Thinking I had a chance to finally prove Bachslunch wrong on a Hall of Fame matter (I didn’t–I thought that the Hall could take seven inductees regardless of whether they are senior candidates or not, but they are considered seperately), I came across this article on the Hall of Fame Web site that outlines the voting process, and lists the Hall of Fame Board of Selectors.
Looking at the list of selectors, a few things jumped out at me:
The fifteen 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists were announced Tuesday, adding their names to the two senior candidates announced in August. The 25 semifinalists had been announced in November.
We’ve got a couple of great Hall of Fame discussions going already–one discussing our picks for the Hall of Fame Class of 2009, and one discussing the Hall of Fame worthiness of several current players.
The seventeen finalists:
WR Cris Carter
C Dermontti Dawson
DE Richard Dent
G Russ Grimm
WR Bob Hayes (Senior Candidate)
DE Claude Humphrey (Senior Candidate)
DT Cortez Kennedy
G Bob Kuechenberg
G Randall McDaniel
DT John Randle
WR Andre Reed
TE Shannon Sharpe
DE Bruce Smith
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
LB Derrick Thomas
Team Owner Ralph Wilson
DB Rod Woodson
Sharpe, Woodson, Smith and Randle are all first year finalists.
Only two players from our original guess of the 15 finalists did not make it–Ray Guy and Charles Haley. The two that made it that weren’t on our list were Cortez Kennedy and Ralph Wilson. All five of our picks for the Class of 2009 made the cut.
Recently, I’ve heard the question asked on local sports radio about the Hall of Fame worthiness of Kurt Warner, and also recently discovered that Edgerrin James became the 13th leading rusher all time–and all of the top 12 that are eligible are all in the Hall of Fame.
We’ve had a good discussion about the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees, so I thought maybe we should put the topic up for discussion here–are the following active players Hall of Fame worthy?
The 2009 Hall of Fame Semifinalists list was announced Wednesday, about a month after the list of eligibles was announced. Four players in their first year of eligibility made the cut — DT John Randle, DB Rod Woodson, TE Shannon Sharpe, and DE Bruce Smith.
The other candidates are WR Cris Carter, RB Roger Craig, RB Terrell Davis, C Dermontti Dawson, DE Richard Dent, DE Chris Doleman, LB Kevin Greene, OL Russ Grimm, P Ray Guy, DE Charles Haley, CB Lester Hayes, DT Cortez Kennedy, G Bob Kuechenberg, G Randall McDaniel, owner Art Modell, WR Andre Reed, QB Ken Stabler, commissioner Paul Tagliabue, ST Steve Tasker, LB Derrick Thomas, and owner Ralph Wilson.
A further round of voting will cut the list to 15, which will be announced in January (so far, all 15 of ZoneBlitz.com’s picks as finalists are still in play). From those 15 (plus senior candidates Bob Hayes and Claude Humphrey), inductees will be picked (and announced) the Saturday before the Super Bowl.
With last week’s enshrinement of the class of 2008 to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, we thought it would be a good chance now to look ahead to Super Bowl weekend, when they will annouce the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
Robert we’ll miss you but I do have a point though maybe I’ll take a hiatus from posting here for…
Andy Can we please move on its getting old and stale because you wont stop on this topic im done…
I feel bad for all the voters who were removed
If only if Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft had been elected then these changes wouldn’t have happened
The Pro Football Hall of Fame will never be the same after these changes