It’s a good week for Brett Favre. The former Packers QB will get his number retired in Green Bay Thanksgiving
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night. Today he was named one of 25 modern-era semifinalists who remain in contention for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2016 class.
Favre, Steelers and Jets guard Alan Faneca and multi-team WR Terrell Owens are the three first-time eligible candidates to be named semifinalists. Jacksonville tackle Tony Boselli and the late Sam Mills, a linebacker for Carolina and New Orleans, also are semifinalists for the first time.
There are 15 offensive players, six defensive players and a special teams star among the 25 semifinalists. The remaining three are coaches.
The 15 finalists will be named in January. Voters will then meet during Super Bowl weekend and cull the list to 10 and then five. Those final five will need 80 percent yes votes to earn enshrinement. Two senior committee members – Dick Stanfel and Ken Stabler – already have been announced, as has one contributor, Edward DeBartolo Jr. Those three advance directly to the final vote, where they also will need 80 percent of the vote to be enshrined.
Brett Favre and Alan Faneca headline the first-year eligible players nominated for enshrinement in the Pro Football
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame’s 2016 class.
Favre, who spent most of his career in Green Bay (after spending his rookie year on the bench in Atlanta) before finishing up with the New York Jets and Minnesota, restored glory to the Packers’ organization, winning a Super Bowl and producing 11 Pro Bowls and three Associated Press All Pro first team awards.
Faneca split his career between Pittsburgh and the Jets, going to the Pro Bowl nine times and winning AP First Team honors six times.
Terrell Owens (6/5), who spent eight years in San Francisco before joining four other teams, and Lawyer Milloy (4/1), who played with New England, Buffalo, Atlanta and Seattle, also are well-known first-year nominees, as is Redskins and Broncos RB Clinton Portis (2/0).
Eleven first-year nominees are joined by 97 others, including 10 finalists from 2014 who ultimately did not get enshrined. They include: (more…)
Eddie DeBartolo Jr. ran into some controversy off the field, but his career as an NFL owner is rivaled by few.
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DeBartolo took over ownership of a foundering San Francisco 49ers team in 1977, brought Bill Walsh on board as head coach and together they built the team of the 1980s and 90s.
DeBartolo was selected Tuesday as the “contributor” candidate for the Hall of Fame’s 2016 class. He joins senior candidates Ken Stabler and Dick Stanfel as finalists who will be voted on by the full voting committee the week of the Super Bowl.
DeBartolo gave up control of the 49ers in 2000 after getting caught up in the corruption case of then-Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. But during his tenure, the 49ers posted double-digit wins in 17 of 18 seasons from 1981 through 2000, appeared in 10 NFC Championship games and won five Super Bowls.
“I’m truly humbled. My football life is going through my mind right now,” DeBartolo, Jr. says in a statement posted at the Hall of Fame website.
He, along with others selected for the final vote, need a thumbs up from 80 percent of the voters to earn enshrinement. We’ve done less discussion on contributors than seniors here on the site, but I’d be hard pressed to find an owner who had more success than DeBartolo during his reign. Solid candidate? Who else should be considered?
The 2016 class will be enshrined August 4-7, 2016.
Eddie DeBartolo is the "contributor" candidate for 2016 Hall of Fame enshrinement. That's ...
Disappointing. What did he have to do with building that 49ers dynasty? (44%, 4 Votes)
Great - his work in the NFL warrants a bronze bust in Canton. (33%, 3 Votes)
Okay pick, but other candidates would have been better (tell us who). (22%, 2 Votes)
The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Senior Committee has chosen two recently deceased former greats as its senior
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candidates for 2016 induction.
Dick Stanfel, who played guard for Washington and Detroit over a seven-year career in the 1950s, is getting his third look from the senior committee, his second in the last five years. He passed away in June at 87.
Former Raiders, Oilers and Saints QB Ken Stabler, who led Oakland to victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl 11 died in July. This is his first appearance in front of the senior committee. He died in July. (more…)
With the Hall of Fame induction this past weekend comes the annual tradition of the large media outlets chiming in on future HOF elections (what a concept), often seemingly displaying less knowledge of the reality of the voting process than virtually all of our regular HOF commenters.
In fact, during Sunday Night’s Hall of Fame game, I heard Al Michaels mention that Adrian Peterson will one day be giving a speech in Canton (after Peterson himself told reporters that he thinks he’s got a good case for the Hall even if he didn’t play another snap).
So I grabbed a couple of articles that I saw on larger sites to put up for debate here.
Well, it’s that time of year again. Actually, it’s well past that time of year – we decided to take a little time this year,
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before presenting our guesses for the Hall of Fame. But here we finally go…
Andy: Picking Hall of Fame classes in recent years has been a little easier, as there have been at least a few candidates in each class who stood a head taller than their peers. That changes a bit this year, as the voters have put many of those top notch candidates in. Not that there aren’t great players remaining, but there are a lot of guys with similar resumes to consider.
Tony: There are three first-time eligible players who seem like obvious names to, at least, make the final 15 – starting with the only player probably guaranteed a ticket to Canton in 2016 — former Falcons, Jets and Vikings quarterback Brett Favre (what? He played somewhere else?). He held basically every quarterback record there is when he retired, and with three MVP awards and a Super Bowl ring in addition to 11 Pro Bowls and six All-Pros, Favre’s bronze bust was cast before he walked away from the game…even the first time.
The other two seem likely to make the finalist list, but less likely make the final five—Terrell Owens and Alan Faneca. Owens finished his career second in all-time yardage and third in touchdowns, but six Pro Bowls and five first-team All-Pros won’t likely overcome his reputation in year one. And while Faneca was one of the best guards in the game in his time, he isn’t at the same level as Randall McDaniel or Will Shields, who both had to wait to get in.
Andy: Yep, I agree completely on the first-year guys. Favre may have played a year too long, but he was the model of greatness and a gunslinger throughout the years. Not to go all “John Madden” on it, but his personality is missed in today’s game. (more…)
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Yea it’s a mess and another example of how poor their PR and marketing often is
In addition to the process the Pro Football Hall of Fame has to fix how they run their website because…
I just started a Facebook group called Clint Murchison for Pro Football Hall of Fame
Paul I’ve emailed Rick Gosselin a lot of times about Clint Murchison
opps looks like Gosselin did make a case for him https://rickgosselin.com/state-your-case-clint-murchison/