Eddie DeBartolo Jr. ran into some controversy off the field, but his career as an NFL owner is rivaled by few.
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
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
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
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,
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
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…)
Troy Polamalu has announced that he’s retiring after a mostly spectacular 12-year career with the Pittsburgh
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Steelers.
During his career he racked up eight Pro Bowls and four first-team All Pro awards, one behind Ravens safety Ed Reed in both categories. Polamalu also was a second-team All Decade safety on the team of the 2000s. Reed and Brian Dawkins won first-team and Polamalu shared his honors with Darren Sharper.
So Polamalu’s credentials as a Hall of Famer should be without question, right?
Probably so. He’s a year behind Reed in eligibility, so I would normally think he’s a year behind Reed in induction – though Reed could go in slightly more quickly due to the additional honors. Still, Polamalu’s credentials are solid. He becomes eligible in 2020 and one would think he’d have a pretty good shot of making it then or, at least, shortly thereafter.
However, it’s been very difficult in recent years to figure out how voters view the safety position. There are several top-notch candidates from the last three All-Decade teams – among others – who have still not been voted into the Hall – guys with similar postseason profiles to Polamalu and Reed. So how long they wait really depends on how voters decide to sort out the backlog.
Here’s at least a partial list of guys who seem to be viewed as legit candidates: (more…)
Half an hour ago (ok, the news leaked yesterday), Patrick Willis shocked the football world when he retired after eight years in the league.
As I sit hear watching NFL Network, they are having the same debate that was my first thought–was Patrick Willis a Hall of Famer?
We’ll update this post in a few minutes, but we wanted to start getting comments from our Hall of Fame community, since we think this is amongst the most informed Hall of Fame communities online…
Willis was a starter for the 49ers from Day one after being selected 11th overall in 2007, after a strong performance at the NFL Combine.
He amassed an incredible 174 tackles in his rookie season, along with four sacks. Over his first seven seasons, he only missed six games, and he compiled over 900 tackles and 20.5 sacks. In 2014, he ended his season after six games due to an injury to his toe that required surgery.
In his career, he was named to 7 Pro Bowls, voted first team All-Pro five times (and one second team), led the NFL in tackles twice, was the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, was a three time NFL Alumni Linebacker of the Year (whatever that is), was twice named the 49ers MVP, and was in the NFL Top 100 as named by NFL Network each year since they started naming the list in 2011.
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I guess what I am saying Andy P is that transparency is great, just doubt that it improves the results