Twelve Hall of Fame takes worthy of enshrinement

It’s unofficially Hall of Fame season.

Hockey will induct a class with loads of Boston ties this weekend in Toronto. The football Hall of Fame is in the process of narrowing down finalists and baseball just announced its temporary era finalists.

So in that spirit, here are 12 Hall of Fame takes:

∗ If Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame on this Era Committee ballot, it’ll probably never happen. They are the best pitcher and the best player of the steroid era and they’re on a ballot of several players who belong in the Hall of Very Good, but probably not the Hall of Fame.

If they get in, the chances for Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez etc. will skyrocket. If they don’t get in, it could be a while before steroid guys are even considered again.

The committee voting for this era hasn’t been announced yet. Its makeup will be crucial.

∗ The NFL’s convoluted, restrictive Hall of Fame induction process creates an absurd backlog of worthy candidates. The fact that two worthwhile coaches or two deserving owners couldn’t get inducted in the same year is foolish. If the Hall wants to induct former Canton Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay (as Sports Illustrated projected they would this year), they should do it, but not at the expense of somebody else. Hay died before World War II ended. There’s no rush.

∗ If Jerry Jones is in and if Eddie DeBartolo is in, it’s absurd that Robert Kraft isn’t.

∗ Sports Illustrated predicts that Bill Belichick will get in this year, but that voters might be hesitant to vote him in because he could come back to the NFL, which would violate the spirit of inducting candidates only after their career. If Belichick is returning to the NFL, it won’t be as a head coach.

∗ Patrice Bergeron is a certain Hall of Famer and Brad Marchand is a likely one. If Marchand gets in, the Bruins will have had at least one Hall of Famer on their roster for 100 straight seasons. Presuming David Pastrnak continues on the track he’s on, that streak could extend well into the future.

∗ This has to be among the fewest guaranteed future Hall of Famers to be currently active in Boston sports. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are likely, especially given the Hoop Hall’s looser standards compared to its peers. Pastrnak is well on his way, too.

∗ If Curt Schilling had been on this ballot, he’d have been a near lock.

∗ Zdeno Chara is the fourth player born in what’s now Slovakia to reach the Hockey Hall of Fame, joining Peter Statsny, Marian Hossa, and Stan Mikita. Whoever designed the Slovak national team uniform deserves consideration as well.

∗ If Don Mattingly played for the Royals, the Hall of Fame would have forgotten about him long ago.

∗ Sonny Vaccaro belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.

∗ Zdeno Chara should be a lock for the playoff beard Hall of Fame.

Outtakes from a busy week…

The best way for the NFL to honor Marshawn Kneeland

The best way the NFL can honor Dallas Cowboy Marshawn Kneeland, who tragically took his own life this week, would be for each team’s leadership — coaches, management, players — to reach out to the members of their team and remind them what mental health resources are available to them.

Kneeland certainly wasn’t the only player hurting. Helping others would honor his memory.

Jets script for 2026 and 2027

This is what’s going to happen to the Jets. In 2026 they’re going to select the highest-ranked quarterback on their board with the best of their two first-round draft picks.

The New York tabloids will immediately overhype this poor kid — I’m picturing Fernando Mendoza “Fernandomania!” — well beyond his actual potential. But whoever this Faux Namath is will show just enough of a spark leading a mostly awful Jets team as a rookie, that the team will commit to him just enough to not pick a quarterback in 2027 with one of their three picks.

They’ll be bad again in 2027 as the new QB makes no real progress and fans turn on him. Aaron Glenn will get fired.

The Jets’ best chance might be to use both first-rounders this year and all three next year on quarterbacks. With five first-round quarterbacks, at least one has to be decent, right?

The Top 5 Questions I have about Tom Brady’s cloned dog

I have a million questions about this. These are five of them.

5 —Why?

4 — How much does that cost? I wouldn’t even have a guess where to start? $100K? $250K? A million? How much of that goes to paying the surrogate?

3 — Where does one go to get their dog cloned? This can’t be something that occurs legally in the United States can it?

2 — Will this someday be a service offered by Alex Guerrero?

1 — Is this a trial run before Brady eventually clones Tom Brady?

Today in Sports History

Nov. 7

1975: The Bruins acquired Jean Ratelle and Brad Park from the Rangers for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais.

1991 — Magic Johnson, who helped the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA championships, announces he has tested positive for the AIDS virus and is retiring.

Lightning round

I’m curious whether Lucas Giolito’s history as an MLBPA leader impacts his free agency with a work stoppage looming.
For all the breaks the Patriots are getting from their soft schedule, the late bye week works against them. This is the time of year when injuries start piling up.
Luca was a top 10 name in 2025 for parents whose child is a masculine child. Is this because the parents have seen “The Godfather” or because they haven’t seen it.
If the Patriots weren’t going to add an edge rusher, they should have kept Keion White through the rest of the season. He’s better insurance in the event of an injury than anybody they could plug in now.
Florida basketball has a freshman basketball player who is 7-foot-9. The Gators have toyed with adding him to the football roster just for kick blocking.
You can now get an Advent calendar for pretty much anything. I just saw an ad for a Star Trek Wine Advent Calendar. I’m not a Star Trek guy, but was wine prominent in a galaxy, far, far away?

Finally…

Happy National Jersey Day to Those Who Celebrate.