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Peter King doesn’t want Darren Sharper’s off field issues hurt HOF chances

Sep 5, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; American sportswriter Peter King walks off the field following the game between the Baltimore Ravens against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Broncos defeated the Ravens 49-27. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 5, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; American sportswriter Peter King walks off the field following the game between the Baltimore Ravens against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Broncos defeated the Ravens 49-27. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Despite the very ugly legal troubles former NFL safety Darren Sharper has found himself in, Peter King thinks Hall of Fame voters should ignore it.

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The subject of Hall of Fame candidacy is always a hotly-contested one. Each major professional American sport has their issues which inevitably spills over to the Hall of Fame: the greatest collection of talent that sport has produced in history.

The sport featuring the hottest drama around this topic is by far Major League Baseball.

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Thanks to two decades worth of juiced home-run hitting maniacs, the Baseball Hall of Fame is already a mess and on target for utter disaster. The steroid era was one which was prolonged by Bud Selig and his henchmen himself, in efforts to get over the 1994 strike, and yet he’s been trying to wash his hands clean of it for the past 10 years.

Guys like Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens were Hall of Famers without steroids. Eventually, there will need to be some common sense among the writers to vote the best of the best during that era in. They’ll have a tough task at hand in separating the best of the best from the posers such as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, but it’ll be a necessity to keep integrity in Cooperstown.

While performance enhancing drugs on the field are one issue, the way some players treated others off the field is a completely different topic. Ask Albert Belle why he’s not getting a lick of consideration from writers. Or why it took Jim Rice so long to get his name in Cooperstown.

Although the qualifications should purely be based on performance in the sport, the reality is that the writers are human beings, and other factors will be weighed in as well, intentionally or unintentionally.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King recently expressed his feelings about former NFL safety Darren Sharper’s Hall of Fame qualifications:

While in theory King is right, in reality is his off the mark.

Nobody is ever held accountable for votes, and will always remain impossible to hold someone accountable. Voting for the Hall of Fame is as objectionable an activity as there can be.

Sometimes if the player has a career of rudeness to the media, or participates in a seemingly disgusting action off the field (like in Sharper’s case), it will always be that little tiebreaker for writers to keep him out.

H/T BroBible

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