With All Due Respect to the Other Candidates, the Patriots Hall of Fame Ballot is the No Braineriest of No Brainers

This is what you get after 20 years of dominance. The kind of choice you get after the longest sustained Dynasty in the history of your sport. Like the Romans conquering so many other lands they had to build The Pantheon to house all their pagan gods. Or the Celtics having to squeeze eight retired numbers onto a single banner because they didn't have rafter space for all of their greats. It's an embarrassment of riches. 

I mean, I'd hate to think what a Patriots Hall of Fame ballot would've looked like if founding owner Billy Sullivan started doing this in like the late '80s. "Let's see, it's between Derrick Ramsey, Tony Collins or Vagas Ferguson. Hmm ..." With fewer voters than your local election for Town Comptroller. 

But the Patriots Hall is the inspired brainchild of Mr. Kraft. And his team is a factory that churns out worthy candidates like an auto plant assembly line of greatness. This year's ballot especially. All three are deserving. All three will get in, sooner or later. But to me there is only one choice for this year. And I believe the voters will agree and make this a landslide election.

There's no need to take a deep dive into their resumes. I once heard a brilliant observation that in Cooperstown, the greater the player was, the fewer words they have on their plaque. Because you don't need to make a case for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax and so on. Their careers did all the talking for them. So with that in mind, here's a lightning round argument for each of these three:

Julian Edelman. A member of the 3-Ring Club and one of the most important players in the second half of the Dynasty whose clutch performances in the biggest games led directly to three Super Bowl wins.

Logan Mankins. The second best interior offensive linemen in franchise history. And since the only one better than him is John Hannah, the greatest guard in league history, he's in good company.

Adam Vinatieri. The kicking GOAT. 

That's it. Polls are still open across the country, but we can project Vinatieri is your Patriots Hall of Fame Inductee-elect. 

Keep a few things in mind as you head to the polling booth. Vinatieri not only kicked not one but two game-winning field goals in Super Bowls one from 48 and the other from 41, those weren't even his best kicks. This will forever be:

And that field goal through what Gil Santos described as "a maelstrom!!!" wasn't even his most impressive moment. That would be the time he caught Herschel Walker from behind on a kickoff return:

That was 1996, his rookie season. When the UDFA out of South Dakota St. kicked them all the way to the Super Bowl. Despite constant threats from the coach who brought him into the league that he was going to cut him and replace him with the man he replaced, a 40 year old Matt Bahr. 

Since that coach is going to be getting inducted along with this year's selection:

… it'd be quite a moment to see a Class of '96 get together for their 29th reunion. 

But that's not why Vinatieri is the choice. It's simply because at his position, he's the best there was in this game. And without him and his undeniable Clutch Gene, none of this would even be happening. Edelman and Mankins will have their time. This is Vinatieri's time. Vote for him. I'm Old Balls Thornton, and I approve this message.