Ken Anderson might finally make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Recently, Hall of Fame president David Baker had suggested the inductee field could expand to honor the league’s 100th season.
Friday, the Hall of Fame made the official announcement, as seen above by NFL.com’s Judy Battista.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s press release explained how the process will unfold from here:
A large list of Modern-era nominees will include only players (whose careers ended less than 25 seasons ago) and will be announced next month. That list will be reduced to 25 semifinalists in November and to the 15 Finalists in early January 2020.
The Hall’s Selection Committee will then meet in Miami on “Selection Saturday,” the day before Super Bowl LIV, to discuss the merits of each Finalist. Voting will progress to a series of reduction votes that will result in the election of five Modern-Era Enshrinees.
This likely means Anderson would finally get over the proverbial hump and enter the Hall of Fame.
Anderson’s candidacy, among plenty of other items, has been a hot-topic discussion over the years surrounding the Hall of Fame’s process. He was one of the gurus of the West Coast offense and a statistical outlier for his time and took the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1981.
A star at the position who predated even Joe Montana and Steve Young, Anderson seems like a shoo-in given the expanded process. It’s a one-time thing, so it might be a case of now-or-never for Anderson.
