Pro Football Hall of Fame president and CEO David Baker is considering expanding the Hall of Fame’s class of 2020 to 20 enshrinees in honor of the NFL’s 100th anniversary celebration.
“It is extremely elite company, and it’s not the Hall of very, very good. It’s the Hall of Fame, and so it should be difficult to make it,” Baker commented on SiriusXM NFL radio on Monday. “But there’s a lot of guys through the years (who deserve to be honored but have not). We have several guys who are on all-decade teams who aren’t in the Hall of Fame. And, so, this is an opportunity with the Centennial coming up. And what we’ve looked at potentially and has been approved, at least in concept, by our operating board, but we’re going to have to go through the full board, is that potentially we would have 20 Hall of Famers enshrined for the year 2020.”
“Normally, (like) this year, we have eight,” Baker continued. “So, this would be quite a few guys (added). But it would be the five normal modern-era players elected from 15 finalists, and then 10 seniors, three contributors.”
The biggest change would be admitting ten senior candidates, as most seasons only have 1-2 candidates from that pool enshrined. There is a considerable logjam of deserving candidates waiting for induction on the senior ballot however, so this would be a great way for the Hall of Fame to help clear up that logjam while also honoring some of the game’s legends during the NFL’s 100th season.
Multiple Seahawks have been inducted as a senior nominee, most notably safety Kenny Easley, who was inducted in 2017.
