The Pro Football Hall of Fame Snubs Patrick Willis for the Fourth Time

Here's a head scratcher.

Former 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis did not get elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. And it's his fourth year on the ballot. Which means the voters have snubbed him four years in a row.

This is Patrick Freaking Willis we're talking about, the best linebacker of his generation. No one played the position better than he did when he was in the NFL. He was the Willie Mays of middle linebackers -- he did everything at an elite level. He was a five-tool linebacker. He could run sideline to sideline, make tackles in the backfield, cover, blitz and take the ball away.

Here are the players who made it into the Hall of Fame instead of Willis: cornerback Ronde Barber, cornerback Darrelle Revis, offensive tackle Joe Thomas, linebacker Zach Thomas and linebacker DeMarcus Ware.

Those are five great players, but Willis was as good or better than all of them, particularly Zach Thomas. He and Willis played the same position, and Willis was flat out better. There's no comparison. Thomas was a solid athlete who played hard and had a long career. Willis arguably was the greatest athlete ever at inside linebacker.

I can't help but notice that none of the 10 Hall of Fame finalists who played most of their careers on the West Coast didn't make it this year. It almost seems like the voters don't watch the West Coast teams as closely as they watch the East Coast teams.

How else would you explain what's happening to Willis?