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Traina Thoughts: Memo to All Sports, Your Hall of Fame Will Never Be a Perfect Place

NFL may require Hall of Fame candidates to commit to attending the enshrinement ceremony.

Jimmy Traina

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1. There are few things in sports more ridiculous than the way people view a Hall of Fame.

We've gone through this in baseball more than any other sport thanks to steroids/PEDs, but now the NFL has taken over when it comes to unnecessary and embarrassing hand wringing over nonsense.

Via Pro Football Talk: "Per multiple sources, the Hall of Fame currently is considering a requirement that candidates for enshrinement commit to showing up for the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony before the selection committee makes its final choices."

Shouldn't a Hall of Fame be about one thing and one thing only: The player's career on the field? If you put up the numbers and the performance, what does your attendance in Canton, Ohio, have to do with anything?

Here's what each and every sport needs to accept: Your Hall of Fames are not perfect. Stop trying to make them perfect. All of your Halls are filled with people who have done bad things. There are also people in your Hall of Fame who don't deserve to be in it. A player's enshrinement into the Hall of Fame depends on sports writers, so agendas and personal biases will always be at play. Now we're going to start worrying about whether an inductee is at the event to give a speech? Why?

For the NFL to be concerned about players appearing at the ceremony because ONE player decided to skip it is the definition of a classic overreaction. It's mind-boggling that the NFL would even care that Terrell Owens passed on being at Saturday's event. Who cares? Nobody was hurt or harmed by Owens staying away from Canton. And just remember, all the of these people managed to show up for their enshrinement:

Eddie DeBartolo Jr. 
Ray Lewis
Jim Brown
O.J. Simpson
Lawrence Taylor

Let's stop acting like the Hall of Fame is utopia. Put the player's in based on their on-field careers and forget about all kinds of other nonsense.

2. The best story from the weekend was ESPN wishing Scott Van Pelt a happy birthday even though... well. See for yourself.

3. Lane Kiffin has weighed in on LeBron James vs. the former host of the Celebrity Apprentice as only Lane Kiffin could.

4. Karaoke alert: Former Bulls teammates Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade teamed up for a solid rendition of K-Ci and JoJo's "All My Life" over the weekend.

5. WWE superstars always do a great job giving fans special moments. This was proven once again last night when Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins came through in a very nice way for one particular member of the WWE Universe.

6. Can this offer be extended to both New York baseball teams?

7. The new season of Hard Knocks featuring the Browns begins on HBO on Tuesday night. Senior coordinating producer Ken Rodgers previews the season, talks about the breakout star, reveals how the show is put together and talks about the chances the Patriots would ever appear on Hard Knocks on the latest SI Media Podcast. New York Post sports media reporter also joins the show at the 34-minute mark to discuss a variety of stories. You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.

8. A few weeks ago, Traina Thoughts said that A's slugger Mark Cahna should be your new favorite baseball player because after apologizing for a bat flip, he took back the apology and said, "If you're offended by bat flips, I don't care." Cahna has now upped the ante and created these great T-shirts, which can be bought here.

He was also kind enough to send me a few T-shirts for the Traina Thoughts readers. So, the first five people to answer the question below correctly via email (Jimmy.Traina@simail.com) get a T-shirt:

During his appearance on the SI Media Podcast, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler revealed how many iPads he owns. How many iPads does Gabe Kapler own?

9. RANDOM "STAND UP" VIDEO OF THE DAY: I'm going to feature great bits from stand-comedy shows all week. We start with the GOAT when it comes to stand-up comedians.

Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here.And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.

IN CLOSING: RIP, New York Yankees. 

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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