2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

I am interested to see how they handle next year now that they've combined coach/contributor. They just put in dead coaches two straight times, I would imagine Kraft is the choice going with a contributor for the 2025 class -- he'll be 84 by the time that ceremony takes place. I'm surprised they keep taking the risk of him passing before being inducted.

 

You would have thought the committee had passed on Brady, Montana and George Halas the way Boston media carried on this afternoon. Yes, Kraft certainly deserves it, but not for the dynasty. That was his earthly reward for what he really did for the NFL, finally making the New England franchise a normal stable operation instead of a perennially broke clown act.

 

MISTER Kraft

 

While I am always amused by the shrieking of the Boston media, I'm stunned Kraft didn't get in. He's got his hands in every till so you figure he has friends/people who owe him favors everywhere. Of course, he'd be deserving if he was a hermit nobody ever heard or saw. He not only made the Patriots a non-joke franchise, he made them the crown jewel of professional sports and turned fucking Foxboro/Foxborough into a destination. Sure, some of that is kismet--hiring an anti-social savant on the rebound, Brady falling to the sixth round when there was already a franchise QB in place--but as we've all seen, an owner getting the fuck out of the way and letting people do their jobs is rarer than Hailey's Comet.

 

And Hailey's Comet is much rarer than Halley's Comet.

 

That's the point! #KnewIProbablyMisspelledThat

 

Maxie Baughan died yesterday and the Senior Committee votes on Tuesday -- wonder how that plays in the room

 

His fall from grace at Cornell when I was there would definitely have played differently in the internet age.

 

518 head coaches in 103 years of the NFL.

6 have won back to back Super Bowls.

* Lombardi
* Noll
* Shula
* Johnson
* Belichick
* Shanahan

You get in just because of that.

The back to back Super Bowls, and a loss in the AFC title game, were during a 10-year run in which his teams went 106-52.

 

Worth noting that Buddy Parker, this year's inductee, won back to back NFL titles in the pre-Super Bowl era.

 

I'm not saying he won't get in, I was pointing out the reasons he hasn't gotten in yet.

And I get the comparison game but:

* Belichick 6 titles
* Lombardi 5 titles
* Noll 4 titles
* Shula all-time wins leader

Johnson waited 21 years after he retired to get in. This is a decade for Shanahan since he last coached. He's probably going in the next five years. My point is when you get in the room there's an argument against him. Peter King is on that committee and he didn't go into specifics but said they went from 12 to 6 to 3 to 1.

I'm sure there are people who have Shanahan behind Coughlin as a candidate. Obviously if Shanahan made the final three, the committee felt Parker was a better candidate.