The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Contributor Committee has nominated Bills and Colts GM Bill Polian and Packers GM Ron Wolf as the first two candidates for enshrinement through the new contributor position created earlier this year.
Polian and Wolf were selected from a list that reportedly included 11 candidates:
- Paul Tagliabue
- Eddie DeBartolo
- Pat Bowlen
- Art Modell
- Art McNally
- Steve Sabol
- Gil Brandt
- Bobby Beathard
- George Young
- Polian
- Wolf
Polian and Wolf will advance automatically to the final vote, along with senior committee nominee Mick Tingelhoff, where they will need a “yes” vote from 80 percent of the full committee in order to earn induction into the Hall of Fame.
Polian was instrumental in building the Buffalo Bills into four-time Super Bowl participants in the 1990s and he also drafted Peyton Manning to Indianapolis, which led to a Super Bowl win and a number of playoff appearances. Wolf rebuilt a long-wayward Packers team, trading for Brett Favre and winning a Super Bowl in the process.
The addition of the contributor slots has been controversial. Many favored separating executives, referees and other non-players from the players to give them a better chance to compete. Regular readers to this space largely agreed, but were critical that doing so meant one fewer senior committee selection in three of the next five seasons.
More coming on this announcement later. Share your thoughts on these two nominations below.
The HOF Contributor committee's selections will result in:
- Bill Polian and Ron Wolf both being inducted. (69%, 11 Votes)
- Wolf being inducted but Polian falling short. (19%, 3 Votes)
- Polian being inducted but Wolf falling short. (6%, 1 Votes)
- Neither Polian nor Wolf receiving the needed votes. (6%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 16
Loading ...
Congrats to both, great to see GM/personal staff selected over commissioner/owners!
I’m not sure what to think of this, honestly. Not that you can’t make a case for them – they very well may both get inducted. But I am not excited about either one over one of the senior committee members like a Chuck Howley. I think for me this just magnifies how I think this category is important but not at the expense of the senior slots.
Although I can agree, the decision has been made to have two nominees for three years over the next five elections from the contributors pool, so at least let’s have deserving nominees who can get a chance as election when the road for contributors has so often been blocked by players and to see GMs/scouts having a chance is great since the game and its history extends beyond players and coaches.
Excellent choices. Agreed with Paul that the GM/personnel candidates had particular merit. Both deserve to be voted in and hopefully will be.
Note well that Ron Wolf not only had success building the 90s Packers, but also did so for
-the Raiders that won the 1976 Super Bowl.
-the Tampa Bay squad that reached the 1979 NFC championship game.
-the Raiders that won the 1983 Super Bowl.
And Bill Polian also put together the Carolina Panthers that went to the 1996 NFC championship game in only its second year of existence.
Pretty impressive resumes for both.
Agreed, Bachslunch. I wanted to get something up quickly to have a place for discussion. We plan to make it a bit more in depth as the day allows.
At least it wasn’t Tagliabue and DeBartolo. Agree with Andy that I’d prefer a player like Howley, and somewhat agree with Paul that these aren’t terrible choices given the system in place. That said, I think it’s funny how many more HoFers the early 90s Bills have than the Cowboys, and how much of a rush there seems to be to get everyone associated with that great yet tragic run into Canton, including the owner, coach, and now GM.
Absolutely great choices. Very happy that they nominated individuals who have not yet had their cases heard by the entire electorate at the selection meeting. Both are highly deserving candidates for induction. This is the exact reason this category was designed. Hopefully, Beathard and Brandt won’t be far behind.
Well, with 8 nominations over the next 5 years I think we’ve just found our list to work from. Who will be the 3 to miss out?
I am thinking the Commissioner and the two owners could miss out, but I suppose they could be interest from the committee to mix in others besides GMs/scouts before the five year period ends. Also not so sure that there could be much support behind Art McNally. Also at this point (unless HOF Board changes the rules again) starting in 2021 contributors will still get one slot per year so perhaps all these get in eventually, and of course others that fill slots emptied by elections each year. Like the seniors committee it will be interesting to see how the selections play out in coming years since the HOF did not let the committee release the results of the vote down from 10 to 5 to 3, so we have no idea how others not elected for 2015 fared in terms of order (whomever was the 3rd, but not selected would be strong candidate for 2016 or 2017).
Can’t argue against either one, but also can’t help but think DeBartolo should have been one of the choices. I know why he hasn’t been elected yet, but off the field stuff hasn’t prevented others from getting in. If judged solely by contributions, he should be a Hall of Famer.
DeBartolo’s racketeering/bribery issues would indeed be considered “off field,” but issues connected to him surrounding salary cap fraud could indeed be seen as an “on field” issue.
Of course, George Preston Marshall was elected despite blackballing players of color which tanked his ‘Skins teams for years, another “on field” black eye. And both Tim Mara and Art Rooney were bookies, which raises yet another possible issue. And all three are HoF-ers.
backslunch, good points, but we live in a different era. No use comparing the ’80s or ’90 to today, let alone the ’30s, ’40s, ’50, and ’60s.
Looking at the three owners, it’s interesting to try and make their HoF cases — and I’m having some difficulty there. Owning a team for a long time and having some success would seem to be just a starting point. For example, I’m unclear what DeBartolo’s and Bowlen’s track records were on NFL committee work and other league contributions. Modell apparently did much more in this regard — according to one website:
“as chairman of the labor committee in 1968, Modell helped negotiate the NFL’s first labor agreement. He also had a hand in developing NFL Films, as its first chairman in the 1960s. Most significantly, he chaired the NFL’s broadcast committee, helping to negotiate the league’s television contracts for 31 years.”
though he also had some less-than-savory issues with stadium matters (the Gries Sports Enterprises lawsuit), ditched four of his black players after a late-60s contract dispute, and made some curious personnel change decisions (firing Paul Brown, for one) in addition to the reviled Browns-to-Baltimore move.
When you look at the better owner HoF-ers, there’s more than just ownership going on. In addition to loads of coaching credit, George Halas was on the ground floor in founding the NFL in 1920, was heavily involved with the major rules changes of 1933, and was a pioneer in using film study and establishing daily practice sessions. Lamar Hunt was the primary force behind forming the AFL and spearheaded negotiations to merge it with the NFL. Al Davis was AFL commissioner at one point and also has some head coaching credit (Raiders) and a solid bit of GM credit (with the 50s Colts).
Of the second-tier guys: Dan Reeves was the first to set up a full-time scouting department, re-integrated the NFL in the 40s, and established the NFL out west (though like Modell controversially moved a successful Cleveland team to do the last of these). Ralph Wilson was AFL President at one point, invested in a tanking rival AFL franchise to help keep it afloat, initiated AFL merger talks with Carroll Rosenbloom, and apparently did a good bit of committee work. Art Rooney also did a good bit of committee work. Wellington Mara also did a good bit of committee work, was NFC President for 21 years, and gets GM-type credit for helping assemble personnel for the 50s-early 60s NY Giants teams. Even George Preston Marshall, who has a serious black eye in his racial policies that ruined his teams in the 50s and early 60s, was heavily involved with the 1933 rules changes.
Tim Mara and Art Rooney seem to have primarily owned franchises early on (1925 for Mara, 1933 for Rooney) and kept them going for a long time, and it’s unclear what else they did. Both were legal bookmakers. In a class by himself is Charles Bidwill, Sr., who doesn’t seem to have any good HoF argument that I can see.
How do Bowlen, DeBartolo, and Modell compare here? Interesting question.
I think it is very difficult to compare owner candidates today, to those elected in the HOF in the 1960s by the voters in place then and those earlier owners voted in because they were involved with the forming of the league and/or were owners of teams who were in the league during the first 40 years or so when owners keeping teams in the league allowed it to survive. Having said that, I do not believe that qualifications of Bowlen, DeBartolo and Modell compare to those earlier elected owners and not to the other candidates on the contributors ballot this year. Appears that Bowlen and DeBartolo are getting “credit” for their winning teams in the 1990s and 1980s, and Modell for his involvement in league matters including TV deals. Eitherway I hope in coming years more of the GM/scouts get elected as contributors and not owners.
Paul, agreed that none of the owners above have especially good HoF arguments. Modell’s committee work credit probably makes him the strongest of the three.
And while you’re likely right that Bowlen and DeBartolo are getting “credit” for their winning teams in the 1990s and 1980s, that brings up another question. If just winning a couple titles is enough to make an owner HoF worthy, would that make Clint Murchison, Jr. and Joe Robbie and Carroll Rosenbloom just about equally worthy — not to mention Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft (both of whom I think have a good bit of committee work credit to being to the table)? I guess one can argue that Jones and Kraft do not have “complete legacies” and that Jones may have problems with being his so far not-so-successful own GM, but it’s a good question. And if you stretch things enough, the Packers “owner” would be the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors — and that team has had some strong success. Do they count?
Interesting problems here.
Interesting…just dug up the article I wrote about Polian after he lost his last job: https://www.zoneblitz.com/2012/01/03/buyer-beware-polian-tenures-ups-downs/
Turns out the Colts weren’t as decimated as thought–but also would appear since Luck brought them back, that Peyton really was the key to the success (no surprise there).
I still feel like Polian gets more credit than he deserves. Wolf too, for that matter (I wonder if Packer fans despised him the same way they despised Ted Thompson until he accidentally won a Super Bowl).
Probably a good thing they created a special classification for contributors…not sure they’re anywhere near the same level as the players (and even coaches)…
Question: if we’re going to induct GM types, who are the best candidates? As of now, the only two folks in with this as their primary skill are Tex Schramm and Jim Finks — so there’s some precedent. Am thinking Wolf, Polian, Bobby Beathard, George Young, Gil Brandt, and Joe Thomas are the best options — and my guess is that they’re all at about the Schramm-Finks level. Any other good choices?
Hard to say if GMs are more or less worthy than the coach/player options, but given the precedent set with Schramm and Finks, it makes sense to induct more if they’re fairly comparable.
Steve Sabol strikes me as very worthy as well — and especially given that his father was elected, the son surely belongs in, too.
And Art McNally seems as good a choice for referee types as anyone, probably better than most — but I’m open to suggestions here, as I don’t have as good a feel for this category. Shorty Ray is the only inductee in this general area.
Since contributors now have their own separate path to election does not really matter if they are the same level as players and coaches, and it seems to me that contributors would almost always fall short on a direct comparison (as HOF elections over the years has shown), but they they do play a role, in my view there is a place in the HOF which documents the history of the game to include some off the field individuals. However, unless the owner has show to make make important contributions to the league and game beyond their own team, that the preference should got to the people who build and maintain teams via the draft, FAs, etc…. – the GMs and scouts. So I was glad to see Wolf and Polian get selected and would suspect that Young and Brandt are in line as well as finalist soon. But given the committee and other views I still suspect that Paul Tagliabue, Eddie DeBartolo, Pat Bowlen, and Art Modell will get consideration and eventual selection as finalists. I am not so sure I would advance Sabol or McNalley over several of the GMs/scouts on the short list already.
I was of the opinion (and still am) that we only needed one slot per year and that coaches should be included. It would have made the field of candidates much stronger. That being said I’m glad they thought outside the box and offered up candidates who have not been recent finalists and don’t fall in the commissioner/owner category though personally I was hoping for Gil Brandt.
Well starting in 2020 it will revert to one slot per year for contributors. Unless the HOF Board again decides to change the rule, but with eight slots open for contributors over next five elections by 2019 any perceived back log of contributors should be addressed and no need to extend beyond 2019 as long as long slot per year is available which to me seems fair and justifiable.
.