FanHouse Rod Woodson

I used to get letters. Now I get e-mails in the hundreds. And DVDs. And even tweets (@deegle84).

All imploring me to vote for a prospective Hall of Fame candidate. Or non-candidate. Or even, in a case or two, someone I've never heard of.

To all those folks who write me: Anybody who hasn't been a voter can't understand how the voting works or why certain people get in and others don't. I'm in my 17th year as a voter and I'm often not sure I understand it either. But I also feel that 98 percent of the people in the Hall deserve to be there, and that 98 percent of those who aren't in shouldn't be, or will get in at some point.

I bring this up because next Tuesday, I will vote with four other members of the Hall's seniors committee on a list of 17 candidates. The list will be narrowed to two, who will be recommended to the full panel of 44 voters and be voted up or down on the Saturday before the Super Bowl in Miami in February.

CANTON, Ohio -- Rod Woodson's NFL statistics over 17 seasons were so gaudy and his place on the NFL's vaunted 75th Anniversary Team as an active player so impressive, he was a shoo-in to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

"I've seen it from afar, but getting on this stage, it's a whirlwind," said Woodson, 44, who has spent the five years since his retirement from the league as an analyst for the NFL Network.

Woodson earned 11 Pro Bowl berths, was All-Pro six times at three positions -- cornerback, safety and kick returner -- and holds the NFL record for career touchdowns off interception returns with 12.

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When Rod Woodson takes his place among other revered Pro Football Hall of Fame members during the August 8 Enshrinement Ceremony in Canton, Ohio as part of the Class of 2009, the 11-time Pro Bowler says he won't be thinking about his special status: the 63rd player among 253 members to be elected in his first year of eligibility.

"Just think about how long pro football has been going on -- it's over a hundred years old!'' Woodson marveled during a lengthy one-on-one interview with FanHouse on Monday. "And to think I'm one of the 200-some-odd guys to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ... I think it's just so surreal."

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Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

For the fourth straight year, the Miami Dolphins used a second-round pick on a quarterback, selecting West Virginia's Pat White with the 44th overall pick. White, a record-setting player in college, joined John Beck (recently released) and Chad Henne as recent selections, to go along with the trade that brought Daunte Culpepper to Miami prior to the 2006 season.

While there is still some debate as to what type of future White will have in the NFL, the Dolphins view him as a quarterback, while one scout recently told Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel that Miami is trying to "revolutionize pro football by bringing the spread to the NFL."

No one disputes that Vontae Davis has the athletic ability to be a great NFL cornerback. But some observers were surprised that the Miami Dolphins chose Davis in the first round of Saturday's draft, because there were concerns about Davis's attitude and work ethic, and because Dophins front office boss Bill Parcells has made clear that he values character in assembling a roster.

Davis's college coach, however, insists that there's absolutely no reason at all to be concerned about Davis -- and even compares his abilities to those of the Hall of Famer Rod Woodson.

Larry Fitzgerald isn't just the league's best wide receiver, he's also a swell guy. Apparently, he might be wiling to take a pay cut to keep Anquan Boldin in Arizona after Sunday. Such a move, while noble, has all sorts of labor-agreement/salary-cap ramifications. Not only that but Drew Rosenhaus, Boldin's agent, made it clear prior to the season that his client wasn't "interested in doing a new contract with the team."

Time heals all wounds and whatnot, but if Boldin does decide that his Cardinals career is over, he'll surely have plenty of suitors. Like, say, the Ravens.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced the finalists for the 2009 Hall of Fame class, a list that contains the NFL's all-time sack leader, a current owner, a former commissioner, and six first-time finalists.

The voters will select a minimum of four and a maximum of seven new members on January 31. The complete list of finalists after the jump.

Despite DeAngelo Hall telling ESPN that the Raiders now have the bestest cornerback tandem in all of professional football, evidently, not everybody's on that bandwagon. CBSSports.com's Clark Judge does the heavy lifting, talking to various NFL types who are in a better position to intelligently comment on such things.

"He's the Chad Johnson of defense," said one NFL assistant. "He's too far gone to know he's gone."...

"The only way the Raiders are the best pair of cornerbacks," said an AFC defensive coordinator, "is when Hall is doing the evaluating. It's like he's a self-proclaimed Muhammad Ali..."

I'm pretty sure the Ocho Cinco quip wasn't meant to be complimentary. That said, someone did point out that the Raiders' corners primarily are in man-coverage, something so other team does with such frequency. As a consequence, they're more likely to give up big plays based solely on the laws of probability. But they should also be in position to break up more passes and register interceptions. In theory, anyway.

Soon-to-be Hall of Famer Rod Woodson thinks Hall, along with Nnamdi Asomugha, will be just fine in Oakland, even if everybody doesn't agree that they're the best CB duo in the league.

Top-6 ain't bad, however, considering the Raiders' recent history.

After it seemed like DeAngelo Hall was destined for Oakland, Mr. Hall himself pointed out that he knew nothing of the matter. And today, NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports that as the Falcons and Raiders talked earlier today, both sides weren't all that optimistic about pulling off the trade.

As MDS at PFT notes, the deal would send a second- and sixth-round pick to Atlanta for Hall, the 2004 eighth-overall pick, "but the Raiders are only interested in consummating the trade if they've worked out a contract that will keep Hall happy, and right now no such contract is in place."

Of course, as Schefter points out, Al Davis could change everything by saying "get this deal done at any cost."

While we wait for that mini-drama to play itself out, Schefter's colleague at NFLN, Rod Woodson, shared some thoughts on what Hall would mean for the Raiders, and where he might be a good fit if things in Oakland fall apart.

This is pretty funny: Marshall Faulk, former Indianapolis Colt, takes Peyton Manning over Tom Brady, which isn't a completely insane idea. But he proceeds to take every other Indy offensive player over their New England counterparts. Offensive line, running backs, tight ends, and yes, even wide receivers.

Props to Rod Woodson for basically calling Faulk a homer, Also, I fully expect Bill Belichick to have Faulk killed.