Your Patriots Hall of Fame nominees.

The nominees: PK Adam Vinatieri, OT Logan Mankins, TE Rob Gronkowski.

I've been a member of the Patriots Hall of Fame Nominating Committee since its inaugural meeting in 2007, and this may be the first time that my three selections have been the three that appear on the fans' ballot.

As a result of the committee's meeting on April 1, the three former players on this year's ballot are, in alphabetical order, tight end Rob Gronkowski, offensive guard/tackle Logan Mankins and placekicker Adam Vinatieri. Three very worthy nominees, but as they said repeatedly in those "Highlander" movies, "There can be only one!" 

And that's a shame.

Since the beginning of our august panel, many of us have worried -- some not so silently -- that with the uptick in the Patriots' level of success during thew two "dynastic eras" under Bill Belichick, we might run into situations where worthy players of the current era would stack up in a holding pattern over the Hall of Fame at Patriot Place, facing very long delays in landing a berth in the team shrine.

Just ask current coach Mike Vrabel. He had to wait through seven balloting sessions before finally being honored.

Well, right now we have such a situation. This will be Vinatieri's second turn on the fans' ballot and Gronkowski's first, but it's the fourth for Mankins, who made the final three in 2022, 2023 and 2025.

If you're wondering how we come to these conclusions, here's a quick explanation.

This year, 20 panel members made it to the meeting at Gillette Stadium; a few of the active reporters were unable to attend because of job responsibilities. But for more than an hour, we made our nominations and then offered our reasons, then the nominated individuals were debated before ballots were finally cast. In secret balloting, we were instructed to list our choices in order of preference. The individual we list first gets five points, second gets three and the third gets one point. 

Then, Patriots VP-Communications Stacey James calculates the voting and a week later, he announces the selections and fan balloting begins on patriots.com. In fact, click on that address and you can vote, too.

This year, I had a gameplan entering the meeting. I wanted to nominate Vinatieri for the second straight year -- not only because of his accomplishments on the field for the Patriots, but also for the fact that he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year despite losing entry into the Patriots' shrine to another first-time nominee of more recent vintage, Julian Edelman.  

But someone beat me to it, so I went to Plan B -- nominating the elephant in the room. Everyone came to this meeting feeling that Gronkowski would not only be a first-year-eligible nominee (a player has to be retired from football for four years to be eligible), but he'd probably be a runaway winner in the fan voting as well. 

So I stood before my peers and said that while I was nominating Gronkowski officially, I still wished Vinatieri would make it into the Hall of Fame first because without his clutch nature and the incredible kicks he made leading to the Patriots' first Super Bowl championship, maybe there wouldn't be any dynasties to celebrate.

Stacey James guides the committee at a 2014 meeting.

But, as I also said, I had no problem at all with Gronk's path to the Hall of Fame. After all, he may well have been the best tight end ever to play the game, even if he hasn't put a ring on Taylor Swift's finger. He played with a joy that couldn't be contained even under the restrictive stewardship of Belichick. And speaking of joy, I tried to lighten everyone's spirits a bit by telling the funny story (at least it was to me) of how Gronk, a native of one of the Meccas of Buffalo wings (Amherst, N.Y.) once recommended what he thought was the best bleu cheese dressing ever to accompany a plate of wings.

For the sake of accuracy, it was a local brand in northern New York called Rootie's. Sold only in the markets around Gronk's hometown, it came in big mayonnaise jars and could be purchased online at an incredible markup to preserve its freshness in shipping.

Gronk's suggestion hit the spot.

At Gronk's recommendation, I did buy a couple of jars for about $80 total, including the shipping in big Styrofoam boxes filled with dry ice. The expense was steep, but damned if Gronk wasn't correct. It was the best bleu cheese dressing I've ever tasted, especially because of the huge chunks of cheese that burst with flavor when mixing with a super-spicy wing sauce.

I actually got a few laughs with that tale. I'm getting better at stand-up comedy in my old age.

Don't think I'm forgetting Mankins, either. Not only was he a tough-as-nails tackle from the really old school of football, he's also sent two talented offspring to Bishop Feehan and he's a damned fine offensive line coach there as well. He deserves to be in, but the timing just isn't right.

At this point, I must point out that I'm enjoined against revealing the actual discourse that took place during our meeting; it's one of the rules all committee members have to follow. But as always, our discussions were civil and frequently jocular in nature. And this year, we actually convinced James that there was one change that needed to be made in our rules, although that won't come into play until next year.

We have something called a Senior Selection Committee that was supposed to meet every two years (but hasn't met in 10 years). It's composed of the most senior members of the committee, and our job has been to put worthy Patriots of the distant past into to the Hall without subjecting them to the fans' vote, although they have to be 25 years removed from their careers before we can consider them. 

We have added center Jon Morris, defensive tackle Houston Antwine and offensive tackle Leon Gray, but have been limited in that up to now, James limited eligible players to those that had actually been on the three-player fan balloting at least once. That has kept at least two worthy potential nominees from consideration, but after some vigorous discussion on April 1, James agreed to open the doors to worthy veterans of the distant past even if they haven't made the fan ballot.

I could tell you the name of one fellow about whom we'll be talking quite a bit when the Senior Committee meets next year -- but if I did, I'd have to kill you. So just stay tuned, or drop me a line and let me know who you'd think would be best for us to consider next year. By the way, Adam Vinatieri won't be eligible for Senior Committee consideration until 2046, when I will be a very grumpy 92 years old if he doesn't get in before that.

You can vote for this year's Hall of Fame selection until April 28, and it won't be long after that when the winner will be announced. The Patriots will most likely plan the celebration in the plaza opposite the Hall of Fame for sometime during the coming preseason schedule, depending upon that person's availability.

I've voted. Just once so far (for Vinatieri, natch), but trying to stuff the ballot box is one of the quirky joys of the Patriots Hall of Fame selection process. You can vote once every day from a recognized IP address, so get to it, folks.

Who knows? Maybe for the first time ever, we can coax a three-way tie out of the process.

MARK FARINELLA covered the Patriots for a total of 43 years -- one for the Westfield Evening News, 40 for The Sun Chronicle, two for The Patriot Ledger and a lot of part-time efforts for The Associated Press. And he did write about three games the Patriots played in their first year at Schaefer Stadium (1971) for the Mansfield News. So yes, he belongs on this committee.