Tony Boselli’s path into the Hall of Fame wasn’t easy, and now the person who introduced him into the exclusive fraternity at the NFL Honors show, Bruce Smith, is questioning his nomination. The NFL’s all-time sack leader took to Instagram this week with some arguments against Boselli’s nomination and said that his nomination was largely due to their one-on-one that took place in the 1996 playoffs.
“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 said. “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.”
That game marked the first playoff game in Jags history where they were viewed as underdogs. However, the Jags somehow earned a 30-27 victory, and a big key to the win was Boselli holding his own against Smith.
