<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>MIAMI -- Michael Irvin was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday despite a troubled past, though voters denied entry to retired NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. The former Dallas Cowboys receiver, who won three Super Bowls in the 1990s, got in on his third try. Irvin pleaded no contest in 1996 to felony cocaine possession. Four years later, he was arrested on drug possession charges, but they were later dropped. The 40 Hall voters were criticized by two of Irvin's former teammates, Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman, for previously bypassing the wideout, who retired in 1999. They didn't ignore him this time. Tagliabue was eliminated in the first round of voting. Also voted in were running back Thurman Thomas, offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, defensive back Roger Wehrli and two nominees of the veterans' committee -- tight end Charlie Sanders and guard Gene Hickerson. A 40-member panel deliberated Saturday to determine who among the 17 finalists would be enshrined. Two votes were taken, reducing the finalists from 17 to 11 and then from 10 to six finalists, who were each voted on individually.Finalists Tagliabue, Russ Grimm, Ray Guy, Bob Kuechenberg, Andre Reed and Gary Zimmerman lost out in the first reduction vote. Fred Dean, Richard Dent, Art Monk, Derrick Thomas and Andre Tippett lost out on the second reduction ballot.</div>http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2753109congrats to the guys that made it, I'm glad irvin finally made it.......and poor russ grimm, a sh*tty start of a year for him, another dungy guy takes the head coaching job he was going for and then can't even make the cut to the fianl 10........
Thurman got in! Yes! Barry and Thurman! College teammates at OSU and now HOF's. Shows how good of a running game that team had in 87 when Thurman was the starter (or maybe 86) and in 88 when Barry was.
