2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalists

Unless they vote brown so they can the acceptance speech...

 

Della9250, you should start a halls of fame blog.

 

What can I say, I'm nerdy for these two topics.

 

I'm serious. There's an audience for it, and you do the research already.

 

Plenty of Hall of Famers played on great teams. Especially quarterbacks.

Exactly how many times does that argument about Montana need to be dismantled on this board before people stop making it? Montana was a great quarterback before the 49ers had any of those guys. If anybody was making somebody else look better than they were, it was Montana making Jones and Taylor look like something special.

 

Here's the dynamic about the Football Hall of Fame that sometimes gets forgotten. Players at EVERY position who played on great teams are more likely to be elected than those who played on mediocre or worse teams. Each dynastic power (with the 1980s 49ers being a bizarre exception) has a cluster of inductees, the Lombardi Packers and Steel Curtain teams each have nine, I think. Guys like Fouts had to be REALLY outstanding in their time to triumph over that dynamic. That's why John Hannah's election speaks volumes. He was a guard who played on downright lousy teams for most of his career and he was a first-year eligible inductee. Jackie Slater same deal. He played in one Super Bowl as a tackle.

 

Plus his return ability adds a different dimension most modern receivers aren't going to have on their resume.

 

Which is amazing for those two in particular because it seems like the voters have no clue on how to handle offensive linemen.

In the 42 years of current voting rules, only nine have been first ballot -- four in the last 20 years and one in the last 11.

I know lack of stats and team success play a factor but the most recent inductees all had to wait around the first-year selection of Bruce Matthews (9 All-Pro, 14 Pro Bowls, All-Decade Team).

Dermontti Dawson: 6 All-Pro, 7 Pro Bowls, Al-Decade team. Elected on fourth try.
Gary Zimmerman: 5 All-Pro, 7 Pro Bowls, 2 All-Decade teams. Elected on fifth try.
Willie Roaf: 7 All-Pro, 11 Pro Bowls, All-Decade team. Elected on second try.
Randall McDaniel: 8 All-Pro, 12 Pro Bowls, All-Decade team. Elected on second try.
Mike Munchak: 4 All-Pro, 9 Pro Bowls, All-Decade team. Elected on second try.

Comapre to Allen and Ogden:

Allen: 7 All-Pro, 11 Pro Bowls, 2 All-Decade teams.
Ogden: 6 All-Pro, 11 Pro Bowls. All-Decade team.

And throw in Shields on the ballot: 3 All-Pro, 12 Pro Bowl, All-Decade team

This suggests that neither would go in on the first try, since the recent feeling on the position has made all of them wait.

From the 1980s all-decade team -- seven of the 10 linemen are in. The ones that aren't are Jim Covert (the lone first-teamer on offense and one of two, Kenney Easly being the other), Joe Jacoby and Bill Fralic. None have ever been a finalists.

From the 1990s all-decade team -- all of the first-teamers are in. None of the second-teamers are -- Boselli, Webb, Allen, Wisniewski and Stepnoski.

 

I think there's the feeling that honors for offensive linemen are like Gold Gloves: once you're in, you're in. So some of those numbers may not seem truly impressive.

 

Brown didn't have a HOF quarterback, but he did play with some guys who put together good seasons with the Raiders.
Gannon was the MVP in 2002 and had a four-year run as one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
Jeff George had a great statistical year in 1997 (3,900 yards, 29 TDs, 9 INTs) and Jeff Hostetler had a couple of decent, if unremarkable, seasons.
None of that, other than Gannon's run, translated to team success of course. But Brown wasn't always playing with schlubs.

 

Who forgets that?

 

A week out I feel the voting is going to shift.

They are going to go with DeBartolo and Ogden since the Niners and Ravens are in the Superbowl. And that will knock Parcells to induction in 2014.

Brown's outburst cost him a shot. And the voters will go with Reed, because the longest suffering guy at the position is next in line.

So what I think they will do is: DeBartolo, Ogden, Reed, Haley and Shields.

What I think they should do is: Parcells, Ogden, Allen, Carter and Shields.