Wilson's Hall of Fame credentials

Orchard Park - Next week in Tampa, the 44-selectors for the Pro Football Hall of Fame meet, to decide on the class of 2009.  And there are three Buffalo Bills among the 15 finalists, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, and team owner Ralph Wilson.

Smith is considered a lock for election this year, and Reed may be a longshot.  But the most interesting case may be Wilson, who's a finalist for the third time.  As a contributor, not a player, ascension into the Hall may be a little bit tougher.

"Contributors have a little bit of an uphill battle, but I think Ralph has a better chance now, than the previous two times he was up." says Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News.  He's the Buffalo selector on the Hall of Fame panel, and it's his job to make the case for Wilson, Smith, and Reed.

Ralph Wilson was a fighter for the old American Football League, as one of the original owners. And in the rough days of the 1960..the Bills owner bailed out two struggling AFL franchises; Oakland and the Patriots..
 

"Without them, they would have gone down, and the AFL would have gone down," according to Larry Felser, the former Buffalo selector for the Hall.  " It was against the league constitution, but as he said years later, I did it for the good of the league."

The Bills owner was in on the ground floor when merger talks began between the AFL and the NFL in the mid-sixties. And since then he's been an advocate of what's best for the entire NFL, not individual clubs.

"He has really stood for the integrity and stood for what's best for the league, not necessarily what's best for him," Gaughan says. 

Felser, who covered the Bills for more than forty years, says Wilson has a good shot to make it this year. 

"I think he's got a good chance. If he doesn't make it, I don't think he'll make it at all. He's 90-years old, they know what he's done, they know time is running out, they know the story on the things that should get him into the Hall of Fame, and if he doesn't get in now, I don't think he'll get in.

The selectors meet in Tampa on Saturday, January 31st to vote on the Hall of Fame class of 2009.