The word for today is “;deduction.”;

Who do you believe should be No. 1 in the Centurions final five?                           Gary Allen           Colt Brennan           Jason Elam           Tommy Kaulukukui           Al Noga

We're not talking about taxes, so we skip to Maid Merriam-Marvin Webster's second definition:

“;The deriving of a conclusion by reasoning.”; Similar to inference, but not quite. Deduction comes into play in a countdown of rankings because people begin to figure out the remaining unnamed selections as those ranked lower are revealed.

After yesterday's announcement of Jesse Sapolu as No. 6, many of you who have followed the Centurions series of Hawaii's greatest football players have successfully deduced the final five. We've always said it, our readers are smart people.

To eliminate any lingering doubt, here are Nos. 1 through 5—sorry, they're in alphabetical order for now.

Gary Allen, Colt Brennan, Jason Elam, Tommy Kaulukukui and Al Noga.

This should make my friend Chris Hart happy. A couple of weeks ago, he bemoaned the fact that we had shifted gears from revealing five a day to just one.

Well, we wanted to keep the suspense going instead of trickling it down to No. 1 a day at a time. So please bear with our little juke step here. We will unveil the order of the final five—along with two-page spreads on each—in a special section in your Sunday, Aug. 2 Star-Bulletin.

In the meantime, you can vote online for who you think should be No. 1 among these five. Just click on the link in the box to the right, and you will be presented with your ballot. You can vote once, but you can check back often to see who's in the lead.

Because he is of the most recent vintage, my guess is Brennan will emerge as the people's choice. That, however, doesn't mean the so-called experts see it that way. Don't forget to check next week for how the panel of media and coaches weighs in. The 20 of us voted for seven different players as No. 1.

OF COURSE there is always a certain amount of subjectivity in this kind of thing, even more in football than most other sports. Look at our final five: How do you objectively rank a tailback from the golden age of the power sweep, a so-called system quarterback in a throw-first attack, a specialist whose only contact was usually foot to ball, an all-purpose player from the 1930s, and a dominant defensive lineman from 50 years later?

The answer is you don't. You just weigh it the best you can based on your personal preferences—Are you more interested in career body of work, or great moments? Do you see offense, defense or special teams as most important? But inevitably, you go with some amount of emotion. Football is, after all, an emotional game. Which of these players touches you the most? Which affects you in a visceral way, gets your blood pumping the most? Only one can make you say, “;He is the greatest who ever played for UH.”;

Only one can be No. 1, but a legitimate case can be made for any of the remaining five. We look forward to your choices and opinions. Send an e-mail, use the comments section.