Hall needs separate category for contributors

by Andy | Feb 2, 2014 | Hall of Fame

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.

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Carter induction didn’t break Hall of Fame voters’ wide receiver logjam

by Andy | Jan 31, 2014 | Hall of Fame

A couple years ago I wrote a post discussing the difficulties that Tim Brown, Andre Reed and Cris Carter were having

Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

getting the support necessary to earn the votes needed for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.

It seemed, based on comments from voters and analysis by a number of pundits, that the voters couldn’t decide which one to put in the Hall first – so all of their candidacies suffered.

In that post, I made the argument that Brown warranted being inducted first, but added that all three ultimately should be inducted – and that voters better get it together fast because a new class of wide receivers are on their way.

Carter finally got in last year. While I remain convinced that Brown and Reed are both worthy of being inducted, I think their candidacies – at least pre-senior committee – may be in some trouble if one of them doesn’t get in this year.

The problem is that starting this year, guys who played during the heavier passing era the NFL has moved to are now becoming eligible for the Hall. That starts with Colts wideout Marvin Harrison.

When I went to compare Harrison to the three receivers I wrote about previously, I was stunned at how close Harrison’s numbers were to Carter’s during their respective careers. They went to the same number of Pro Bowls. Harrison had three All Pro first team awards to Carter’s two. Harrison had one more catch and 681 more receiving yards. They had the same number of 1,000 yard seasons and Harrison reached the 10 touchdown season plateau two times more than Carter. (more…)