Pro Football Hall of Fame selection meeting ends. Zach Thomas presentation delivered

Let’s start here: I don’t know if Zach Thomas was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame or not on Tuesday.

I don’t know.

Thomas doesn’t know.

None of the selectors who spent 8 3/4 hours discussing the 15 finalists and three committee candidates — from the senior, contributor and coach categories — know who is in and who is not.

(Well, except for Peyton Manning. The former Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos quarterback is getting in, folks. His presentation literally took seven seconds and everyone understands he’s going in).

Cool?

I do know officially who made it into the top, 10 but I cannot tell you. Part of my covenant with the Pro Football Hall of Fame is to keep secret as much or as little information as they request to be secret until they’re ready to release it.

So I haven’t told Thomas if he advanced in any way and he hasn’t asked. He decided a year ago when he first made it into the so-called room for discussion that he didn’t want to know if he advanced in any way or not.

And, again, Hall president and CEO David Baker put duct tape over my mouth as I left the virtual meeting.

And Baker is like 6-foot-8 and pushing 400 pounds so that tape remains.

I can report the Hall does now have its five modern era inductees that will comprise part of the Hall’s 2021 class. All five modern era guys obviously advanced from 15, to 10, to five, and then garnered the necessary 80 percent of the votes for final approval.

But none of the selectors, including me, know the identities of those five modern era greats.

The Hall of Fame’s class of 2021 will be unveiled Feb. 6, one evening before before Super Bowl 55 in Tampa.

Zach Thomas and the other candidates will know by then if their life has changed and their bust will stand as testament to their greatness for as long as that venerable Hall of Fame edifice in Canton, Ohio, stands.

Perhaps all this sounds like a lot of secrecy without a lot of juicy information. But let me put some meat on the bone I just served up.

First, it was my privilege to present Thomas the past two years, as it was to present Jason Taylor during his run at his first-ballot induction.

The Miami Dolphins great watched the three minutes of my presentation the Hall put online along with other presentations.

“You did your job,” Thomas texted me. “Thank you.”

In truth, my job will be done when Thomas is in the Hall of Fame. And he will get there.

I hope and pray it’s this year. And, yes, I said pray because I pray about everything.

But if not this year, then we’ll try again next year because, like Zach Thomas, this effort will never quit.

So what about the other three minutes of my presentation? Well, among the things I shared is the fact Thomas played in the same division with four Hall of Fame running backs during his 12 seasons with the Dolphins.

Those are Curtis Martin, Thurman Thomas, Marshall Faulk, and Edgerrin James.

Thomas ultimately played 51 games against Hall of Fame running backs during his career. He walked away from those games 41 times knowing he’d kept those great runners under 100 yards.

Specifically ...

Martin played 18 games against Thomas and gained 100 yards four times. Thomas helped keep Martin under 4 yards per carry in 14 of those 18 games.

Faulk played seven games against Thomas. He never gained 100 yards in any of those and averaged under 4 yards per carry in three of those games.

Thomas played six games against Zach. He never gained 100 yards in any of those and averaged under 4 yards per carry in four.

I also spent part of my presentation showing the parallels between Thomas and Hall of Fame linebackers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher.

Did Thomas look like those guys? No.

Did he produce as much as those guys? I argued yes and showed the statistics to prove it.

Look, I could not simply step up to the microphone, utter Petyon Manning’s name and sit down. But I could explain how Lewis was first-team All-Pro seven times and Urlacher was first-team All-Pro four times.

And Zach Thomas was first-team All-Pro five times.

I could state Lewis and Urlacher were deserving first-ballot Hall of Famers. And did state Thomas should join them in the Hall of Fame.