Overall I think the Hall of Fame selection committee did a pretty good job in picking the 2014 class of inductees. The class is illustrative, however, of one problem the voters seem to have these days.
When they narrowed the candidate list from more than 100 down to 25 in November, there were six coaches and contributors on the list. When they narrowed it down to five on Saturday, none of them came from those categories.
And that’s a good thing, at least to the extent that there is a long, healthy list of players who warrant induction into the Hall of Fame and, put head-to-head against owners, referees, coaches and other oddball contributors, I prefer that the players get the tiebreakers.
But the six semifinalists were Don Coryell, Edward DeBartolo Jr., Tony Dungy, Jimmy Johnson, Paul Tagliabue and George Young. None of their cases is airtight without weakness, but each of them provide compelling reasons why they should be recognized in the Hall.
Several others, including Bill Cowher, Tom Flores, Art Modell, Jon Gruden and Mike Holmgren, among others, could also be considered coaches and contributors who have at least a compelling case that could be made for voters.
In the early 2000s, voters seemed to make a focus out of contributors and coaches. Marv Levy, George Allen and Hank Stram were enshrined in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively, with John Madden following in 2006. Steelers owner Dan Rooney made it in 2000. And though Fritz Pollard was presumably inducted primarily as a player in 2005, his career also was notable for having been the first African American coach.
But since Madden, just three contributors have been enshrined: Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson Jr. in 2009, NFL Films Founder Ed Sabol in 2011 and Bill Parcells in 2013.
Sports Illustrated Scribe Peter King once shared his thoughts on fixing the Hall of Fame voting process. As I was researching this post, his thoughts popped into my head. I agree whole-heartedly with him that it should be difficult for any candidate to get into the Hall. And I’ll add to that my opinion – I think it’s better to leave out a deserving candidate than to enshrine an undeserving one.
That said, the number of coaches and contributors for whom you could make compelling cases is strong, deep and growing. And King argues that one thing he would do is add a separate contributor category.
His preference, according to the article, would be adding the contributor spot for owners, commissioners and front-office personnel and reducing the senior committee selection back to one candidate.
I am all for adding a contributor each year and I would include coaches in that category as well because, frankly, there are more coaches than front office people I think are worthy of consideration – by a long shot.
But I would not decrease the senior committee selections. I’d increase the maximum class total from seven to eight. Or, if it must stay at seven, I’d still forward two senior candidates and a contributor who would all be fast-tracked to the final vote, as seniors are now, and I’d enshrine whatever two of the three candidates received the most votes from the selection committee.
Overall, the past few years, I think the selection crew has done a pretty decent job of getting some really deserving candidates inducted into the Hall. But there are backlogs in a couple areas where, barring changes, it is going to be hard for the committee to ever catch up. This change would at least be a step in the right direction.
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Reducing the senior slots would make the process worse. No way. I’d be alright with adding a contributors slot and expanding to 8 overall, though I’m not sure there’s a huge backlog of worthy contributors necessitating such a move.
Right – I agree with you on the senior slots. Need at least two there. Re: contributors – you’re right, in my opinion, if you don’t include coaches. But I think there are legit coaches who should be considered – and I would put them in with the contributors rather than the players…
They seem to be inducting a non-player every two years at the moment, so if one gets in next year that trend will continue. I don’t think that’s too unreasonable.
One change could be to have a separate category that is fast-tracked like the seniors but only active every couple of years.
Another option would be to include all non-players with the Seniors pool, with the premise that at least one spot should be reserved for a Senior and you can still have two Seniors in a given year.
One Senior Player and One Contributor
or
Two Senior Players
This might be seen as a compromise without actually expanding the annual Class to 8. Personally I’d prefer to keep it at two Seniors per year and create a totally separate category for Contributors ….. and like Dr Phil said, only have it active every few years.
Said it before and will say it again. I think there should be one additional dedicated slot for a coach/contributor, and I think there are plenty enough reasonable candidates to nominate yearly. Here’s the list I came up with, including current and upcoming names, with a few revisions:
Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher, Tom Coughlin, Clark Shaughnessy, Bill Arnsparger, Buddy Ryan, Richie Petitbon, Steve Sabol, Ron Wolf, George Young, Bobby Beathard, Bill Polian, Joe Thomas, Gil Brandt, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, Chuck Knox, Paul Tagliabue, Dick Vermeil, Jimmy Johnson, and Don Coryell.
And that doesn’t even count owners, for whom it’s pretty hard to know the criteria.
I agree that the coaches/contributors need a separate category or process, not sure best way to do that, just that it does not come at the expenses of a slot for modern or senior candidate since so many deserving players are still waiting for election.