Earlier this season, the Hall of Fame and Van Heusen announced that fans would finally have a voice in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection process.  While unclear what role the fan voting at FansChoice.com would actually have, the results of the first round of voting were announced late yesterday, after the actual 2010 Hall of Fame Semifinalists were announced.

There were a total of 11 differences between fan voting and the actual semifinalist lists.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, the results expose some flaws in the way voting is being handled on the Fan’s Choice site.

The 11 players/coaches/contributors that fans voted into their semifinalist list that were not amongst the actual semifinalists were QB Randall Cunningham, QB Jim Plunkett, QB Phil Simms, QB Joe Theismann, DB Steve Atwater, TE Todd Christensen, DL Ed “Too Tall” Jones, WR Sterling Sharpe,  head coach Tom Flores, game official Jim Tunney, and athletic trainer Otho Davis.

The 14 players that appeared on both semifinalist lists were Cliff Branch, Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Richard Dent, Kevin Greene, Ray Guy, Charles Haley, Lester Hayes, John Randle, Andre Reed, Jerry Rice, Shannon Sharpe, Emmitt Smith, and Steve Tasker.

The actual voting results for the fans are below.  The appearance of (by my count) seven Oakland/LA Raiders on the list, combined with trainer Otho Davis ranking #7 on the list, makes me think that the policy of allowing people to vote daily is skewing the results.

Davis was by all accounts a great trainer for a long time for the Philadelphia Eagles–but a trainer being Hall of Fame worthy?  Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but as any regulars at YardBarker.com know, the Eagles have a fan base that is very active online–based on the total number of votes he’s received, it’s entirely possible that a relatively small group of Eagles fans could have influenced those numbers.

Similarly, Guy (#3), Plunkett (#8), Flores (#12) and Christensen (#16) all appear relatively high on the list, compared to where they would presumably appear in the actual voters list.

What does everyone else think of the fan’s results so far?

2010 Fan’s Choice Hall of Fame Semifinalists

1.  Jerry Rice, WR – 20,599 votes

2.  Emmitt Smith, RB – 17,523 votes

3.  Ray Guy, P – 12,899 votes

4.  Tim Brown, WR – 11,868 votes

5.  Cris Carter, WR – 11,720 votes

6.  Shannon Sharpe, TE – 11,048 votes

7.  Otho Davis, Contrib. – Athletic Trainer – 8,360 votes

8.  Jim Plunkett, QB – 7,807 votes

9.  Richard Dent, DL – 6,387 votes

10. Lester Hayes, DB – 6,311 votes

11. Cliff Branch, WR – 6,246 votes

12. Tom Flores, Head Coach – 5,688 votes

13. Charles Haley, DL – 5,400 votes

14. Randall Cunningham, QB – 5,143 votes

15. QB Phil Simms, QB – 5,134 votes

16. Todd Christensen, TE – 5,040 votes

17. Steve Atwater, DB – 4,418 votes

18. Andre Reed, WR – 3,188 votes

19. Jim Tunney, Contrib. – 2,565 votes

20. Joe Theismann, QB – 2,530 votes

21. Ed “Too Tall” Jones, DL – 2,274 votes

22. Sterling Sharpe, WR – 2,168 votes

23. John Randle, DL – 2,097 votes

24. Steve Tasker, Special Teams – 1,857 votes

25. Kevin Greene, LB – 1,767 votes