Wolf, Polian are first HOF Contributor Candidates

by Andy | Oct 22, 2014 | Hall of Fame

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.

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Tingelhoff named 2015 Hall of Fame senior candidate

by Andy | Aug 20, 2014 | Hall of Fame

Photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings

Long-time Vikings center Mick Tingelhoff has been selected by the Pro Football Hall of Fame senior committee as its candidate for induction in 2015, according to the hall’s website.

A select handful of the overall Hall of Fame voters met early Wednesday to discuss senior candidates and made the announcement early this afternoon.

Tingelhoff played 17 years for the Vikings, starting every regular season and playoff game between 1962 and 1978 — a total of 259. During that stretch he was a six-time Pro Bowl player and Associated Press First Team All Pro five times.

“Mick was a catalyst for our team and one of the most respected players on those teams,” says Bud Grant, Tingelhoff’s coach and a Hall of Famer himself since 1994, in a statement at Vikings.com. “I have no doubt that had he not played center he would have been a Hall of Fame linebacker. He played center with the mentality of a linebacker. Mick’s intangibles were the thing that made him so great. He was a captain the whole time I coached him and guys looked at him as an example of how to do things.”

Every year players like Tingelhoff, former Packers guard Jerry Kramer and Dallas LB Chuck Howley, among others, are debated — both by committee members and readers of this site. For a few years, former players selected by the senior committee were finding it challenging to get the necessary votes to achieve enshrinement, but in recent years it has been a bit easier. Last year’s senior candidates, punter Ray Guy and DE Claude Humphrey, both were enshrined.In 2013, Chiefs DT Curley Culp and Packers LB Dave Robinson also made the grade.

Robinson, also in the Vikings’ release, indicated support for Tingelhoff’s enshrinement. (more…)

Hall of Fame to add “Contributor” selection

by Andy | Aug 1, 2014 | Hall of Fame

As the NFL gets set to kick off the beginning of another season with its annual Hall of Fame induction weekend, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s board made a decision Friday that will affect – and potentially increase – enshrinement classes for at least the next five years.

In a much needed addition, the board added a “contributor” category, meaning owners, broadcasters and others who didn’t play the game but helped the NFL. There will be a subcommittee of voters selected to make the nominations for the new category. The nominees will still need 80 percent support on finalist voting day.

The move will increase to eight the maximum number of total enshrinees for any individual season — five modern-era candidates and then a mix of up to three senior or contributor candidates.

It’ll give guys like NFL Films Co-Founder Steve Sabol, former owners like the late Art Modell and Eddie DeBartolo Jr. former executives like George Young and retired commissioners such as Paul Tagliabue a better chance to earn induction since they will not be compared against modern-era players.

I’m in favor of the move – hugely in favor. There are some folks who deserve to be in who are having a hard time getting traction because of the backlog of players – who should take priority, I would think.

Details are still flowing in – there have been some media posts, but nothing official from the Hall yet that I have found. One detail I don’t understand is that contributors will get two slots every other year, at least for the next five years — I’d be fine with that except it comes at the expense of one of the senior candidate nominees. While I agree that contributors should have their own category, the backlog of senior Hall of Fame player candidates is much longer, particularly since, as I understand it, coaches are remaining in the same pool as modern-era players. Each group will get two selections one year, then two the next. At least off the top of my head, anyway, I can count 20 senior candidates that get regular discussion here at our blog to every three or four “contributors.”

If that’s the case it’s not a perfect change. But it’s a step in the right direction. It’ll definitely put some deserving candidates on equal footing so their cases can be considered when modern-era finalists are – and that is a good thing.