by Andy | Feb 1, 2013 | Hall of Fame
With Selection Saturday just a couple days off we’re again putting out the opportunity for the Zoneblitz faithful to officially guess who will earn induction to the Hall of Fame.
Put your picks in the comments section and we’ll add them to the table. We’re not sure at the moment if your prize will just be bragging rights or if there actually will be some Zoneblitz swag available for the person who gets the most correct. We’ll try to figure something out.
We made picks several months ago right after last year’s class was announced. Andy’s already lost at least one of his picks (John Lynch), so he’s going in at a disadvantage – meaning maybe Tony will finally be able to beat him in one of our prediction segments for the season.
If you want to get some background, feel free to check out our posts that came out when the senior candidates were named and when the committee announced its semifinalists and finalists. You also can see who we picked for 2013 going back to last year’s announcement.
Good luck everyone. And tune in Saturday, as we’ll have a post up shortly after the announcement is made. Thanks for reading. (more…)
by Andy | Jan 11, 2013 | Hall of Fame
Four first-year nominees, including defensive linemen Warren Sapp and Michael Strahan and offensive linemen Jonathan Ogden and Larry Allen, are among 15 modern-era finalists for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2013.
Three wide receivers, Cris Carter, Andre Reed and Tim Brown also are on the list.
Other offensive players in the running for induction are running back Jerome Bettis and offensive lineman Will Shields. Defensive players among the finalists include linebacker Kevin Greene, defensive end Charles Haley and cornerback Aeneas Williams.
The last three finalists are coach Bill Parcells and two owners, Edward DeBartolo and Art Modell.
The finalists were announced Friday morning on NFL Network.
The list of 15 modern-era finalists was culled from a list of 27 semifinalists that was announced in November. The 12 semifinalists who did not make the cut to 15 were: running backs Roger Craig and Terrell Davis; offensive lineman Joe Jacoby; linebacker Karl Mecklenburg; defensive backs Steve Atwater, Albert Lewis and John Lynch (another notable first-time candidate); kicker Morten Andersen; special teamer Steve Tasker; coach Don Coryell; former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and former Giants General Manager George Young.
Notable among the finalists are the three wide receivers. Brown, Reed and Carter all are seen as legitimate candidates for the Hall, but to this point they seem to be siphoning votes from one another, with none of the three able to garner enough support to earn enshrinement. (more…)
by Tony | Jan 2, 2013 | Hall of Fame, NFL News
Assuming Ray Lewis follows through on his plans to retire, the only likely hurdle between him and a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction in five years would be the memory of legal issues he faced in 2001 after two individuals were killed in a fight with Lewis and his companions after the Super Bowl.
While the most serious of the charges we’re dropped in exchange for his testimony against others, he pled guilty to obstruction of justice, avoiding prison time and ensuring that he’d be able to continue what ended up being one of the best careers a linebacker has had in NFL history.
That career included 13 pro bowls, seven first-team All-Pros, a Super Bowl MVP award, two NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, three AFC Defensive Player of the Year awards, being named to the 2000’s All-Decade team, and a host of other awards and records (see the sidebar here). So while his legal troubles may be a discussion point in the Hall of Fame conversation (even if they’re not supposed to be), the debate isn’t whether or not he will get in, it’s only a possible debate about when.
And the bigger debate, in many people’s eyes, is where exactly he falls in the list of “Greatest of all-time” for Linebackers (realistically, probably inside or outside ‘backers).
Personally, while I’ve always thought he was great, I also thought he also was greatly aided by usually playing on teams that had a system (and the players up front) to funnel traffic his way and keep blockers off of him–so I would be hesitant to put him ahead of guys like Lawrence Taylor, Dick Butkus and possibly even a few more (Ray Nitschke? Mike Singletary? Jack Lambert or Jack Ham?).
So we put the word out to you (especially our regular Hall of Fame commenters)–we’ve got the poll going, is Lewis the greatest of all time, or who would you rank ahead of him? Let us know in the comments.
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by Andy | Nov 30, 2012 | Hall of Fame
Six first-year candidates are among the 27 modern-era semifinalists still alive for potential induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2013.
Offensive linemen Jonathan Ogden and Larry Allen, defensive linemen Michael Strahan and Warren Sapp, kicker Morten Andersen and safety John Lynch make up an incredibly deep pool of first-year candidates still in contention. Another first-time semifinalist is Kansas City defensive back Albert Lewis, a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time First Team All-Pro who retired after the 1998 season.
Otherwise there were few major surprises in the announcement. The survivors also include three wide receivers, each of whom many voters and observers believe are qualified for Hall enshrinement, who seem to be canceling each other out in the final voting process: Andre Reed, Cris Carter and Tim Brown.
Disappearing from last year’s semifinalist lists from recent years include linebacker Clay Mathews, defensive back Donnie Shell and contributor Ron Wolf. One notable absence from the list is Steve Sabol, one of the forces behind NFL Films, who died from brain cancer in September. Sabol’s father, Ed Sabol, founded the company in 1962 and was enshrined in Canton in 2011.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee culled the list of nominees to 27 from 127, which had been comprised of 89 former players, 14 coaches and 24 contributors.
Semifinalists
RB Jerome Bettis, Roger Craig, Terrell Davis
WR Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Andre Reed
OL Larry Allen, Will Shields, Joe Jacoby, Jonathan Ogden
DL: Charles Haley, Warren Sapp, Michael Strahan
LB Karl Mecklenburg, Kevin Greene
DB: Steve Atwater, Albert Lewis, John Lynch, Aeneas Williams
K Morten Andersen
Special Teams: Steve Tasker
Coaches Don Coryell, Bill Parcells
Owners Edward DeBartolo Jr., Art Modell
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
Contributor George Young
These modern-era candidates will be reduced to 15 finalists that will be announced in early January. That list will then be cut to 10 and then to five on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Those five will be voted on individually for inclusion, as will two senior-era candidates, Curly Culp and Dave Robinson.
Between four and seven enshrinees will be selected for enshrinement. The final voting process takes place prior to the Super Bowl.
The inductees for the class of 2013 will be announced at the Super Bowl. They will be enshrined in August 2013. (We made our predictions here.)
by Andy | Nov 28, 2012 | 2012 season, Hall of Fame, NFL Random Thoughts
Pride of Detroit wrote this week that Calvin Johnson is on pace to come within 20 yards of breaking the all-time single season receiving yardage record this year, which surprised me because it seemed like until a couple weeks ago he was having a somewhat down season compared with the number he put up in 2011.
As it turns out, Johnson is on pace for an 1828 yard season – just off the pace of Jerry Rice, who had 1848 in 1995. He’s just not getting in the end zone as much – he’s been tackled at the one yard line a ridiculous number of times – but he’s still having another monster year.
After seemingly taking a couple seasons to get acclimated to the NFL game after spending his college days at the wishbone stalwart Georgia Tech, Megatron has been on fire the last couple seasons. In 2011, he led the league in receiving yards with 1681, was second in touchdowns to Rob Gronkowski with 16 (Gronk had 17) and had 96 catches.
His stalwart numbers through the first six years of his career made me wonder how he stacked up with a couple of the league’s all-time greats. And yes, it appears as though these last couple amazingly prolific seasons have put Johnson right in the mix with the likes of Randy Moss and Jerry Rice, whose careers were compared on this site previously.
Barring injury, Johnson will eclipse Rice’s reception total for their first six years. Rice had 446. Johnson has 439 right now with five games left in the regular season for Detroit. He’ll likely fall just short of Rice in yardage, though he’s got a shot to catch him (7,129 with five games left to Rice’s 7,866). Rice’s 79 touchdowns through a half-dozen years has both Moss (77) and Megatron (53). (more…)
by Andy | Nov 16, 2012 | Hall of Fame
With the gay marriage amendment defeated during the election in Minnesota earlier this month, outspoken Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has found a new topic on which to opine: Ray Guy’s omission from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The arguments have gone both ways. He revolutionized the punter position. So he should be in. He’s just a punter, so he should stay out. He was great at pinning teams inside the 20 yard line so he should be in. His gross average wasn’t all that great so he should be out. As this Pro Football Reference blog post states, few players’ cases stir “as much passion and disagreement as Ray Guy.”
The topic came up again earlier this week when a Yahoo! Sports story featured the 62-year-old Guy, who now works at Southern Mississippi with former athletes from his alma mater, where he also helps raise funds. (more…)
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I might sue the Pro Football Hall of Fame on behalf on those who’ve been snubbed for so long and…
Paul well said but we’ll just see what happens
Voters will not care about a feud between Bill and Kraft, and those two respective BRPs (neither of whom got…
Brian she finished third in her state beauty pageant
Brian we’ll just see what happens and your right about Jordon Hudson