2014 Football Hall of Fame Inductees

by Andy | Aug 27, 2013 | Hall of Fame

Pro Football Hall of Fame voters charged with selecting the honorees for 2014 may think they made their job easier by selecting Cris Carter as part of the 2013 class. But the strong first-year candidacy of retired Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison means they’ll be trying yet again to break a logjam at that position.

Carter emerged as the first of three solid candidates – Andre Reed and Tim Brown being the others – who seemed to cancel each other out for years before the 2013 class was announced.

Who they’ll choose between the trio of Harrison, Brown and Reed is just one of the questions that the panel will face as another strong group becomes eligible for the first time.

So who joins senior candidates Ray Guy and Claude Humphrey as the 15 finalists who’ll be debated before the Super Bowl? Then who will the committee ultimately honor with gold jackets in Canton, Ohio next August?

A guess at the 2014 class starts with a look at the 2013 finalists and who were ultimately not selected to the Hall’s 2013 class. Those who survived the cut down from 15 to 10 were Michael Strahan, Jerome Bettis, Charles Haley, Andre Reed and Aeneas Williams.

I go back and forth on Bettis’ qualifications at times, given that for the last few years of his career he was really a short yardage and goal line complement to guys like Willie Parker. But he did have six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, make six Pro Bowls and finish his career 13,662 rushing yards, which still ranks him sixth all-time. Strahan, I am guessing, missed out because the voters selected Warren Sapp instead. The other three are multi-time finalists. So let’s start with the assumption that all five of these guys will rejoin at least the round of 15.

The five candidates who made finalist status but did not crack the final 10 were Tim Brown, Will Shields, Kevin Greene and two owners, Ed DeBartolo and Art Modell. Let’s start with Shields. There probably isn’t a current day candidate out there that I think more warrants induction than him. In addition to the fact that he played the glory-less position of guard (where even Randall McDaniel had to wait three years for election), he’s had the unfortunate bad luck to be eligible in the same years that Willie Roaf and Dermontti Dawson were selected in 2012 and Larry Allen and Jonathan Ogden made it in 2013. Shields will get inducted and, with McDaniel as a barometer, I think this is his year. (more…)