Hall of Fame 2015 update

Twelve former Rams are among the 113 modern-era candidates for the next Pro Football Hall of Fame induction class:


* Jerome Bettis (four-time finalist, finished in top ten in last year's voting)
* Isaac Bruce (first-time nominee)
* Stephen Davis
* Henry Ellard
* Kevin Greene (three-time finalist, finished in top ten in last year's voting)
* Torry Holt (first-time nominee)
* Chuck Knox
* Sean Landeta
* Orlando Pace (first-time nominee)
* Clark Shaughnessy
* Dick Vermeil
* Kurt Warner (first-time nominee)

Pre-Rams era St. Louis candidates include Don Coryell, Ottis Anderson, and for some reason, Bubba Baker. Relatives of current Rams also nominated: Tim McDonald and Marty Schottenheimer.

The list of 113 modern-era players and coaches will be narrowed down to 25 semifinalists sometime around Thanksgiving. When the field is lowered to 15 finalists, they will be joined by three other candidates. This year's lone Senior finalist is Mick Tingelhoff, who was the Vikings' center for 17 seasons with six Pro Bowls. New to this year's process will be the addition of two "Contributor" finalists, who have yet to be selected for the next class.

The "contributors" do not take any spots away from players; the Hall has changed the maximum class size from 7 to 8. I still think it's a bunch of garbage. First of all, coaches are not "contributors" for the Hall's purposes; they still have to compete with the players and still suffer the competitive disadvantage. Second, though it may work out and get deserving candidates like George Young, Tex Schramm, or Steve Sabol into the Hall, from here, it looks more like a bald attempt to cram in a scumbag like Eddie DeBartolo, whose undeserving candidacy has flagged in recent years thanks to an influx of deserving players. Or Paul Tagliabue. Yes, Roger Goodell's work these days is making Tagliabue look like Franklin Roosevelt in comparison, but Tagliabue is still an undistinguished commissioner, who of course, did more to obstruct St. Louis having an NFL team than he did to help. Would be pretty disgusting to have some of the heroes of the Greatest Show have to share a dais with either of the two.

So this year's voters have a number of tests to pass before I declare them to be a bunch of ignorant monkeys. All four of the Greatest Show candidates should be semifinalists. (Actually, there's five, including Vermeil, who should join them.) DeBartolo and Tagliabue didn't become worthier candidates just because the Hall made the road easier for them. Neither should make the Hall, and preferably, neither would be nominated.

Warner and Pace, along with Junior Seau, are considered favorites to be first-ballot Hall of Famers. Warner and Pace should make it this year, but we'll see. Warner had three fantastic seasons, struggled for five years and then had three good seasons. He went to just four Pro Bowls and isn't all that high on most passing career charts. A lot of voters appear to see Pace as only the third-best tackle of his era, and Will Shields is still sitting there and went to more Pro Bowls.

The Rams' two likeliest Hall of Fame entrants for 2015 are favorites, but they're not locks. Let's hope it works out for them much more like Super Bowl XXXIV than XXXVI.

ESPN

 

One last note: I see Richie Petitbon on the list of nominated coaches; that is surely not for his 4-12 career record as Redskins' head coach but for his 12-year career as their defensive coordinator. Is there any good reason, then, that Jim Hanifan is not on this list? I think that's another oversight that needs to get corrected.

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