The Pro Football Hall of Fame officially unveiled its nominees for the Class of 2016, and there's at least one lock among the newest additions to the 108-man list — a graybeard by the name of Brett Favre.
Believe it or not, the 45-year-old former quarterback hasn't been under center since starting for the Minnesota Vikings in 2010. Even if he's threatened a comeback seemingly every summer since, Favre has reached the requisite five-year grace period before becoming eligible. He's all but enshrined already.
Wide receiver Terrell Owens, running backs Clinton Portis and Brian Westbrook, safeties Lawyer Milloy and Darren Sharper, linebackers Keith Bulluck and Mike Vrabel, offensive lineman Alan Faneca, kicker John Carney and long-snapper Ethan Albright comprise the list of new nominees along with Favre.
Given his rank on the NFL's all-time lists for receiving yards (second) and receptions (sixth), Owens seems like a lock, too, although his off-field antics could give the 46-person selection committee pause this year. Here's how USA Today columnist and at-larger voter Jarrett Bell explained the conundrum to NFL.com.
"I think that's a consideration, but I don't think it really is going to be easy to define. Because the bylaws state that you are supposed to only consider what happens between the lines, what happens on the field ... but you can also make the argument if there are things that happened off the field that affected things that happened on the field, then it enters the equation. I don't think it's going to be the dominant issue with [Owens], but it is the most controversial part."
This raises the far more controversial inclusion of Sharper on the list of nominees. You'll recall the six-time All-Pro safety pled guilty to sexual assault charges in California, Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana earlier this year, which means he's an admitted serial rapist who could spend more time in jail than he did in the NFL. Granted, O.J. Simpson remains in the Pro Football Hall of Fame following his enshrinement in 1985, but it's different to vote somebody in with a sordid criminal record than it is to remove somebody after the fact.
It's hard to imagine the committee giving Sharper the 80 percent approval vote he'd require to enter the Hall of Fame, but why even include him on the list of nominees? Then again, this is the same organization that nearly didn't allow Junior Seau's daughter to deliver her father's enshrinement speech over the summer.
Favre, Owens and the other nine new nominees, including Sharper, will be challenged by returning finalists Kurt Warner, Terrell Davis, Marvin Harrison, Orlando Pace, Kevin Greene, John Lynch and Morten Andersen — as well as coaches Don Coryell, Tony Dungy and Jimmy Johnson — for the anticipated 4-8 spots in next year's draft class. The entire list of 108 candidates is available on the Pro Football Hall of Fame website.
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