2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

I am very skeptical that owners should be in the Hall. Halas should be, and Lamar Hunt, to exemplify the AFL and because he invented the name Super Bowl (allegedly). IMO Kraft deserves to be in not just for owning the sport's most historic dynasty, but for keeping the franchise in New England in the first place. Had he not been the willing financially qualified local owner, the league would've had no choice but to move the franchise somewhere else.

 

Jesus fucking Christ.

I so cannot wait for Brady to retire and Bill walks so the Patriots can remember that they are the fucking Patriots.

Pittsburgh, Dallas, NYG, Packers, Bears are all way more historic if you mean more history.

Hand jobs. That’s Kraft’s legacy.

 

Perhaps I used historic incorrectly, but I don't think so. The Patriots, dating back to 2001, have been the most successful and longest lasting dynastic power in NFL history. Nobody else is close. I am not a Pats fan, but let's be accurate here. Saw a Brady stat today. He's been a starter for 18 seasons, one of which he lost to injury. In that time he's been to nine Super Bowls.

 

They will probably be similar to the Bulls; it's an amazing run, but once the star is gone, it's back to .500 ball on a good year.

 

That's kind of my point. There have been football dynasties since the Bears of the '40s, but none have lasted as long as the Pats have. It's 18 seasons between their first and last Super Bowl win. Paul Brown's Browns won seven titles (AAFC and NFL) in 10 years, and played in ten straight title games. Lombardi's Packers won five in eight years. The Steelers went six seasons between first and last titles. The 49ers of Montana-Young are the closest, with 14 seasons separating their first and last titles. What the Patriots have done in terms of longevity is unsurpassed. It won't much matter if they revert to a .500 team when Belichick and Brady leave. It's very unlikely their record ever will be matched.

 

I think owners need to do something beyond their team being successful to qualify. Help innovate the game or the league in some way. Finding new ways to put more money in your pockets really doesn't qualify. Bowlen was an iffy choice, but Kraft belongs.

 

Honestly, I give more credit to Rupert Murdoch stealing the NFC rights away from CBS than any owner for growing the TV money. I get it - three rings gets you in as an owner - and doing it with multiple coaches/quarterbacks does show sustained excellence - I just never heard of Bowlen being a major voice in the league when he was active.

 

For the contributors category, it's past time to get a referee in the Hall. Jerry Markbreit officiated 4 Super Bowls and was the man you wanted on the big games. If you want to go further back, Art McNally.

 

I would argue that no network has made bigger judgment errors than CBS did in the early '90s.
Its baseball contract was the worst ever signed in the sport and then it lost the NFL for four years, right in the teeth of the Cowboys/49ers/Packers power years.

 

CBS's problem was their suits were buds with the old guard - they never figured the NFL would leave for an "upstart network" regardless of the cash. Enter Jerry Jones.

 

FMIA: In Remembrance of Don Banks, an NFL Conscience and a True Friend

1. I think I hope the Pro Football Hall of Fame thought of all the unintended consequences when it announced the new policy for the class of 2020, the Centennial Class for the Hall. There will be a class of 10 senior candidates, two coaches and three contributors eligible for enshrinement in 2020. There will also be five modern-era finalists, as usual. That’s a potential of a class of 20 people. In recent years, the maximum class has been eight: five modern-era finalists and a combination of three contributors (including coaches) and seniors (men retired for at least 25 years). The difference this year, the Hall’s Board of Directors announced Friday, is that the 15 among the non-modern-era candidates will be nominated as a bloc by what the Hall said would be a 25-member blue-ribbon committee comprised of current Hall selectors and former players and league officials. A few thoughts:

• I’m a fan of addressing the backlog of Senior candidates from past decades, men whose cases have never been heard. I am not a fan of selecting the 15 in a bloc. It sets a precedent—a bad one, I believe—even though the Hall clearly intends this to be a one-time event. If you change the rules once, what’s to stop the Hall from changing them again?

• Let’s say I believe 11 of the 15 nominees are solid and should be admitted, and let’s say I’m waffling on one, and let’s say I do not think three are Hall of Famers. Should I vote yes on the entire class as a bloc, knowing I will be voting yes on three or four who I believe do not belong? For me, that would be a very tough call. An unnecessary one, I believe. We should vote on the 15 one by one, the way the Hall has been admitting the legends of the game since 1963. Though a few of these names will be altogether obscure (Lavvie Dilweg of the old Packers, for instance), my experience in almost three decades on the committee is that there’s tremendous respect for the early years of the league, and probably all of those candidates would be approved—in my opinion—by getting 80 percent of the vote from the 48 selectors.

• The key to this class should be the old timers. We are fixated on the three or four decades when getting outraged about who’s in and who isn’t. What about the first 40 years of the league? This blue-ribbon committee, whoever is on it, should be focused on righting the wrongs of pre-1960 football. Ralph Hay, the owner of the Canton Bulldogs, the first power franchise in history, and the man who led the founding of pro football in 1920, should be one of the contributors. Clark Shaughnessy, vital in the college and pro games in developing the forward pass, should be one of the coaches. Another good candidate? Buddy Parker, a starting back on one Lions championship team and the head coach of two other Detroit title teams, deserves a hard look too. I am bullish on the mantra of Rick Gosselin, one of the smartest football minds on the committee: “This should be a Centennial Class, focusing a lot on the early years of the game.” This should not be the cleanup class for hotly debated candidates of the last 30 years, in my opinion.

• Another issue … Let’s say that a couple of the popular old-timer candidates—Tom Flores, for instance, or Joe Klecko—get bypassed by the blue ribbon committee. (I could use any deserving player. I used Flores and Klecko because there is passion behind the cases for both.) And let’s say big Klecko supporters think he got the shaft. Or let’s say the multiple California voters in Flores’ corner get ticked off he’s not one of the 15. What happens if one or more of those voters, angry at the process already, vetoes the entire class? Not saying it will happen and not saying it’s probable. I am saying it’s possible. What a black eye that would be, if enough voters vetoed the class so that none of the candidates got in.

On that score, my advice to the blue-ribboners: Do not put Paul Tagliabue on the list of three contributors. He’s too divisive a figure right now.

• You will think, “Oh, he’s pissed the Hall of Fame is bypassing him to admit this class.” Not exactly, though I’m not happy about that part of it either. We as a group of 48 selectors are told the Hall is so grateful for our service and the homework we do and the passion put into selection the class each year. I can hear those words in my head right now. So now the Hall plans a process to admit 15 people to Canton without the 48 selectors as gatekeepers as they normally are. Since 1963, the selection process has been the same. And now, instead of whittling lists of seniors, contributors and coaches down the way it’s been done for 56 years and 56 Hall classes and 326 Hall of Famers, this class is going to be decided in a brand-new way.

The bloc of 15 candidates will need 39 yes votes. That means if 10 people vote no on the bloc, and none of the 15 get in, the Hall of Fame will have major egg on the face, and there will be no Centennial Class.

• Will this class have an asterisk? Something like: * Admitted under different voting standards by the Hall in 2020. That certainly won’t be noted by the Hall of Fame, but it’s the way I’ll think of the Class of 2020.