Eric Williams
NFL reporter
A Super Bowl-winning coach identified for his offensive acumen and one of the dynamic bodily receivers in NFL historical past lead the 5 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists within the contributor, coach and senior classes, it was introduced Tuesday.
The 5 candidates are: Ralph Hay (contributor), Mike Holmgren (coach) and Maxie Baughan, Sterling Sharpe and Jim Tyrer (senior).
Under new bylaws created by the Pro Football Hall of Fame board of trustees authorised earlier this 12 months, for the primary time the choice committee can solely vote on three of the 5 inductees. Nominees should obtain approval from at the very least 80% of committee members at subsequent 12 months’s annual assembly previous to the Class of 2025’s presentation throughout Super Bowl LIX week in New Orleans.
If not one of the 5 people obtained 80% approval, the one who obtained probably the most assist can be elected to the Class of 2025.
Nominated within the teaching class, Holmgren was the top coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1992 to 1998 and the Seattle Seahawks from 1999 to 2008. He led these franchises to the playoffs a complete of six occasions, profitable Super Bowl XXI with the Packers and putting finish that staff’s 29-year title drought.
Holmgren reached Super Bowl XL with the Seahawks after defeating the Carolina Panthers within the NFC Championship Game in the course of the 2005 season. He additionally gained two Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers as an assistant.
Mike Holmgren was the top coach of the Packers from 1992 to 1998. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
The different eight semifinalists within the teaching class had been Bill Arnsparger, Tom Coughlin, Chuck Knox, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert, Mike Shanahan and Clark Shaughnessy.
Leading the senior finalists, Sharpe was a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro receiver whose seven-year profession with Green Bay was lower quick by a neck harm in 1994. Sharpe’s 18 landing receptions in his closing season they’re nonetheless ranked third greatest in league historical past. He completed his profession with 595 receptions for 8,134 yards and 65 touchdowns.
Sharpe is joined within the senior class by linebacker Maxie Baughan and offensive lineman Jim Tyrer. An exterior linebacker, Baughan performed from 1960 to 1970, then got here out of retirement in 1974 to play for longtime mentor George Allen in Washington. Baughan was chosen to the Pro Bowl 9 occasions and gained an NFL championship with the Philadelphia Eagles, for whom he performed from 1960 to 1965. He additionally performed for the Los Angeles Rams from 1966 to 1970.
Considered one of many dominant offensive tackles of his period, Tyrer was chosen to the Nineteen Sixties AFL All-Decade staff and performed in 9 AFL all-star video games throughout a 13-year profession with the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs from 1961 to 1973, together with a season in Washington (1974). Tyrer gained a hoop as a member of the Super Bowl IV champion Chiefs and was a part of three AFL championship groups with the Texans/Chiefs.
Other gamers who reached the semi-finalist stage embody Ken Anderson, Lester Hayes, Bob Kuechenberg, Albert Lewis, Stanley Morgan and Al Wistert. The final time gamers on this class might have appeared in an expert match was the 1999 season.
Sterling Sharpe had 595 receptions for 8,134 yards and 65 touchdowns in his profession with the Packers. (Photo by James V. Biever/Getty Images)
Representing the contributor class, Hay was the proprietor of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 to 1922 and is credited with organizing different skilled soccer staff homeowners and forming an affiliation that was renamed the National Football League two years later. According to Hay’s supporters, of all the key skilled sports activities, solely soccer has but to anoint the particular person or individuals credited with founding its dominant league.
Other semifinalists within the contributor class embody Bud Adams, Frank “Bucko” Kilroy, Robert Kraft, Art Modell, Art Rooney Jr., Seymour Siwoff, Doug Williams and John Wooten.
A discount vote is underway for contemporary period gamers – these whose careers ended after the 2000 season – with this class at the moment within the semi-finalist stage.
For the fashionable period candidates, the discount to 25 semi-finalists has already taken place. These gamers embody Eli Manning, Fred Taylor, Ricky Watters, Anquan Boldin, Torry Holt, Steve Smith Sr., Hines Ward, Reggie Wayne, Antonio Gates, Willie Anderson, Jahri Evans, Richmond Webb, Steve Wisniewski, Marshal Yanda, Eric Allen, Rodney Harrison, Earl Thomas, Darren Woodson, James Harrison, Luke Kuechly, Terrell Suggs, Jared Allen, Robert Mathis, Vince Wilfork and Adam Vinatieri.
Selectors will slim the quantity down to fifteen finalists, with names to be introduced on December 28.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for greater than a decade, protecting the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN e Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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