Bad Behavior and the Hall of Fame

Pete Rose was banned from baseball for betting on the game, and by extension, he's never been elected to the Hall of Fame. Now, Lawrence Taylor has been arrested for suspected rape of a minor, and there have been calls to remove him the NFL Hall of Fame.

One has to wonder if Rose would have been removed from the Hall of Fame, had he already been elected. In theory, bad behavior either does or does not disqualify a player, so whether he had already been elected should be irrelevant. But I imagine that the status quo would prevail.

This reminds me of an earlier post about naming campus buildings after alumni. It's always easier to bestow honors on people after they're dead and therefore have no chance of sullying their reputation.