Mike Celizic

PHOENIX - Can we put Art Monk in the Hall of Fame already? Please? And while you’re at it, oh high and exalted committee of electors, how about putting Darrell Green in with him when you make your selections Saturday? They were the key parts of a dynasty, the best of their era. They belong.

Green should be a no-brainer, but given the Byzantine machinations of the selection committee, there’s no such thing as a shoo-in with the Hall. In that, it’s similar to baseball’s Hall of Fame, whose would-be members are held hostage by the whims of more than 500 baseball writers.

I suppose that adds to the mystique of such pantheons of athletic prowess, and all the talk that’s generated by the great players who keep missing their turn is good for the game.

But some slights are bigger than others. Harry Carson, the former linebacker for the Giants who finally got in last year after waiting slightly longer than the half-life of plutonium, really deserved enshrinement. But he had been overshadows on the Giants by Lawrence Taylor, and his omission for so many years didn’t raise the ire of fans in general.

Monk’s situation isn’t like that. It defies every rule of logic that the Redskin wide receiver had been passed over for eight years.

Monk retired with the NFL’s all-time record for receptions. He’s since dropped to sixth place on the list, which is headed by Jerry Rice, but all Monk could do was break the record that existed in his day. To keep him out because subsequent receivers were better is like saying Babe Ruth doesn’t belong in baseball Hal of Fame because Hank Aaron broke his record for home runs.

Monk won three Super Bowls on those Joe Gibbs dynasty teams. Gibbs remains the only coach to win three championships with three different quarterbacks. But all of them had the same primary target — the redoubtable Mr. Monk.

The receiver was also named to the NFL All-1980s team. If a player is recognized as the best at his position for an entire decade, it’s impossible to say he’s not Hall of Fame material. That’s what the Hall is about: enshrining the best of every era. To say the best receiver of an entire decade is not also an all-time great is incomprehensible.

Apparently, Paul Zimmerman, the long-time pro football writer for Sports Illustrated, has been holding up Monk’s canonization. A football blog is reporting that Dr. Z as saying he’s tired of being the jerk — he used a somewhat earthier word — who’s keeping Art out of the Hall and is ready to “put him the (naughty word) in.”

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So there you have it, everyone who has been pelting the electors with denunciations of their sin of omission. Lobbying, pressure, and political compromise do work. If only Congress worked as well — it’s been 35 years since our first oil crisis and that cowardly collection of pompous panderers still hasn’t come up with a comprehensive plan to break our national addiction to imported oil. Compared to that monumental record of nonfeasance, the eight years Monk has had to wait is a momentary inconvenience.

Last year, the voters picked the Cowboys’ Michael Irvin over Monk, allowing Irvin to go in with his quarterback, Troy Aikman. So it’s only right that this year the voters also select Darrell Green, Monk’s teammate and arguably the best defensive back in the game’s history to accompany him.

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