NFL

I dont know, this is all super simple to me. Gronk and AP are first ballot locks, and I would think Sherm has a good chance at first ballot, but three in one class is just a lot. Sherman will for sure get in though and won't have to wait very long.

Roethlisberger gets in eventually, but he might have to wait awhile. He was a good QB, but lets be honest, he most a guy hanging around in the top 10, never really making a case for even top 3. Like if you seriously were to name the HoF QBs from the 2000s-2010s, the first people you name are Brady, Peyton, Rodgers, Brees. After that you think Eli, but mostly because of how he effects Brady's legacy. Then you remember Roethlisberger won two SBs. He will get the HoF eventually, but it will be once voters kind of forget how his play compared to his peers and take a look at his SBs and stats and think, "why is this guy not in yet?".

AB has some huge ass-kissing to do. Everyone knows his stats and how good he was. But if TO had work to do, then AB needs to get a PhD in ass-kissing if he wants to get in during his lifetime.

And if none of you realize, the reason Brown has to kiss-ass and Roethlisberger and AP don't is because the league and media doesn't care about whether you do crappy things off the field unless it directly effects league personnel and the imagine of the league. A lot of people don't even think about AP hitting his kid or generally being a shit dad because this is all stuff that happened outside of the spotlight and didn't effect how he played in games. Same with Roethlisberger. Neither of these guys were sentenced or were really kept off the field for any memorable period.

When people think about AP and Roethlisberger, their first thought is about what they did on the field. Same goes for Ray Lewis. The controversies are then an asterisk next to their name because the guys didn't put their issues into the spotlight. With AB its different. The first thing you think of a literally batshit crazy guy who's asterisk is that he was good at football because he put all of his crazy in the spotlight, which is similar to TO who put all of his drama in the spotlight. The league thinks these people make them look bad. Not that he is even close to the HoF, but another comparison is Vick. Is what Vick did any worse than what AP or Roethlisberger? I'll refrain from giving any answer myself because its a question of how you assign moral values to different bad crimes, but Vick's primary legacy always involves the dog fighting and his before/after jail time. You don't have that storyline with AP or Roethlisberger because they didn't literally go to prison. They just went back and kept continuing their career. If AP was sentenced to jail, then I would feel it would effect is HoF chances/wait, but I really don't think the voters care at all because it didn't effect the product on the field.