NFL fumbles as Tom Flores gets passed over for the Hall of Fame

SAN DIEGO -- How do you get to Canton, Ohio? Well, sir, if you're Latino, it is exceedingly difficult to find a road that leads there.

In fact, it sometimes appears that "NFL" stands for "Not for Latinos."

What other conclusion can fair-minded football fans draw now that the National Football League has once again snubbed, for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one of the most deserving people to ever hit the gridiron or coach from the sidelines?

Tom Flores performed both roles with distinction, and he deserves more respect than he's been given.

For his entire career, the Mexican American has had to be twice as good as a white male to get half as much credit. Often, Flores doesn't even receive that. Instead, since he is neither black nor white, he gets ignored.

He spent his whole life trying to achieve on the merits. And he did. Only to learn what the people he grew up with always knew: Sometimes, it's not about merit. Sometimes, the game is rigged.

The 82-year-old may have been baptized Thomas Raymond Flores. But back home in the small farm town in Central California that we both call home, folks don't stand on formality. So when his name comes up in friendly conversation, he's just "Tommy."

He was "Tommy" in the 1940s when he played in the neighborhood, when the Flores family lived a few doors down from my father's family on Olive Street in Sanger, California. To call the houses on that block "humble" would be generous.

Flores' family didn't have much money. No one in that community did back then. It seemed like everyone was waiting for their "rich" uncle to get out of the poor house.

But Tommy had a gift. It seems he was always comfortable gripping and throwing a football -- at Sanger High School, Fresno City College, University of the Pacific and, later, the NFL.

Born in 1937, in a country town where they grow everything except high expectations for those with brown skin, Flores grew up at a time when -- for many Mexican Americans -- life's greatest ambition was to simply get out of the fields and work in a building with air conditioning.

Flores chose to stay in the field -- the football field. And his talent took him into the history books. In 1960, he became the first Hispanic starting quarterback in professional football as he led the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League (AFL). Later, he became the first Hispanic to serve as an NFL head coach.

First this, first that. It's no wonder that, as far as Mexican Americans are concerned, Flores is the Jackie Robinson of pro football.

Flores' win-loss record as head coach was an impressive 83-53 in the regular season and 8-3 in the playoffs. Other coaches who did not fare as well have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Then, there are the fancy rings. As both a player and a coach, Flores has collected a combined four Super Bowl rings. He picked up his first one as a backup quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1960s, then another as an assistant coach for the Raiders in the 1970s, and two more as head coach for the Raiders in the 1980s -- first in Oakland, then in Los Angeles.

The team's controversial owner, the late Al Davis, defied the NFL by moving the franchise to the No. 2 market in the country.

It was Davis who put Flores on the map when he hired him to be the Raiders' head coach. And now, some say, it is Davis who is keeping Flores out of the Hall of Fame. The theory goes that almost anyone connected to Davis is persona non grata with the league's pooh-bahs. Davis died in 2011. But, legend has it, his ghost still haunts Flores.

Back in Sanger, now that Flores has again missed the bus to Canton, there is anger over how a favorite son was done wrong. Life stories like this are almost unheard of. People don't start where Flores started and wind up where he wound up. It isn't done.

Maybe the snub is about Davis. Maybe it's about ethnicity. We don't know. The NFL scoundrels don't leave behind fingerprints.

I'll tell you what this isn't about, and that's football. Tommy knows football. Tommy mastered football from different angles. And Tommy should be honored for his achievements in football.

Those who grew up with Flores insist that he has never been petty, spiteful or prejudiced. The NFL could learn from that example.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.