For Gary Myers, it appears an important part of the criteria for selecting someone to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is their willingness to attend the induction ceremony. Myers, the former New York Daily News writer who’s currently penning books and contributing to The Athletic, publicly lobbied against Terrell Owens’ candidacy in 2016 and 2017, but voted for him this year. But after Owens’ selection, he revealed that he wouldn’t attend the ceremony to instead celebrate elsewhere, and that set Myers off. Myers first tweeted that he wouldn’t have voted for Owens if he knew he wouldn’t attend the induction; he deleted that tweet, but it’s preserved in this USA Today story.
Here’s a look at it:
Myers then tweeted a follow-up to a critic, which he’s kept up:
Exactly. You don’t know. Voting him in should just be based on what he did on the field, not because he’s capable of hurting your feelings. https://t.co/nLdFjXEytE
— Rasheid McCorvey (@rasheid825) June 7, 2018
Trust me: He’s not hurting my feelings one bit. He’s disrespecting the HOF and all the great people who work there and all those inducted before him. TO is treating the HOF just like he treated his quarterbacks. https://t.co/ZPAkPBDi7D
— Gary Myers (@GaryMyersNY) June 7, 2018
That’s not a good look for Myers, unless you think that “attending a ceremony” should be what makes someone eligible for the Hall of Fame. Then again, it’s sort of surprising that Myers voted for Owens at all given the ridiculous campaign he’s waged against him over the years. And maybe that’s part of why Owens made this decision; maybe this way he can enjoy the recognition without having to hobnob with the various sportswriters who have found all sorts of bizarre reasons to keep him out until now.
But according to Myers, he’s “disrespecting the HOF.” From here, it feels like the greater disrespect for that institution is a voter who says they’d change their vote based not on a candidate’s actual football career, but on if he wanted to go to the ceremony or not.
