Another year of Hall of Fame voting, another year Art Monk will have to wait. The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its six inductees today, and once again Monk didn't make the cut. He retired after the 1995 season as the all-time leader in receptions but the voters don't consider him worthy of football immortality.

Just to make sure there's no confusion, I never saw Monk play. He was just before my time. I have read a lot about him though. I've read that Jerry Rice saw Monk as a model of what a wide receiver should be. Everyone I've ever discussed Monk with agrees that he belongs in the Hall of Fame. I could try to argue his case here, but there's a website dedicated to that cause which can do a much better job of it than I ever could. Check it out if you need to be convinced.

I've visited Washington Redskins message boards, and it's clear that a lot of those fans feel the media has a bias against their team. Based on some of the evidence they've cited, I might be inclined to believe them. A lot of people say that the only reason Art Monk hasn't gotten in is because he wasn't much of a media personality. That's always a strike against someone, because the media votes on the Hall of Fame. It's unfortunate that in order to make it to Canton you have to do more than just excel at your sport.

I think Monk will get in one day. Perhaps it won't happen until the voters who are specifically opposed to him are off the panel, but if there's any justice in this world it'll happen sooner. I know there's probably nothing particularly insightful about this post, but I believe Monk deserves to be in the Hall and I wanted to say something about it.

I have one Monk-related story I wanted to share in closing. A few days ago I was playing Tecmo Super Bowl on an NES emulator (yeah, I'm a geek) and decided to play as the Washington Redskins. My opponent got off to an early lead, but I got back into the game and won it thanks to four touchdown passes to Art Monk. All were long bombs. He finished the game with over 300 yards receiving. I'm certainly not arguing that he should be in the Hall of Fame based on a video game, but it was pretty cool. That's the Art Monk I've always heard about though. Not the having a monster game part, but the helping his team win by making big catches part. Lynn Swann got in for that reason, so why not Monk?