character with that gold jacket on. He's representing a lot of guys out there, not just himself. So I don't have any problems with anybody that says, "That guy shouldn't go in." I just don't think it's fair that that guy should never go in. I think he should go in. No matter what.