The modern iteration of the veterans committee — which last year included four Hall of Famers, four current executives and eight historians or members of the news media — offers a guide to a more sensible election process.
Football historians regard the '74 Steelers as the ideal draft class, when Pittsburgh selected four Hall of Famers and two four-year starters that helped form the core of future Super Bowl champions.
A mother of four, Hall - who will sit initially on the children's jury - will be joined on the judging panel by Ann Widdecombe, the Tory MP and shadow home secretary, whose own first novel is published next year.
"It's just that when you look at talent, with those four Hall of Famers, if you're not smashing teams and crushing teams and giving them the business, then you can get knocked off, too.
Jackson, who has won nine N.B.A. championships, the same number as the Celtics' patriarch, Red Auerbach, said: "We've got three challenges, To play as a team is No. 1. "When you have four Hall of Famers, the second big challenge is to get everybody to the end of the season healthy.
Those Giants teams with Willie Mays and McCovey – they had four Hall of Famers on that team," he said.
