by Tony | Aug 17, 2023 | Hall of Fame
Mike Shanahan
Came across a thread on Reddit about ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter going off on Mike Shanahan not being elected to the Hall of Fame this year. According to the article linked from DenverSports.com, Schefter’s rant was on the “Schlereth and Evans” show on 104.3 The Fan this morning. Schefter covered the Broncos early in his career, first at the the Rocky Mountain News and then the Denver Post.
“I think it’s a bunch of BS. Mike Shanahan is a Hall of Famer yesterday, today and tomorrow. I mean, its ridiculous. Who made these 50 people the voices of God and the deciders of fate? Like, who comes up with these stupid rules?”
Schefter said he does trust the voters, but he thinks there are other people who know even more about football. Ultimately, he feels the process feels unfair, and that unfairness is going to mean Shanahan waits longer.
“These are mistakes. Mike Shanahan is a Hall of Famer. He’s just not in the Hall of Fame. He belongs in the Hall of Fame, he should’ve been in before. He’s going to get in. But let’s just make him wait to 2024 or 2026… until the judges of the game, the arbiters of the truth, get to issue that pass to go to the Hall. Like, okay, give me a break.”
I generally don’t disagree that there could be tweaks to the process–but if I’m looking to make an argument for someone who hasn’t made it yet–especially as a non-player–I’m not sure Shanahan is the guy I hang that argument on. I have no issues with him making the Hall, but I also have no issues with him waiting while others get considered–and I don’t have a huge desire to make the Hall more inclusive, just to get some fringe guys that a small (but often vocal) fan base thinks belongs in because of what the player/coach/person meant to their team–it’s about what that person meant to the league and the game in general, and many players–even that we discuss on this site–just don’t fit that bill.
Curious to hear your thoughts below.
by Paul L. | Jul 13, 2023 | Hall of Fame
With the formal weeklong ceremonies and enshrinement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 only a few weeks away in Canton Ohio, the process to select the next class is already underway with recent voting by the committees for the senior and coach-contributor categories, and results released by the Hall.
The senior players who are 2024 semifinalists are:
- Ken Anderson
- Ottis Anderson
- Carl Banks
- Maxie Baughan
- Larry Brown
- Mark Clayton
- Charlie Conerly
- Roger Craig
- Henry Ellard
- Randy Gradishar
- Lester Hayes
- Chris Hinton
- Cecil Isbell
- Joe Jacoby
- Billy “White Shoes” Johnson
- Mike Kenn
- Bob Kuechenberg
- George Kunz
- Albert Lewis
- Jim Marshall
- Clay Matthews Jr.
- Steve McMichael
- Eddie Meador
- Stanley Morgan
- Tommy Nobis
- Art Powell
- Sterling Sharpe
- Steve Tasker
- Otis Taylor
- Everson Walls
- Al Wistert.
The coaches/ contributors who are 2024 semifinalists are:
- K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr.
- Roone Arledge
- C.O. Brocato
- Tom Coughlin
- Alex Gibbs
- Ralph Hay
- Mike Holmgren
- Frank “Bucko” Kilroy
- Eddie Kotal
- Robert Kraft
- Elmer Layden
- Jerry Markbreit
- Virginia McCaskey
- Rich McKay
- John McVay
- Art Modell
- Buddy Parker
- Carl Peterson
- Dan Reeves
- Art Rooney Jr.
- Marty Schottenheimer
- Jerry Seeman
- George Seifert
- Mike Shanahan
- Clark Shaughnessy
- Seymour Siwoff
- Jim Tunney
- Lloyd Wells
- John Wooten
More detailed bios for these candidates can be found at: https://www.profootballhof.com/news/2023/60-semifinalists-named-for-class-of-2024-in-senior,-coach-contributor-categories/
From these lists, the 12 senior player and 12 coach-contributors finalists will be announced on July 27th, and then 3 seniors are selected on August 15 and 1 coach-contributor on August 22nd to have their cases presented to the full PFHOF selection committee and voted on (each finalist needing 80% yes from the 50 member committee) at their meeting in early January when the Class of 2024 will elected. The official announcement of the Class of 2024 on the NFL Honors show on Thursday February 8th, 2024.
The process to select the 5 modern candidates for the Class of 204 will occur during the fall – in advance of that January 2024 selection meeting – look for posts and discussion here on those results in coming months.
But with seniors and coach-contributor semi-finalists now released, let’s start into our debates and discussions on these deserving candidates as their potential paths to Canton have started.
by Tony | Jul 7, 2023 | Hall of Fame
Another quick Hall of Fame post from a site I just found recently–The33rdTeam.com. With a content team that features several former NFL Coaches, Executives & Players, in theory they should know what they’re talking about.
They recently put out a post about current NFL players that they believe are going to make the cut to Canton–and some that are on the fence.
Their verdict:
IN:
DL Aaron Donald
WR Julio Jones
TE Travis Kelce
QB Patrick Mahomes
G Zack Martin
LB/DE Von Miller
QB Aaron Rodgers
K Justin Tucker
LB Bobby Wagner
OT Trent Williams
LIKELY IN:
RB Derrick Henry
WR Tyreek Hill
DE Cam Jordan
C Jason Kelce
G Quentin Nelson
OT Jason Peters
QB Russell Wilson
POTENTIAL:
WR Davante Adams
G Joel Bitonio
DT Fletcher Cox
DE Myles Garrett
LB/DE Khalil Mack
WR/RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson
CB Jalen Ramsey
QB Matt Ryan
QB Matthew Stafford
DT Ndamukong Suh
What do you think of their list? Who was miscategorized? Who did they forget? Let us know!
by Tony | Jul 6, 2023 | Hall of Fame
We should have our new post about the HOF announcements soon–but in the mean time, there’s additional Hall of Fame talk going on elsewhere…
To start, Corey Dillon was recently interviewed for a story by Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic for a story–and Dillon decided to take the opportunity to make it known that he’s not happy about the fact that he’s not getting more consideration for the Hall of Fame.
“You know the f—ery that’s going on,” he said. “We can shoot this straight. That’s the only way I like it.”
The crux of his argument? Dillon is one of 10 running backs in the Super Bowl era whose career featured 10,000+ total yards, 4.3 yards per carry, and 70 yards rushing per game. Eight are in (or will arguably be first-ballot for, in Adrian Peterson, according to Dehner) the Pro Football Hall of Fame; the others are Dillon and Fred Taylor.
I’ve never really given a lot of thought to Dillon’s HOF credentials–and I would argue that Fred Taylor is another player that is nice, but not over the threshold for me.
What do you guys think–does Dillon have an argument? Will he eventually get some more consideration? Let us know in the comments!
by Tony | Feb 9, 2023 | Hall of Fame
The official announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023:
Joe Thomas, OT
Darelle Revis, CB
Demarcus Ware, DE/OLB
Ken Riley, CB
Joe Klecko, DL
Chuck Howley, LB
Ronde Barber, DB
Don Coryell, Coach
Zach Thomas, LB
Let us know what you think in the comments below…
by Tony | Oct 22, 2022 | Hall of Fame
I spent some time looking back at the history of Zoneblitz the last couple of days, partly just out of curiosity and partly because I haven’t looked at the details in quite some time. Looking back at our domain registrar, it shows our ownership date for Zoneblitz.com as 5/30/2007 — but I know we’ve owned the domain since longer than that, as I remember the very first iteration of the site (a colossal failure) back in probably 2001 or so.
The oldest post in this iteration of Zoneblitz dates back to February 29th, 2008, a leap year post celebrating the start of the new (football) year — a post that, according to our Google Analytics (launched in October of 2008) likely just got it’s first visit in the last 14 years today. We stumbled into writing about the Hall of Fame later in 2008 as well. I thought I had written a much more scathing post about Randall McDaniel not making it, but apparently it was just our first ever predictions post. And while we didn’t think anything of it, come January and the announcement of who made the cut, we saw our first spike in traffic — 5,400 total pageviews, almost 3,600 on that single post. In August, with the actual induction, it spiked again. And it began an annual tradition. (more…)
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Robert ok see you then
Robert ok see you then
Brian i could 100% see that in terms of anderson being the next senior elected by the hall of fame…
Malcolm Butler for ruining my 16th birthday Russell Wilson for throwing out his loyalties and Arthur Blank for trading Matt…
Why would you be upset with Butler, Wilson and Blank, Andy?