The idea behind the Centennial Class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, organized to celebrate the NFL’s 100th anniversary, was to induct five modern-era players, 10 Seniors (players who last played more than 25 years ago), three Contributors (an individual other than a player or coach) and two
coaches.
Seven modern-era players were finalists for induction for the first time in the 2020 class: Safety Troy Polamalu and receiver Reggie Wayne were first-year eligible candidates, while safety LeRoy Butler, wide receiver Torry Holt, linebackers Sam Mills and Zach Thomas, and defensive tackle Bryant Young were eligible before, but were finalists for the first time.
The final voting for modern players took place Saturday before the Super Bowl in Miami, and the five who made it in from the modern era were:
- Steve Atwater, Safety – 1989-1998 Denver Broncos, 1999 New York Jets
- Isaac Bruce, Wide Receiver – 1994-2007 Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams, 2008-09 San Francisco 49ers
- Steve Hutchinson, Guard – 2001-05 Seattle Seahawks, 2006-2011 Minnesota Vikings, 2012 Tennessee Titans
- Edgerrin James, Running Back – 1999-2005 Indianapolis Colts, 2006-08 Arizona Cardinals, 2009 Seattle Seahawks
- Troy Polamalu, Safety – 2003-2014 Pittsburgh Steelers
Of course, this means that 10 modern-era finalists were left out of the process this time around. Some for the first time, and some who have waited too long. Here’s how we see the relative egregiousness of the 2020 Hall of Fame snubs.
Safety John Lynch
1993-2003 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2004-07 Denver Broncos
With Troy Polamalu making the final five, Lynch and Leroy Butler were more likely to get locked out. Polamalu was an epic player in every category, while Lynch and Butler weren’t quite at that level. Lynch is deserving over time, but this is his seventh year as a finalist — by far, the longest waiting period for anyone on the list — so he might have to wait until voter sentiment, and/or his success as the general manager of the 49ers, puts him over the top.
Selected by the Buccaneers in the third round of the 1993 draft, he was one of three players — Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks were the others — who turned that Tampa Bay defense from a relative joke to an all-time unit. And while his stats hold up well from a strong safety angle with 1,059 total tackles, 13 sacks, and 16 forced fumbles, there seems to be a perception that he was less than stellar in deeper coverage throughout his career, something his 26 interceptions don’t seem to have erased.
Safety Leroy Butler
1990-2001 Green Bay Packers
Butler was a four-time Pro Bowler, a four-time All-Pro, he won a Super Bowl ring with the 1996 Packers, and over his career, he amassed 474 solo tackles that we know of (Pro Football Reference only has that statistic going back to the 1994 season) and 38 interceptions for 533 yards, 13 forced fumbles, 20.5 sacks, and he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-1990s team.
Butler was technically more of a defined strong safety in his era, and that may lend him less statistical credence in an era when safeties are asked to do many more things. Still, Butler’s candidacy is legitimate, and he should hear his name called someday. This marked his first year as a finalist, and unless your career is an all-timer, getting in on the first ballot is nearly impossible.
Defensive lineman Richard Seymour
2001-08 New England Patriots, 2009-2012 Oakland Raiders
Seymour was a seven-time Pro Bowler, a three-time All-Pro, a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots, and he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame 1st team All-2000s Team. This is his second year as a finalist.
In his career, Seymour recorded 326 solo and 198 total tackles, with 57.5 sacks, and 91 tackles for loss. Among defensive linemen in his era, Seymour ranks third behind Julius Peppers and Jason Taylor in Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value metric, and Seymour is the only one of those three players who truly moved all over the defensive line as opposed to spending most of his time as an edge rusher. This leaves his stats a bit short — for example, he never had a 10-sack season — but looking at his versatility and positional value tells a different story. Right now, he’s more of a borderline candidate whose history will have to excite the voters perhaps more than it has at this point.
Linebacker Sam Mills
1986-1994 New Orleans Saints, 1995-97 Carolina Panthers
The problem with intangibles is that you can’t really codify them. Leadership from a player is best understood by talking with those who played with, coached, or watched the player in question. Among those who had that connection with Mills, who died of cancer in 2005, his value was unassailable. From his time with the great Saints 3-4 defenses of the 1980s to his tenure with the Panthers, Mills was the rare player who worked past whatever physical limitations he may have had, and maximized his athletic potential with a fierce intelligence and competitive spirit.
That said, the stats aren’t bad, either. Mills ranked fifth in his era with 1,142 tackles, and was a prototype for the modern linebacker who is smaller, rangier, and more able to do different things. At 5-foot-9 and 229 pounds, Mills played like someone four inches taller and 20 pounds heavier. The extent to which the Hall of Fame voters are able to put into the process the things that go beyond the numbers will ultimately decide Mills’ chances. This was his first year as a finalist.
Offensive tackle Tony Boselli
1995-2001 Jacksonville Jaguars
Had Boselli’s career not been cut short by injuries, we would not be discussing his name here, because he would have been in long ago. 2020 marks his fourth year as a finalist. He holds a unique place as the Jaguars’ first draft pick in franchise history, and the first player the Texans selected in the 2002 expansion draft. But by then, injuries had limited his athletic potential, and he retired before ever playing a snap for the Texans. But the five-time Pro Bowler and three-time First-Team All-Pro ranks sixth in Approximate Value among offensive linemen in his era, and four of the five players above him (Larry Allen, Randall McDaniel, Bruce Matthews, and Kevin Mawae) are in the Hall. Of course, they all had longer careers.
The greatness of bygone offensive linemen is tough to tabulate, because metrics for line performance are more recent, and inductions based on previous eras is as much an eye-test thing as anything else. That, and his limited career, have stopped Boselli from getting in. But Walter Jones, an offensive lineman who’s already in the Hall of Fame, believes that Boselli should join him in Canton.
5. Defensive lineman Bryant Young
1994-2007 San Francisco 49ers
Young played a bit of defensive end for the 49ers throughout his career, but he primarily lined up as a defensive tackle. And in that context, his numbers for his era should have him as a more prominent name. 2020 was his first year as a finalist. Among defensive tackles of his era, only John Randle, Kevin Clark, and Warren Sapp had more sacks than Young’s 89.5. Only Ted Washington had more combined tackles than Young’s 627, and nobody had more tackles for loss than Young’s 93 — and that’s with tackles for loss becoming a Pro Football Reference statistic in 1999.
He is a four-time Pro Bowler, a one-time First-Team All-Pro, the 1999 AP and PFWA Comeback Player of the year after recovering from a broken leg so severe, he had to have a steel rod inserted in the leg, and a Super Bowl champion with the 49ers at the end of the 1994 season.
4. Receiver Torry Holt
1999-2008 St. Louis Rams, 2009 Jacksonville Jaguars
Holt’s former Rams teammate Isaac Bruce made it in this year, and you have to expect Holt will make it someday. This was his first year as a finalist, and it was Bruce’s fourth. Holt led the NFL in receiving yards in 2000 and 2003, receptions in 2003, and yards per reception in 2000 as a major cog in the “Greatest Show on Turf” offense. All of the other big shots from that offense — Orlando Pace, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, and Bruce — are in.
A seven-time Pro Bowler and one-time First-Team All-Pro, Holt ranks first in his era in receptions (920) and receiving yards (13,382), sixth in yards per catch among receivers with at least 500 catches (14.55) and sixth in touchdowns (74). Eventually, his numbers will make his argument for him.
3. Receiver Reggie Wayne
2001-2014 Indianapolis Colts
Like Holt, Wayne led his era in receptions (1,070) and receiving yards (14,345), while falling to sixth in receiving touchdowns (82). One of the three primary instigators of the Colts’ offense through the Peyton Manning era along with Marvin Harrison (who was inducted in 2016) and Dallas Clark, Wayne fell short in his first year as a finalist, but his chances as time goes on are very good. He has the career numbers to beat a receiver backlog as long as the voters remember how productive he was.
2. Guard Alan Faneca
1998-2007 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2008-09 New York Jets, 2010 Arizona Cardinals
Faneca and Steve Hutchinson set the standard for guard play in their eras, which overlapped to a great degree. And since Hutchinson made it in this year, and both Hutchinson and Faneca were multi-year finalists, it would seem that the push favored one over the other. Getting two guards in the same class was always going to be a stretch.
Still, Faneca should absolutely make it in eventually. He made the most Pro Bowls (nine) of any guard in his era, no offensive lineman at any position had more First-Team All-Pro nods than Faneca’s six, and no offensive lineman from 1998 through 2009 had a higher Approximate Value. Hutchinson is behind in all three categories, so let’s hope 2020 is the last year Faneca has to wait.
1. Linebacker Zach Thomas
1996-2007 Miami Dolphins, 2008 Dallas Cowboys
This one continues to mystify. It’s Thomas’ first year as a finalist, and it’s impossible to argue that he wasn’t one of the best players at his position in his era. Among inside linebackers of his era, the only one who ranks higher in Approximate Value is Ray Lewis. Brian Urlacher, who ranks lower than Thomas in AV, also had one fewer Pro Bowl nods than Thomas’ seven, and one fewer First-Team All Pro nods than Thomas’ five. Urlacher made the Hall of Fame in the 2018 class.
This is not at all to argue Urlacher’s viability as a Hall of Famer — nobody who watched football in the early 2000s would argue it. But Thomas was at least as valuable. In his career, he had 1,734 total tackles, 20.5 sacks, 17 interceptions, 48 passes defensed, and 16 forced fumbles. Thomas could do it all at the highest level, and when we’re rewarding excellence in this particular forum, isn’t that what it’s all about?
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
