Is Eli Manning a Hall of Famer?
Maybe. Maybe not. Yet despite earning zero All-Pro selections to go with the two upset Super Bowl triumphs against the so-called Evil Empire led by Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, the former New York Giants quarterback is a finalist in his first year of eligibility.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame unveiled the list of 15 modern-era finalists over the weekend, with Manning’s presence to likely fuel the most intense debate facing the 49 selectors who will determine the Class of 2025 in January.
Full-disclosure: As a member of the selection committee, this is not an effort to sway fellow voters. Looking forward to engaging in the passionate discussion.
But oh, brother.
NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.
Another question: Is Darren Woodson is Hall of Famer? The former safety won three Super Bowls during the 1990s with the Dallas Cowboys and earned four first-team All-Pro selections. He’s the franchise’s all-time leading tackler. And Woodson is in his 17th year of eligibility, which puts him so close to entering the deep seniors pool, which happens when former players don’t get in after 20 years as a modern-era candidate.
See, this can be so tricky. Rodney Harrison won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, is one of two players in NFL history with 30 interceptions and 30 sacks. He was a finalist the past three years. But he didn’t make the final 15 this time around.
Earl Thomas won a Super Bowl, appeared in another with the Seattle Seahawks and, like Luke Kuechly, was a first-team All-Decade selection who earned seven Pro Bowl bids and seven All-Pro selections. Yet Thomas didn’t advance as a finalist. Kuechly did. Hmmm. Kuechly’s advance should set the table one day for fellow All-Decade linebacker Bobby Wagner, who is still playing. We’ll see.
Also missing the cut from the list of 25 semifinalists: Richmond Webb, an All-Decade left tackle who protected Dan Marino’s blind side; James Harrison, two-time Super Bowl champ and former NFL Defensive Player of the Year; Hines Ward, again, for the ninth year in a row, as the latest version of a wide receiver logjam is a lot tougher than beating press coverage.
Of course, highlighting omissions doesn’t diminish the worthiness of the finalists. Yet it underscores how competitive the process is for settling on many of the Hall of Fame slots.
The ultimate prize, as the legendary Deacon Jones once explained, is that getting enshrined in Canton is making the team that you can never get cut from. Yet surviving the gauntlet to get bronze bust can be so challenging for some undeniably worthy candidates.
The new slate again includes former wideouts Torry Holt and Reggie Wayne, back as six-time finalists, while ex-defensive end Jared Allen returns as a five-time finalist with 136 career sacks. Willie Anderson, the former right tackle, is a fourth-time finalist. Jahri Evans and Eric Allen are second-time finalists, but here’s a twist: Evans, a well-credentialed former guard, is in his third year of eligibility. Meanwhile, Eric Allen, a former cornerback whose 54 interceptions ranks 21st all-time, is in his 19th year of eligibility. The clock is ticking.
Antonio Gates is back, too, for his second time as a finalist. With his 116 career receiving touchdowns the most of any tight end in history, it’s fair to wonder why the ex-Charger wasn’t a first-ballot pick last year. I’d suspect the PED suspension (four games, 2015) hurt Gates, although a similar blemish didn’t stop Julius Peppers from getting in on the first ballot. That can be baffling to understand.
Maybe it’s simply a numbers game. And timing. I mean, Michael Strahan didn’t get selected until his second year of eligibility, while Brian Urlacher was a first-ballot pick.
One pattern keeps coming back: recency bias. Of the 15 finalists, five are first-ballot candidates: Manning, Kuechly, Terrell Suggs, Adam Vinatieri and Marshal Yanda. Not saying that any (or most) are not worthy, but what’s the rush?
Then again, if I’m a candidate, there’s a rush because the influx of new candidates next year and the year after will bring another round of recency bias.
The moral: If the Hall induction doesn’t happen fast for any given candidate, good luck. There are only so many slots (or so few) each year. Yeah, it’s supposed to be tough to get in. It’s not the Hall of the Very Good. But it can still be so subjective.
Great stats, Pro Bowl selections and All-Decade status surely boost the cases of any candidate. But when there are several other candidates with similar symbols of achievement, it can be a wash – or at least much tougher to separate the best from the greatest ever.
This is my 27th year as a selector. It has been a tremendous honor, taken so seriously. When I was invited by the Hall to join the committee, I thought it would be easy.
Not quite. And not just because of the campaigning inherit with the process.
Sure, it’s been easy to cast votes for some of the no-brainer picks. I’ll never forget the “discussion” on one candidate, when Ira Miller, the selector presenting the case, stood up and announced to the room: “Ladies and gentlemen, I present Joe Montana.”
Then Ira sat down. That was the discussion.
Other candidates with similarly short presentations: Bruce Smith. Jerry Rice. Dan Marino. Emmitt Smith. Deion Sanders. Ronnie Lott.
Yet most of the candidates are vetted with deep discussion – and sometimes intense debate – during our marathon selection meeting before the Super Bowl-week unveiling of the new class. As great as Lawrence Taylor was, for instance, his Hall of Fame call didn’t come without some serious back-and-forth.
Surely, some heated discussion is coming with Manning. He comes from football royalty and slayed the Patriots twice in the big game, but it’s a team game and individual honor. Never mind that Manning gamed the NFL draft system to shun the Chargers and land in the Big Apple. That’s not a factor for Hall consideration. That he was never one of the league’s best quarterbacks, though, is indeed a factor.
If Manning is a Hall of Famer, then what about Jim Plunkett?
Plunkett – ironically drafted No. 1 overall in 1971, one slot ahead of Eli’s father, Archie – won two Super Bowls, too, with the Raiders.
But recency bias or not, Plunkett has never been discussed in the room as a finalist. Chances are, though, that he will be mentioned in context with the Manning case.
Let the debate roll on.