With the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, Isaac Bruce would love to go see the home of the late, great music icon, Prince.

“But I hear it’s gonna be 12 degrees, so we might be couped up in the hotel,” Bruce laughed. “We’re expecting the knock. It’s the big Dave Baker knock on the door. That kind of shakes you to your core a little bit. That’s what we’re expecting.”

In his fourth year of eligibility and his second year as a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Bruce knows the drill by now. On selection Saturday, finalists for the Class of 2018 wait in their hotel rooms in the Super Bowl host city on the day before the big game.

Late in the afternoon, after the 48-member selection committee has made its picks, Hall of Fame president David Baker — all 6 feet 9 inches of him — knocks on the hotel room door of each inductee to personally inform them of their selection.

“Once again, I’m excited,” Bruce said earlier this week. “Even if I have to manufacture my excitement. I’m in the process of doing that again.”

Pardon the tinge of sarcasm. The frustrating part for Hall-worthy players such as Bruce is that there’s nothing they can do now to help their cause. Bruce can’t catch another pass, score another touchdown, or win another Super Bowl.

His body of work is his body of work. Oh, he could do some lobbying. And Bruce is making the rounds late this week on Radio Row at Super Bowl headquarters in Minneapolis for interviews. He’s never been one to toot his own horn, but he is fully aware of what he accomplished over a 16-year career — 14 of which he spent with the Rams; 13 of which were with the “St. Louis” Rams.

“My numbers are my numbers,” Bruce said. “They’re what they are. It’s kind of human nature to compare. ... When you chose to compare, compare the facts. And the facts are what they are. There’s no way around it.”

The facts — and the numbers — say that Bruce belongs in football’s most exclusive club. The facts say that he shouldn’t have to wait any longer for that knock on the door. Still, conventional wisdom seems to be that Terrell Owens and first-year eligible Randy Moss will get in first among the current wide receiver group.

Even so, Bruce’s candidacy seems to be picking up momentum. Former Green Bay general manager Ron Wolf recently listed his choices for the Class of 2018, and his five modern-day picks were linebackers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, defensive back Brian Dawkins, Moss and Bruce. (Owens didn’t make Wolf’s list.)

Bill Polian, who helped build Super Bowl teams in Buffalo, Carolina and Indianapolis as a personnel executive, recently rated the trio of wide receivers for the Talk of Fame Sports Network.

“When you talk about Isaac Bruce, you talk about a guy who could do everything,” Polian said. “In the case of Moss, you’re talking about a guy who did less things ... but the things he did he probably did as good or better than anybody who played.

“And then you’re talking about the other guy (Owens) and there are issues in the locker room and within the context of the team that you can’t hide from.”

The endorsements of Wolf and Polian should carry some weight, because they are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame themselves — as talent evaluators and franchise builders.

“You’re talking about guys who I was probably on their board to draft when I was coming out,” Bruce said. “They’ve been through the process of having to evaluate talent. Not only talent, but they have to evaluate character and those things.

“So you gotta listen to those guys. You gotta pay attention to what they’re saying.”

Even the Rams, who have largely ignored the candidacy of “St. Louis” Rams since the move to Los Angeles, have gotten involved.

“They have this year,” Bruce said. “I think they’ve done a better job than last year. I heard from Mr. (Stan) Kroenke and he’s excited about it. ... I had a chance to speak to him briefly at the (Rams’) playoff game.

“But the entire organization, it’s for them more than it is for me. Because you’re talking about an organization that drafted me, they trusted me, developed me. And we did it all together.

“So it’s more about them, the fans, city of St. Louis.”

The Rams have put together a five-page brochure listing Bruce’s accomplishments, including testimonials from players and coaching contemporaries for distribution to Hall of Fame voters and media.

Here are just a few of the numbers in that brochure:

• Over the course of his NFL career — from 1994-2009 — Bruce had more receiving yards than any player in that time frame, with 15,208.

• When he retired, that yardage total ranked second all-time to the incomparable Jerry Rice. Bruce still ranks fifth all-time, and his yardage total is better than any of the 25 wide receivers currently in the Hall of Fame not named Jerry Rice.

• Bruce’s 14.9 yards per catch over his career actually tops Rice’s 14.8.

So mull over the numbers. Consider all of Bruce’s big plays. Consider the fact that he caught a game-winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl — something Owens and Moss never did. And then decide.

“To the football purist, it’s a no-brainer,” Bruce said. “My eyes are open to football. Your eyes are open to football. And everyone else that’s on that selection committee, their eyes are supposed to be open to football.”

We’ll find out Saturday if Bruce hears that knock, and opens the door to the Hall of Fame.