The Pro Football Hall of Fame will consider an amendment at its board meeting Friday that may help clear the way for more of the game’s “contributors” to have their busts bronzed in Canton, Ohio.
Dave Baker, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said that should the amendment proposal pass, it would potentially increase each class from a maximum of seven to at least eight by distinguishing a contributors category from modern-day player candidates.
The Hall made a similar distinction for their senior players in 2006.
There are currently 19 contributors in the Hall of Fame, 11 of whom are owners. Only eight of the game’s Hall contributors have been elected since 1967, and just two — NFL Films’ creator Ed Sabol, 97, and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, 82 — are living.
“Obviously, during the last 30 years there has more been growth in the game than ever before,” Baker said. “There are a lot of people who are responsible for that, but unfortunately, what often happens is a contributor gets compared to a modern-day player (on the ballot) and it’s not really a fair comparison. It’s apples and oranges. It’s what happens on the field and what happens around the field that makes that game happen.”
Such an amendment would figure to help the Hall of Fame chances of owners like the Broncos’ Pat Bowlen, just as the senior players category (pre-1989 era) helped former Broncos running back Floyd Little become elected in 2010.
Baker said the proposed amendment would continue to call for a minimum 80 percent approval from the 46-person selection committee and a maximum of five modern-era player-coach candidates.
To be determined is whether there would be one contributor candidate and two senior player candidates up for election each year, or two contributors and one senior player, or whether the two-to-one ratio between the contributors and senior players would rotate year to year.
The current system places two senior players and five modern-era candidates from a combined pool of players, coaches and contributors for final vote.
“What we’re looking for is a similar amendment in how we distinguish these seniors and contributors to overcome what has become a bit of an inequity,” Baker said. “Clearly, there are a lot of guys who deserve consideration and I suspect down the road one of these who will receive consideration will be Pat Bowlen.”
