Barring a change of mind by voters, former Ravens quarterback Steve McNair will not be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In The Baltimore Sun's poll of selectors this week, the three-time Pro Bowl player would fail to gain the 80 percent approval needed for election.
Seventeen of the 24 voters who responded to The Sun - the committee has 44 members - said they did not consider McNair a Hall of Fame quarterback because he lacked elite career numbers.
McNair, who was shot and killed Saturday, is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013.
"I didn't consider McNair a Hall of Fame candidate before he died and don't consider him one now," said Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News. "His numbers are nowhere close to being Hall of Fame-worthy."
In 13 seasons with the Ravens and Tennessee Titans, McNair finished with a pedestrian 60.1 completion percentage and an 82.8 passer rating (in comparison, Jeff Garcia's career passer rating is 87.5).
Domowitch noted that McNair never had a season in which he threw for 25 or more touchdowns and never threw for more than 3,400 yards in a season.
"Good quarterback? Yes," he said. "Canton material? No."
One unnamed voter said McNair wasn't in the same class as Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Brett Favre, the top quarterbacks of this era.
"I think Steve McNair deserves consideration for the Hall of Fame," the unnamed voter said, "but ultimately I think he belongs like Joe Theismann, Ken Anderson and Boomer Esiason in the hall of the very good."
Among the seven other voters who responded, five were undecided and only two said they would definitely cast a ballot in favor of McNair.
Supporters of McNair say his play defied statistics. Considered one of the toughest quarterbacks in NFL history, McNair hobbled into the huddle only to break tackles when it mattered most. Calm under pressure, he built a reputation for willing his team to victory in the fourth quarter.
"If you base it on production and achievement alone, it might be difficult to make a case for McNair being a Hall of Famer," said Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune. "But if you consider the intangibles he brought to his teams, he becomes a more legitimate candidate."
One undecided voter seemed to be leaning toward giving McNair the nod, but he said the 2003 co-NFL Most Valuable Player still wouldn't make the cut.
