Last week Bengals.com announced their Virtual Hall of Fame. Voting began on Monday and will last until the end of the month (click here to vote for the Bengals.com Virtual Hall of Fame). The top-ten vote getters, the finalists of the original vote, will be eligible for the second vote in which three former Bengals players, legends, will be inducted into the Bengals.com Virtual Hall of Fame.
I wanted to know a few things about the Virtual Hall, so I asked Bengals.com's Geoff Hobson, who was kind enough to respond, if the team will be honoring the players that make the Virtual Hall of Fame or if this was solely a Bengals.com effort. I also asked if there would be some sort of ceremony for the players that are inducted.
"What happens beyond the web site, we don’t know because our (Andy Ware and I) bailiwick is only Bengals.com. We believe since this is the team’s official site and it is a fan vote, we think the players are being honored in the best of both worlds. The beauty of cyberspace is it just won’t be a one-shot, one-game, one half-time ceremony. The ceremony is always going to be there, by virtue of the links, where there will always be a plaque, an induction speech and highlights. Not only that, there will always be a ballot, either the last one, or the next one, that will be discussed and/or displayed. Where it goes from here, we’ll see. But, as Marvin would ask us, ‘Do your job,” and our job is the web site."
I think what the website is doing is great. It will help younger fans learn about the team's legends, remind older fans how good it once was rightfully honoring those players. We think it's a shame that the team itself fails to portray the necessity of convincing the alumni, the guys that played and cared most for the team, to have a more active role of being honored.
With that said, go vote! Thanks to Geoff for answering our questions.