Pro Football Hall of Fame Contributor Committee: Pat Bowlen who?

We knew the screw job was in place the second the tweet came out.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame sent out a picture of the contributors committee meeting on Friday morning. It was to let fans know the process to select the contributor to the class of 2018 was underway. Pictured at the top right was Charley Casserly, former NFL general manager and current analyst. It was at that point we knew that Pat Bowlen would get screwed over for the second straight year.

No longer can the process be upheld as honest, right or trustworthy. The fact Casserly was in that room and Bobby Beathard was the pick forever haunts and taints this process. Beathard was a former general manager whose teams went to seven Super Bowls over the course of his career. Casserly should have recused himself but he didn’t, given he was Beathard’s right-hand man in Washington for 11 years. This feels wrong. This feels dirty. And not just because we’re fans of the Denver Broncos. But because we know that the NFL isn’t where it is today without Mr. Bowlen.

Now for the second year in a row, Mr. B has to wait while two people who aren’t on the same level of him get their place in Canton, Ohio.

Bobby F*ing Beathard? Are you serious?

You cannot write the story of the NFL without Mr. B. The fact these people don’t know or care proves how flawed this process is. The fact people tasked with this privilege don’t know the history of the game blows the mind.

Cleary this group of corrupt insiders didn’t read the series of stories the Mile High Report staff did earlier this month that laid out the major reasons why the Broncos owner needs to get inducted.

When you look at the NFL today, you see Bowlen’s fingerprints everywhere - the TV dominance, “Sunday Night Football,” the labor peace, the way he ran his franchise like a family and the relentless desire to always be No. 1 “in everything.” Not to mention the success of the Broncos.

How anyone can look at the resume of Beathard and then Bowlen and come to the conclusion, “Yep, Beathard deserves it more” shows how awful and tainted this process is. Of course, when you have the right-hand man of Beathard in that room, it makes total sense. What, was John Elway too busy to get a call? Does Elway not have the clout of Casserly? The fact Hall of Fame voter Clark Judge told Dave Logan that consultants will "often sway the conversation" as to who gets in shows how dirty and tainted this is. As Mike Rice said, how can this be fair?

This is dirty on so many damn levels. But even if you take away what Mr. B did for the NFL, you have the success of his franchise.

As I said in the first story of the series, since the relatively unknown Wisconsin-born, Canadian-raised businessman bought the organization from Edgar Kaiser for $78 million in March 1984, the results speak for themselves. They had to since Mr. B would never talk about them.

• 300 wins in his first 30 years; the only owner in NFL history to pull such a feat.
• .612, behind only the San Antonio Spurs for best-winning percentage in pro sports over the last 30 years.
• 18 playoff appearances
• 13 division titles
• Seven Super Bowl appearances
• Seven AFC titles
• Five losing seasons
• Four different head coaches to lead his team to the Super Bowl. The only owner in NFL history to pull such a feat.
• Three Lombardi Trophies

This doesn’t even take into account Bowlen’s health. So this decision is not only dirty and tainted, it’s heartless. As upset as we we were last year when Bowlen got screwed for Jerry Jones and Paul Taligbue, we only get the sense that was dirty. Though with two writers on the committee who cover the Dallas Cowboys, it was clear.

This year there is no doubt. The Pro Football Hall of Fame sent out the evidence before the selection was ever made. We knew then that Mr. Bowlen would get screwed over once again.

This feels dirty.

This feels wrong.

This feels heartless.