HOFame Selection changes: Reality Check
Hall's good intentions may have unintended consequences
As selectors from the Pro Football Hall of Fame pored over the new changes announced last weekend, they discovered the deeper they dug, the less they knew for sure. … except that they knew for sure there may be unintended consequences.
In the spirit of creating the best result through the selection process, the HOFame leaders made “significant changes” to the personnel and process determining who is inducted into the Canton shrine each year.
This was the second time in two years that “significant changes” were made. Both times, they seemed to be good-faith reactions to feedback.
We sum up the key aspects lower in this story.
In 2022, changes increased the potential number of Senior players from one to as many as three in an attempt to induct more well-qualified players who fell into the ever-growing “abyss.” That was in response to pleas from the board of selectors, who wanted to extract players from that abyss faster than new ones were being added.
This year’s changes seem to be a reaction to the crescendo of complaints — some by Hall of Famers — regarding what many feel are classes with too much quantity and insufficient quality.
Deion Sanders, never bashful about voicing his opinion, opened the floodgates in 2020, when he denounced the Hall for inducting players he thought were not worthy.
“Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is getting in,” Sanders ranted. “You’re in the Hall! You’re in the Hall! He’s in the Hall! Everybody is in the Hall! It used to be a special honor. Now they are giving out the Gold Jackets. . … I want mine to be a different color with the real Hall of Famers. “
I agree with the complaints to a point. Cutting to the chase, we, as selectors, must raise the bar. In so doing, a certain level of prospects will be cut out earlier in the process. It won’t be easy, and some players who appeared to be HOFamers a decade ago may fall victim to the realities of evolution.
The game has evolved, and we cannot judge players by outdated standards. Seasons grew from 12 to 14 to 17 games, and we are talking about 18. A 1,000-yard season rushing or receiving is no longer a magic number. When we get to that 18-game season, 56 yards a game will get you 1,000. Doesn’t sound Hall of Famish.
Conversely, when selectors are asked to consider seniors from the 1960s, they must do so in the context of when and how the game was played. You cannot judge them by 2024 standards.
This lack of historical perspective leads to a recency bias that favors players featured in living color on ESPN video features. Very little is shown of the stars who built the game in black and white on film. Too many great old players are blithely dismissed as if they were rumors. All selectors need to do their homework.
Meantime, we get bogged down with a particular set of similarly qualified players — usually wide receivers — as we debate them for years. If it takes that long to get a player in, maybe he’s not a Hall of Famer. Deion insists that if somebody is a Hall of Famer, all you need to do is say his name — “You're in the Hall!”
That’s an exaggeration of the reality, but maybe there is a grain of common sense in there. Maybe we are trying too hard to create or justify a person as a Hall of Famer out of some misplaced loyalty. A selector’s only loyalty should be to the integrity of the Hall. But it is not easy.
During 30 years as a selector, I actively advocated for about 20 players, all of whom were (eventually) inducted except one — yet. He was senior finalist wide receiver Art Powell, who failed to get the 80 percent thumbs-up from the full committee for the 2024 Class.
Of the others for whom I advocated, I feel there is only one who was inducted and may not have had a Hall of Fame career. He was damned good. But this is not the Hall of Damned Good. But it happens. Selectors get competitive and sometimes lose objectivity. I hope I learned from that.
HOFame Classes By the Numbers
In the 1980s, HOFame annual class sizes were mostly four or five inductees, with one seven and one eight. It was similar in the 90s with one six and one seven. In the 2000s, there was one seven, but the decade ended with three consecutive sixes. In 2007, new rules separated voter consideration so they did not have to choose a player against a coach or vice versa. That challenge is one reason Coach John Madden (Class of 2006) languished on the Hall’s doorstep for 27 years of legibility.
In the 2010 decade, the class sizes edged to seven and eight.
In 2020, the Hall celebrated the NFL’s 100th Anniversary by inducting 20, including ten players. Although I was on that Blue Ribbon Centennial committee, others who had not participated in the year-to-year process were included. While that approach may have had some fresh perspectives and positives, the result was out of sync with the accumulated knowledge and grasp of those who served for many consecutive years.
There were a few surprising inductees, and perhaps more importantly, several worthy candidates were leapfrogged. This is just one guy’s opinion.
Since then, the Hall has tried to catch up, especially with seniors. So, class sizes were eight and nine until this year, when only seven were inducted. In a rare, perhaps unique circumstance, the 50-person committee rejected two finalists, Powell and coach Buddy Parker.
Those two rejections may also have been part of the reason for the new changes. It doesn’t reflect well on a process that includes hours of heated but respectful debate on prospects by dedicated selectors, followed by two of those prospects being squashed following a five-minute presentation.
We are inordinately disconnected here because we no longer have in-person meetings and the respect they engender. I think the problem has metastasized because that eyeball-to-eyeball, person-to-person accountability disappeared when selectors no longer met in person.
Zoom call meetings began because of COVID-19 and continue for multiple reasons, including cost and schedule conflicts. The most irritating reason is the convoluted timing between the selection, The Knock, and the reveal at the NFL’s big red-carpet Honors show on Thursday before the Super Bowl.
Production needs dictate the sequence: The Selection (kept secret), The Knock (with traveling camera crews), and The Reveal during the Super Bowl Thursday NFL Honors show. After that, the HOFame is able to produce its own Selection show.
Announcing the Hall of Fame class is a big deal on its own. It is devalued when wedged into a two-hour NFL broadcast featuring so many other honors. There is probably cost and production considerations, but a few minutes on an Honors show that features other awards is damned near demeaning.
Despite this being a busy time in football with the start of prep and college seasons and the massive NFL cutdown deadlines, the HOFame selection story grabbed a lot of attention and reaction.
Two of the best were by Hall of Fame selector Clark Judge and substack superstar Mike Tanier, who offers some interesting observations in his always-enlightening Too Deep Zone
From my perspective as a member of the Senior Committee, the changes add a layer of “screening” that seems awkward. If I am advocating for certain seniors, I damn well want them to make the cut so we discuss them in our committee. To ensure this, I must advocate to the screening committee even before we have discussed players in our own subcommittee.
Fellow senior selector Howard Balzer tells me that isn’t an issue, but I will treat it as one until proven otherwise. Hell, at this writing I don’t even know who is on that screening committee.
Changes in process and personnel and my guess at consequences.
As outlined by HOF president Jim Porter and Hall executive Rich Desrosiers, here are the changes as of Saturday, Aug. 24, and my understanding or opinion of the consequences.
— Two new, 11-person Screening Committees to review the full lists of nominees in the Modern-Era Players and Seniors categories separately.
Consequence: This is an added layer of filtering that precedes internal discussions by any other group, including the nine-person Senior committee. If a Senior selector wants to ensure a prospect is discussed in that subcommittee, it would be prudent to advocate that prospect to the screening committee. There are instances when selectors on the newly named Blue-Ribbon Senior Committee — which has an average of more than 45 years of NFL experience — nominate a player who was overlooked and forgotten, which is the specialty of the Senior Committee. Will the screening committee know or understand the viability of this type of player without input from the SBRC?
— A Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee will be composed of nine (9) individuals (down from 12) – seven (7) who also are members of the full Selection Committee and two (2) others who will hold full voting rights for this subcommittee (only).
Consequence: Again, the SBRC depends on the screening committee’s list.
— A Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee and a Contributor Blue-Ribbon Committee, reflecting a split in those two categories that had been combined over the past few election cycles. Both the Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee and a Contributor Blue-Ribbon Committee will be constituted in the same manner – with seven Selection Committee members plus two others – as the Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee.
Consequence: As the process plays out, this will mean the return of a situation that pits senior players, coaches, and contributors directly against each other, forcing comparisons between players and coaches, for example. In 2007, the Hall changed the process to avoid that situation.
— A change in the waiting period for Coach candidates, reduced from five seasons out of the game to one season. (No waiting period exists for Contributor candidates.) And, no, Bill Belichick is not eligible until the 2026 Class.
Consequence: It creates a risk that a coach will be inducted and then go back and coach as a Hall of Famer.
— A new process. Through a sequence of reduction votes over several weeks, the Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee and the Contributor Blue-Ribbon Committee will select one (1) Finalist each for the Class of 2025 and, using the same process, the Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee will select three (3) Finalists for the Class of 2025.
Consequence: This sets up the next process, which puts players, coaches, and contributors head to head.
— A new reduction process: The five Finalists from the Seniors, Coach and Contributor categories will be COMBINED into a group for voting by Selectors. No more than three (3) nor fewer than one (1) may be elected. As with the Modern-Era Players, approval from 80% of the Selectors is required for election.
Consequence: After several years of trying to relieve the bottleneck of seniors in the “abyss” by making it possible to induct as many as three, the new reduction from five to three combines senior players, the coach and the contributor. If there are strong coach and contributor prospects — let’s say Belichick and Kraft in 2026 — there is only one spot for a senior player. The equation of the list that goes to the full committee could be 1-1-1 or 2-0-1 or other variables that diminish the senior players’ numbers.
Selectors on new Blue Ribbon subcommittees
A notable change on SBRC is the addition of Hall of Fame executive Ron Wolf, one of the best personnel evaluators in NFL history and especially knowledgeable regarding players from as early as the 1940s. Also new is John Turney, a respected historian who edited this (in case you see errors).
Seniors BRC Coach BRC Contributor BRC 1. D. Orlando Ledbetter Jarrett Bell Dan Fouts 2. Frank Cooney Vic Carucci Clark Judge 3. Gary Myers Mike Sando Sal Paolantonio 4. Jeff Legwold Charean Williams Jim Trotter 5. Rick Gosselin Barry Wilner John McClain 6. Ron Borges Bill Polian Bob Glauber 7. Howard Balzer Dan Pompei Sam Kouvaris 8. Ron Wolf Peter King John Czarnecki 9. John Turney Pat Kirwan Ken Crippen Alternates: Paul Kuharsky Lindsay Jones Joel Bussert