Three Rams Hall of Fame finalists

Orlando Pace, Kurt Warner and Kevin Greene were announced tonight as three of the 15 finalists for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August. Greene becomes a finalist for the fifth time. Pace and Warner are on their second try.

There are two other finalists linked to St. Louis: former Big Red head coach Don Coryell (two-time finalist) and Lutheran High North grad Steve Atwater.

The remaining candidates:
* Brett Favre, Terrell Owens, Alan Faneca, all in their first year eligible
* Three-time finalists John Lynch, Marvin Harrison and Morten Andersen, a freaking kicker
* Two-time finalists Terrell Davis, Edgerrin James and Tony Dungy
* First-time finalist Joe Jacoby


Up to five of the finalists can be selected for the Hall. Senior finalists Ken Stabler, Dick Stanfel and cheating criminal wing nominee Edward DeBartolo Jr. will be considered separately and all could (probably will) join the modern-day finalists.

Two of the greatest wide receivers of all time, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, continue to be left out of the finalist cut. They were aced out this year by the three first-time eligibles and Atwater and Jacoby, which RamView pretty much called in November. They don't belong behind two safeties who couldn't cover them on their best day or a freaking kicker, but there you go.

The final class of nominees will be announced Super Bowl weekend:
* Favre is obviously a shoo-in. The voters have, for lack of a better term, rigged their votes in recent years to have a one-player-per-position policy every year, so I expect the Favre effect will keep Warner on the outside another year even though he finished in the top 10 in last year's balloting.
* By all rights, this should be Pace's year; like Warner, he finished in the top ten in his first year of eligibility last year. I fear now, though, he's going to get aced out by Faneca. Faneca received AP 2000s all-Decade Team honors, and that's like crack to the HoF voters these days. He's also got Orlando beat in Pro Bowls, 9 to 7, which worked for Will Shields last year.
* I do expect Greene to be a shoo-in. He has been a finalist more times than the others and also finished top 10 last year.

* Dungy finished in the top 10 last year, and as he was the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl, it was kind of silly he didn't get in last year on his first try. I expect that to be corrected this year.
* The fifth spot's harder to predict than I thought it would be. If it's between Harrison and Owens, Owens had more receiving yards, but Harrison had more receptions and Pro Bowls and has been waiting longer. The problem, and this is an especially big problem for Bruce and Holt trapped outside the final 15 - the voters are notorious foot-draggers about putting WRs in the Hall. And no WR on the current list has been waiting a very long time. No WR in this year's class shouldn't be thought of as a big upset. Lynch has been a finalist as many times as Harrison and has him beat in Pro Bowls. I'm just sayin'.

My biased vote would be: Warner, Pace, Greene, Coryell, Dungy
Who should get in: Favre, Pace, Greene, Harrison, Dungy
Who will get in: Favre, Greene, Dungy, Faneca, Lynch

First-time eligibles for 2017 include LaDainian Tomlinson, Jason Taylor and Hines Ward. Congratulations to all this year's finalists.

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