Start the NFL Hall of Fame from scratch (1 Viewer)

[On The Rocks]

I was looking over some of the early names inducted into the HOF - including Sammy Baugh, Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski all great players of their time and arguably great players if you plugged them into any generation.

If you scrapped all past HOF enshriners and started over - who would be the first five you inducted?

Mine:

George Halas

Art Rooney

Paul Brown

Jim Brown

Pete Rozelle

I know I know....there is only one player in my list - and after I came up with the list I thought it was odd too - to come up with the names of men that were more involved with their contributions to the game than contributions on the field.

Unless you saw Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, and others play - It was hard to say one player was more worthy than another in the top five.

 

[Koya]

Jim brown

Paul Brown

Johnny U

LT

Jerry Rice or Joe Montana.

Without giving much thought thats my first pass.

 

[On The Rocks]

Jim brown Paul BrownJohnny ULTJerry Rice or Joe Montana.Without giving much thought thats my first pass.

I had a toss up between Rozelle and Rice.

 

[Sidewinder16]

Wow, limiting it to 5 is rough. I would think Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi and Jim Thorpe would be well deserving.ETA: If you're starting over, I still think you have to give a strong nod to those that helped get the league off the ground and running. So my 5 would probably be Halas, Lambeau, Thorpe, Grange and Lombardi.

Unless you saw Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, and others play - It was hard to say one player was more worthy than another in the top five.

I'll agree it may be hard (as in, it takes some work/effort on our part) but it's far from impossible.

 

[dgreen]

Halas

Lombardi

Lamar Hunt

Grange

Not sure about a 5th yet. What's Rozelle's claim? TV, mostly? If so, I think he's more just "in the right place at the right time". My brief reading indicates he may not deserve as much credit for the merger as he gets.

I think it makes sense to not have many players on these lists.

 

[The_Man]

Don't really get where you coach/owner guys are coming from.

The first 5 inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Ty Cobb

Babe Ruth

Honus Wanger

Christy Mathewson

Walter Johnson

Now that's a class. For the NFL, the guys synonymous with greatest players of all time to me are:

Jerry Rice

Jim Brown

Lawerence Taylor

Johnny Unitas

Walter Payton

 

[GregR]

I think there are just too many slam dunk people compared to number of slots, to where it won't be a very interesting discussion for me personally since almost any answer is justifiable.

Now if you were to go one position at a time, that would be more interesting to me. Which owner should get in first, second, third? Which coaches? How many would have Hutson ahead of Rice, and how many wouldn't even have Hutson in the top 2? Etc.

 

[DawnBTVS]

If we were starting as of the 2012 NFL offseason... part of me is targeting early era players in part because of their legacy/importance to developing the game in the first place.

01: Paul Brown (Incredibly successful as a head coach but also invented a lot of key components for the actual game itself)

02: Don Hutson (Was pretty much the litmus test for WRs for a long, long time despite the era he played in)

03: Pete Rozelle

04: George Halas (Arguably "The Godfather" of the NFL. Was in on the ground floor so to speak and had astonishing success for decades. Also influential as an owner)

05: Benny Friedman (Really paved the way for what a player could do passing the ball but was also an incredible defender and kicked the ball. One of those players who literally could do it all on the field for his teams)

The next ballot would likely include QBs like Sammy Baugh and Sid Luckman but it felt wrong to have them in before Friedman who was essentially "the first" of their types.

 

[Iwannabeacowboybaby!]

Lombardi

Rice

Montana

Jim Brown

Lawrence Taylor

Best Qb, best coach, best Wr, best RB and best defensive player, all are debatable but that was my thinking behind the list.

 

[sn0mm1s]

Joe Montana

Jerry Rice

Barry Sanders

Lawrence Taylor

Reggie White

 

[Limp Ditka]

Anyone not including Halas needs their head examined or a history lesson.

 

[netnalp]

LT

Rice

Barry Sanders

Bruce Smith

Jim Brown

 

[captbly]

Jerry Rice

Barry Sanders

Joe Green

**** Butkus

Jim Thorpe

 

[mr roboto]

Tebow

Finley

Kendricks

Battle

Jeremy Lin

The HOH - Hall of Hype

CHOO CHOO.

 

[RBM]

Any list without Halas is disqualified for obvious reasons.

I think you would have to start with Halas, Rozelle, and Lombardi and then pick the last two from a handful of players that helped shape the game. Would be hard to not make John Unitas one of them, with how important downfield passing is today, and how important that position is in general. And if I go that route with the players, I would go with Lawrence Taylor. Taylor shaped the way defense is played/schemed today more than anyone else probably.

 

[benson_will_lead_the_way]

Lombardi

Rice

Montana

Jim Brown

Lawrence Taylor

Best Qb, best coach, best Wr, best RB and best defensive player, all are debatable but that was my thinking behind the list.

Paul Brown and Bill Walsh disagree.

 

[benson_will_lead_the_way]

TebowFinleyKendricksBattleJeremy LinThe HOH - Hall of HypeCHOO CHOO.

Kareem Huggins, Chaz Schilens, DJ Hackett

 

[cobalt_27]

George Halas

Vince Lombardi

Paul Brown

Al Davis

Pete Rozelle

Excluding coaches/commissioners...

Jim Brown

Jerry Rice

Lawrence Taylor

Johnny Unitas

Joe Montana

 

[dutch]

Players only:

Thorpe

Hutson

Baugh

J Brown

L Taylor

Coaches/Contributors/Commissioners

Halas

Brown

Lombardi

Rozelle

Ed Sabol

 

[Sabertooth]

Vince Lombardi

Reggie White

Walter Payton

Jim Brown

Jerry Rice

 

[Koya]

Jim brown Paul BrownJohnny ULTJerry Rice or Joe Montana.Without giving much thought thats my first pass.

Some good points regarding some of the other founding fathers of the game. If I were to take out Brown (the greatest innovator IMO), and make it player only I may keep Rice and swap Montana with Otto Graham. So tough to judge guys you didn't see play - and your father didn't really see play either. I've heard enough about Otto to place him there but it's much tougher to judge the pre 1965 guys for me

 

[theedge]

Players only:

Thorpe

Hutson

Baugh

J Brown

L Taylor

Coaches/Contributors/Commissioners

Halas

Brown

Lombardi

Rozelle

Ed Sabol

Nice

 

[PlasmaDogPlasma]

The one unmentioned player I would want on my list would be Anthony Munoz, but I don't know which player I would take off for him.

 

[drummer]

Players only:

Thorpe

Hutson

Baugh

J Brown

L Taylor

Coaches/Contributors/Commissioners

Halas

Brown

Lombardi

Rozelle

Ed Sabol

Nice

2nd.

 

[David Yudkin]

I personally can't see voting in anyone but players in the first pass. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Pots]

Players only:

Thorpe

Hutson

Baugh

J Brown

L Taylor

Coaches/Contributors/Commissioners

Halas

Brown

Lombardi

Rozelle

Ed Sabol

Nice

2nd.

No Rice? Really? GOAT for a reason.

 

[GregR]

I personally can't see voting in anyone but players in the first pass. But maybe that's just me.

I would include one non-player, but no more.

 

[Clinton]

Jerry Rice

Reggie White

Joe Montana

Walter Payton

Otto Graham

 

[DesmondBishop]

George Halas

Vince Lombardi

Paul Brown

Al Davis

Pete Rozelle

Excluding coaches/commissioners...

Jim Brown

Jerry Rice

Lawrence Taylor

Johnny Unitas

Joe Montana

I was wondering who would name him first, unfortunately for Al he did so much crazy crap at the end of his career, many forget how much he influenced the NFL. Top 5 Players -

Jim Brown

Jerry Rice

Walter Payton

Barry Sanders

Vince Lombardi

 

[David Yudkin]

I personally can't see voting in anyone but players in the first pass. But maybe that's just me.

I would include one non-player, but no more.

Baseball inducted 5 players out of 5 inductees in their inaugural class. In the second year, they put in 3 players and 5 non players.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Dan Marino, **** Butkus, Ronnie Lott