HOFame: Senior cutdown underway

BRSC has one week to trim from 60 to 25.

Oct 08, 2024

Kansas City Chiefs sideline in the late 1960. Head coach Hank Stram and the outstanding offensive tackle Jim Tyrer (#77). Tyrer was an 8 time All AFL, and 2 time NFL All Pro

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s plight to select the Class of 2025 with a new process and personnel. Written by Frank Cooney, a Senior Blue Ribbon Selection Committee member, in his 32nd year as a selector.)

The ballots were delivered on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, and we must now make our selections.

Do you know how you would vote?

What? No, no, not the presidential election. The decision there is obvious, right? Geez, get your head in the game.

The game is football, and I’m talking about the all-important Pro Football Hall of Fame. Starting Tuesday, we will reduce the 60 Senior Candidates to 25 as the next step in the new process to determine the Class of 2025. Voting for the cutdown to 25 ends Oct. 14.

This cut to 25 may be the most important for the Senior Blue Ribbon Committee. Our goal should be to retain players who need to be discussed. The reconstituted SBRC has only nine members, so it should be easy to discuss the viability of players as a group as we trim from 25 to 15. We just need the players to be in the 25. By “discuss” I mean engaging in dialogue via a Zoom conference in that cut to 15, whether hosted by the Hall or a selector. Usually we don’t have discussion meetings until after we are at only 15 players.

Hello, Hall? What do you think?

At least a few notable players in the Senior 60 have not been discussed in a long time or at all. History — the passage of time — has a way of changing perspective.

This was obvious last year when wide receiver Art Powell was discussed for the first time 55 years after his last game. He leapfrogged more familiar names to the final vote of 50 selectors, where he failed to get 80 percent thumbs up for reasons we will further address this week.

This year, at least two players—offensive tackle Jim Tyrer and quarterback Jim Plunkett—beg for an in-depth discussion of their worthiness for the Hall of Fame. I am grateful they made it past the Senior Screening Committee so we can continue to address them.

Tyrer is the most intriguing. After a sensational career, the former Kansas City offensive tackle was a first-ballot finalist in 1980. But even as he was being debated for induction, Tyrer killed himself and his wife, and he has not been discussed by HOF selectors since.

Perspective on Tyrer’s tragedy is changing with the revelation that he suffered from CTE before it was even a known issue, meaning what happened to him in football ironically may be what has barred him from the HOF. Players, coaches, and others are speaking up on his behalf.

Plunkett is a well-known name and a former Heisman Trophy winner who retired in 1986, but made his first HOF cut this year. After a very difficult start in the NFL, he resurrected his career. He claimed two Super Bowl championships and one MVP and incited Raider Nation to dominate social media, demanding his induction. However, he has never been discussed during his 33 years of eligibility.

So why now?

With former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning in his first year of eligibility, two Super Bowl rings will be a hot topic in discussions about the 2025 Class. Yes, Plunkett is a senior, and Manning is a newcomer, but there is an eerie synergy to their backgrounds.

It is a compelling coupling of two otherwise disparate players.

Since this is the SENIOR division, four other players might benefit—or not—from a discussion among the Senior Selectors, who now include long-time executive Ron Wolf and historian John Turney. The four players are guard Ox Emerson (last played in 1938), running back/tailback Cecil Isbell (1942), offensive tackle Al Wistert (1951), and running back Tank Younger (1958).

Historically, players from that far back are sometimes treated as rumors complete with fuzzy black-and-white film, whose familiar names keep making a cut or two but drop off before the finals. With Wolf and Turney aboard, along with long-timer Ron Borges, who has a feel for players from early pro football, we may have an awakening on these players — one way or the other.

Along with Powell, the rebuffed finalist, nine 2024 senior semifinalists return: quarterback Ken Anderson, linebacker Maxie Baughan, running back Roger Craig, offensive tackle Joe Jacoby, cornerback Albert Lewis, defensive back Eddie Meador, wide receiver Sterling Sharpe, wide receiver Otis Taylor and Wistert.

Although I ran out of fingers to count, I believe there are 16 names already, with nine to reach the 25-name limit.

But there are plenty more names to choose from below.

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*2025 HOF TURNEY TABLE

Senior 60 list based on honors won

This chart shows players across eras and positions in a context based on common award factors. It is one perspective and not intended to be a singular determining factor any more than raw statistics determine a player’s worthiness for the HOF. (An explanation of the grading system is below the chart.)

Senior Blue Ribbon Selection Committee pares this list to 25 players from Oct. 7 to Oct. 14

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

*John Turney Table Points system: All-Decade - 5 points, MVP/DPOY - 2 points, Years played - 1, Consensus All-Pro - 3, All-Pro - 2, Second-team All-Pro -1, All-Conference -2, Second-team All-Conference -1, Pro Bowl -1. Turney is a long-time football historian and first-year member of the Senior Blue Ribbon Selection Committee

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Before the cut to 60, I polled all selectors on their top five senior candidates.
Here are results, giving one point per vote regardless whether the place vote was "1" or "5." 
Twenty-seven (27) selectors responded, not all named five players. This takes the surface temperature of our body of voters before they huddle up and exchange ideas. So make of it what you want.