The NFL apparently believes that 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman’s contention that the Top 100 list is “totally bogus” is, well, totally bogus.
Bowman said Wednesday that he has never seen a player ballot and has never heard of a player voting. In response, an NFL spokesman told PFT via email that “roughly half” of all players voted on the current Top 100 list.
The spokesman added that, contrary to the belief that voting occurs when players visit NFL Network, voting is held at team facilities -- with photographic evidence of 49ers players filling out balloting.
The voting process indeed consists of players being given a sheet of paper with a request to list the top 20 players in the league. No. 1 gets 20 points and so on, with No. 20 getting one point. The 100 players with the most total points then make up the full list.
“We’ve never said that 100% of the players vote for this list,” the spokesman said. “But I will say that the percentage of players who do vote has been increasing every year and is now roughly comparable to the percentage of Americans who vote in many elections, so to call that bogus is inaccurate.”
If roughly half of the players voted in 2016, it’s odd that Bowman and other players would continue to claim that players aren’t voting in significant numbers. Apparently, they are.