The NFL HOF Needs To Do Something

[AlexGreen#20]

I have nothing but respect for the fact that the NFL is trying to make HOF inductions mean something. They don't want it to become the Basketball Hall of Fame where anybody who ever had a cup of coffee in the league makes it in. Totally get that. The bar for induction should be high. 

That said, this is ridiculous. 

Demarcus Ware not being a first ballot inductee is pants-on-head idiotic. The entire process is starting to get bogged down by the need for strategic voting, AKA trying to get guys in before their time for eligibility is expired. 

The proposal that I think makes sense is that once per decade, maybe on the 5 (2025, 2035, 2045, etc) the NFL should have a catch-up year. A year in which they induct 15-20 people just to work through some of the ridiculous back log. 

In addition:

• Raise the number of modern era players that get in to 6 or 7 per year.
• Raise the number of older players that get in to 2 per year.
• Raise the number of contributors that get in to 2 per year.

The finalists for this year were:

• Jared Allen
• Willie Anderson
• Ronde Barber
• Tony Boselli
• Leroy Butler
• Devin Hester
• Torry Holt
• Andre Johnson
• Sam Mills
• Richard Seymour
• Zach Thomas
• DeMarcus Ware
• Reggie Wayne
• Patrick Willis
• Bryant Young

With the possible exception of Devin Hester, is there anybody on this list who shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame? I would argue "No". And I don't really think any of these are all that arguable.

Taken a step further. There's a decent argument to be made for quite a few non-finalists:

• Steve McNair and Boomer Esiason (MVP QBs)
• Shaun Alexander (MVP, admittedly I don't love this one) 
• Priest Holmes (3x 1st Team All Pro)
• Torry Holt (7x Pro Bowler, 6 year stretch of 8699 yards. 8 year stretch of 11,076 yards)
• Wes Welker (2x 1st Team All Pro, 2x 2nd Team All Pro)
• Willie Anderson
• Matt Birk
• Lomas Brown
• Jordan Gross
• Logan Mankins
• Jeff Saturday
• Steve Wisniewski
• Simeon Rice
• Justin Smith
• Kevin Williams
• Lance Briggs
• Teddy Bruschi
• London Fletcher
• Willie McGinest
• Dre Bly
• Rodney Harrison
• Asante Samuel
• Bob Sanders
• Charles Tillman
• Darren Woodson

In addition, it's not like next year is going to help matters

• Darrelle Revis (4x First Team All Pro, 7x Pro Bowl, 2010s All Decade Team)
• Joe Thomas (6x First Team All Pro, 10x Pro Bowl, 2010s All Decade Team)
• Dwight Freeney (3x First Team All Pro, 7x Pro Bowl, 2000s All Decade Team)
• Jahri Evans (4x First Team All Pro, 6x Pro Bowl, 2010s All Decade Team)
• James Harrison (2x All Pro, 5x Pro Bowl, 2008 DPOY)

All these guys have arguments for first team induction. Which means that the rest of the year will just get thrown on the backlog along with a few others.

• Kam Chancellor
• Matt Forte
• Chris Johnson

Not that any of these guys need to be inducted, but they should be up for some consideration. So we're not even making progress working through the ridiculous backlog. We're adding to it. 

[Tk3]

Personally, I think the methodology is fine, I think the voters just made unpopular choices this year

[Tk3]

I'm not some gigantic "purist" who thinks tons of players should be left out.. but I do think moving from 5 to 6 or 7 would water things down a little more than my liking

The other alternative is the MLB style, which seems to result in even smaller classes because of the entitled way many of the voters vote

As far as I'm concerned, its fine. I don't know how many players can miss for 15 years and have an inarguable case that they were screwed

[Forge]

2 minutes ago, Tk3 said:

Personally, I think the methodology is fine, I think the voters just made unpopular choices this year

[SkippyX]

Its like the HoF is not about the players. Its a money maker for the events, the game, and drawing fans to the building.

If it was about the players then they would not wait until a bunch of them die before electing them.

It took those idiots 24 years to elect John Madden.

[Jakuvious]

They don't need to raise the number or catch up, they just need to actually vote the best guys in each year. Ware should've made it because they shouldn't be considering how long a guy has waited when they vote. It should be irrelevant.

But if we talk about raising it to 6 or 7 modern players, what you have to ask is, do 6 or 7 hall of fame caliber guys retire every year? Because that is what you'd need to justify that. And I would argue definitely not. You had to stretch things heavily to find 8 names to even mention next year.

[Fureys49ers]

1 hour ago, Tk3 said:

Personally, I think the methodology is fine, I think the voters just made unpopular choices this year

This

[Nabbs4u]

When there's a log jam of deserving players not inducted, there will be years like this. The fact we've had numerous 1st ballots inducted the past two decade or so created this log jam of 80, 90 and 2000 greats. Let alone those forgotten from the 70's.

So Ware got shafted, so what? He'll get in just like others before him. The only difference between him and TO is the fact the media ,(voters) , fans actually like him. Which one was really more of a disservice to the HOF player more unfair in the end seriously?

While you don't want to water down the HOF with to big of an increase, 1 extra might help over the next decade. Not including HC or Owners just about every year might help.

As stated above, just wasn't the popular choices, that's all.

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Nabbs4u

[Soko]

I’d be fine with less, tbh. Not all the finalists are deserving, and that’s fine.

Having not enough spots and making guys wait is better than having too many spots and forcing the voters to induct people that they don’t really want.

[kramxel]

Not a fan of the current structure, even though it works like 99% of the time. Yeah some guys don't get 1st ballot, but that's just a made up thing that got assigned too much importance. 

Bottom line, it's working whether we like it or not. 

 

[Blackstar12]

 

 

I agree with Deion HOF is starting to get diluted with Hall of good players. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Blackstar12

[DontTazeMeBro]

Change who the deciders are.

[Teen Girl Squad]

I agree that the current NFL HoF is mostly fine, leaning on the slightly restrictive side.

For me, the HoF is not quite as important as it used to be. With how much more sophisticated sports media and sports fans have become over the internet era, its not like great players are being ignored and unacknowledged. We know that they were at least close to HoF caliber. Modern athletes who are HoF caliber are also incredibly rich and high social status (and have been so for their whole lives) and while that doesn't make a HoF snub less painful, it does put into context how trivial the 'issue' is.

[Malfatron]

Theres too many getting in as is

[Nzd07]

11 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

They don't need to raise the number or catch up, they just need to actually vote the best guys in each year. Ware should've made it because they shouldn't be considering how long a guy has waited when they vote. It should be irrelevant.

But if we talk about raising it to 6 or 7 modern players, what you have to ask is, do 6 or 7 hall of fame caliber guys retire every year? Because that is what you'd need to justify that. And I would argue definitely not. You had to stretch things heavily to find 8 names to even mention next year.

Just for fun:

2020:
Antonio Gates
Luke Kuechly
Marshal Yanda
Travis Frederick
Aqib Talib
Joe Staley

2021:
Drew Brees
Jason Witten
Adam Vinatieri
Philip Rivers
Demaryius Thomas
Greg Olsen



Only the bolded are guys I'd say belong in the HOF (Frederick didn't play long enough).