Peter King of NBC's Football Night in America has a Hall of Fame vote and was on the contributors sub-committee that named Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones as a 2017 Hall of Fame finalist in the contributors category.
In his Monday Morning Quarterback column and defend Jones' candidacy writing:
It wasn’t “Jerry Jones over Pat Bowlen,” at least to me. We judged not owner versus owner or GM versus GM; we judged candidate versus candidate. After our meeting, when it came time to vote, I felt Jones had the strongest case of the candidates—he’s been the biggest agent of change in the league in the past quarter-century. He fought and improved marketing and sponsorship revenue, opposed givebacks to TV partners in 1994 that actually led to network riches by adding FOX, upped the stadium game by building his monolithic new place, helped make the draft a TV show by installing a War Room Cam in his draft room, oversaw three Super Bowl wins in 27 years. He has holes in his game, of course, not the least of which is the Cowboys’ continuing mediocrity this century. My view though, is that it’s about a body of work, and the fact that his three Super Bowls came in his first six years doesn’t mean they should count less than if they’d come in the past six years.
I have said on my NBC Sports Radio Show that Pat Bowlen deserved to be on the ballot over former NFL commish Paul Tagliabue. Denver fans and media have voiced a strong opinion that the health of Mr. Bowlen should be taken into account but King was having none of that in his column:
We can’t take into account the health of any candidates, or the fact that it might be someone’s turn via his perceived place in line, because that candidate has been in the game longer. Tagliabue and Jones are healthy. Bowlen has been in ill health with Alzheimer’s disease. I can’t speak for anyone else on our committee. I just know that, for me, it’s not something I take into account.
