Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith questioned why supporters of offensive tackle Tony Boselli are using Boselli’s performance against Smith in an 1996 AFC wild card game as one of the primary reasons for electing Boselli into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In a lengthy statement posted to Instagram on Monday night, Smith said that voting Boselli into the Hall of Fame based partially on his performance in one game “sets a horrible precedent” for the candidacy of future nominees.
“A large part of the campaign to promote Tony Boselli into the Hall of Fame seems to hyper focus on a single successful performance he had against me in a 1996 playoff game,” Smith wrote in his statement. “On the one hand, I’m quite flattered to be considered the gold standard by which another player’s game can be measured to determine his qualification into the HOF. But on a more serious level, I and other HOFers believe it sets a horrible precedent to negatively zero in on a standing member of the Hall’s play in order to validate the candidacy of a nominee.”
