First off an apology to those who are regular readers and contributors to our Hall of Fame content. This last year-and-change has been busy and largely great, but brutal from the perspective of spending time on projects that aren’t A) directly involved with the day-job and B) at least semi-contributing to bank accounts. Thus, as some have noted in comments, we’ve fallen behind in terms of keeping up with some of our content. We have not shut down and we are making some plans that, hopefully, allow for more regular and timely posting. But real-life will, at times, kick in, trumping the fun stuff that we’d rather spend more time on.
Now, with that said, regular readers, presumably, are celebrating this week, as Johnny Robinson, one of the most frequently cited Hall of Fame snubs ever mentioned here, has finally made it in to the Hall. He’ll be 81 this year and he has waited way too long for this honor. Luckily he’s had plenty of accolades to celebrate over the years while he waited, including an interception in Super Bowl IV against my hometown Vikings.
It was a good year for the Chiefs. The team discovered it has a franchise QB in Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs finished just an offsides penalty away from a Super Bowl berth. And, along with Robinson, long-time TE Tony Gonzalez made the cut as well. (more…)
Tony Gonzalez, Ed Reed and Champ Bailey headlined the announcement of the 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Thursday night. The list was culled down from a list of 25 semifinalists, named in November.
Joining the trio on the list of finalists are wide receiver Isaac Bruce, running back Edgerrin James, defensive backs Steve Atwater, Ty Law and John Lynch, offensive linemen Tony Boselli, Kevin Mawae, Alan Faneca and Steve Hutchinson, defensive lineman Richard Seymour, and coaches Don Coryell and Tom Flores.
The selection as a finalist marks Hutchinson and Atwater’s second time making the cut (Atwater was first a finalist in 2016, Hutchinson last year), the third time for Boselli, Bruce, James, Law and Mawae, the fourth time for Faneca, and the sixth time for Lynch. Flores and Seymour are first time finalists.
Among those not making the cut were coach Jimmy Johnson, receivers Hines Ward and Torry Holt, linebacker Clay Matthews. Two finalists from the 2018 class, Everson Walls and Joe Jacoby (who was a three time finalist) ran out of modern era eligibility, and now must wait for a possible seniors nomination.
The fifteen finalists will be cut to 10, and then cut to five before being placed up for a final yes/no vote, along with contributors Pat Bowlen and Gil Brandt and Senior Nominee Johnny Robinson on Saturday, February 2, the day before the Super Bowl.
We realized that we never actually put up an official post this year with our prediction in it, and that a fair number of our regular commentors have already listed their guesses on our thread about Robinson’s nomination–but this year, we’ve put together the form below to submit your choices below, and if a enough people submit guesses, we may come up with some sort of prize (and even if not, we’ll post some sort of adulation to the submission with the most correct).
And for the record, my guess this year would be Faneca, Gonzalez, Lynch, Reed and Coryell, with a yes to Bowlen, Brandt and Robinson.
In news that will likely satisfy (assuming a positive vote in February) many regulars here at Zoneblitz, Kansas City Chiefs Safety Johnny Robinson was announced as the Senior Candidate for the 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame on Friday. Despite a career that included seven Pro Bowls, six First-Team All AFL/Pro selections, a Super Bowl championship and selection to the All-Time AFL team, this will be Robinson’s first time as a senior candidate for the Hall of Fame. Robinson was a finalist six times during his initial eligibility window, the final time in 1986.
Robinson was drafted 3rd overall in the 1960 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions, but decided to play for the Dallas Texans (later the Kansas City Chiefs) who had also drafted him in the first round of their initial draft (the details of which are a bit cloudy, as far as where he was technically selected). He spent his first two seasons playing flanker for the Texans, before moving to safety in his 3rd season. After suffering a career ending injury on December 25th, 1971, he retired in 1972 with 57 interceptions, and was the all-time winningest player in AFL history.
Senior Finalists for the Hall of Fame are chosen by a special Seniors Committee, made up of nine veteran members of the overall Selection Committee. A list of candidates is compiled including carry-over nominations from the previous years, first-time eligible candidates, and nominations from any outside sources. Through a mail ballot, the list is reduced to 15 Senior Finalists, and a rotating sub-committee of five of the nine members of the Senior Committee meet in Canton, Ohio, to choose the finalist.
The Senior Candidate will be forwarded to the full Selection Committee, along with a Contributor Finalist two Contributor Finalists (chosen in a similar process) for final vote, prior to the committee narrowing the list of 15 modern-era finalists to the final five along with up to five modern-era candidates. The seven candidates at that stage are given a final yes/no vote.
The last Senior Finalist to not be elected to the Hall of Fame was Dick Stanfel in 2012–after being previously rejected in 1993–who was finally elected in 2016. Prior to that, Claude Humphrey was given a no vote in 2009, then elected in 2014. The last Senior Finalist to not be elected to the Hall of Fame was Marshall Goldberg in 2008, after being previously rejected in 1979. The last Senior Finalist to not be elected to the Hall while being the only Senior Finalist (from 2004-2014, two Senior Finalists were selected each year, to relieve some of the backlog of deserving candidates) was Jerry Kramer, in 1997. Kramer was enshrined in the Hall of Fame earlier this month.
The Contributor Finalist for the Class of 2019 is expected to be announced later next week. Final voting for the full class of 2019 will take place and be announced on the Saturday before the Super Bowl.
More info on this later, but it appears via various announcements on Twitter and other sources that the following players have been named the class of 2018:
DB Ronde Barber, G Steve Hutchinson and DL Richard Seymour also made the semifinalist list in their first tries. S LeRoy Butler, DEs Leslie O’Neal and Simeon Rice, and CB Everson Walls also are first-time semifinalists, though they have been eligible candidates in the past.
The 2018 semifinalist list includes 12 offensive players, 13 defensive players and two coaches. The coaches, Don Coryell and Jimmy Johnson, have a combined 15 appearances on the semifinalist list. Johnson won two Super Bowls in five years with Dallas and closed his career with four years in Miami, a relatively short career compared with most Hall of Fame coaches.
Coryell coached for 14 years, making his mark especially with San Diego in the late 1970s and early 1980s, leading teams to great regular seasons but faltering in the playoffs.
Eleven first-year players, including WR Randy Moss, LB Ray Lewis, LB Brian Urlacher and DB Ronde Barber highlight the list of 108
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
modern-era nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2018.
Other first-year candidates include WR Donald Driver and (the other) Steve Smith; OL Matt Birk, Jeff Saturday, Steve Hutchinson; and DL Richard Seymour and Kyle Vanden Bosch.
Of the first-year guys, the first four would seem to be locks for enshrinement – presumably Lewis as a first-ballot HOFer and the rest in years to follow (Moss had a first-ballot career, but likely falls into the trap Terrell Owens and others have with logjams and politics).
Without spending a great deal of time studying their respective cases, my inclination is that Driver and Smith are solid nos, Hutchinson is a yes, Birk and Saturday are maybes, Seymour is a yes and Vanden Bosch is a no … your thoughts?
The entire list can be found here. It consists of 53 offensive players, 38 defensive players, five special teamers and 12 coaches.
As you can see by the link, there has been a fair amount made of the nomination of Smith. In reality, as most of you are aware, anyone can nominate a player for this stage of the process. Thus, over the years, many non-candidate candidates have had their names brought forward.
The group will be reduced to 25 semifinalists in November and then to 15 finalists in January.
Those 15 finalists along with Senior Candidates Jerry Kramer and Robert Brazile and Bobby Beathard, who was nominated as a contributor, will be voted on during meetings held during Super Bowl weekend.
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I guess what I am saying Andy P is that transparency is great, just doubt that it improves the results
So what do you mean where you say transparency?
Paul I don’t know what are you trying to say
Let’s say we had a lot more transparency during class of 2025 election - would it have changed outcome?
Paul what do you mean it doesn’t improves outcome