Trace had interest in music since he was ten years old and got a guitar from his father, but he tried lots of jobs before trying music full-time. He was a member of a football team, he worked on an oil rig and for a time was a pharmacy technician. (Fun fact: as a pharmacy technician, he sliced off one of his fingers. Once at the hospital he had the doctors sew it back on at an angle where he could still paly his guitar). But music was always in the background, playing gigs during the nights. Finally, he made the decision to move to Nashville in 1992. After a couple years of playing gigs, he met up with a record label executive. They, in turn, brought some of their executive friends with them to one of Trace’s shows. Once Scott Hendricks from Capitol Records heard Trace singing, he signed him on the spot to a record contract. Although never turning out to be a consistent hitmaker in country music, he would continue to get top tens here and there for at least 15 years. He also got some love from the industry, earning Grammy nominations and winning trophies from the ACM awards and the CMT awards. He also gained a wider audience by being on “The Celebrity Apprentice” in two different seasons, placing 1^st and 2^nd. The chances of him making it into the Hall Of Fame at this point are very low, but he was able to build up a nice career for himself, and I’m sure he is perfectly content with that.

Some people consider working with family to be a nightmare, but it worked out well for Rascal Flatts. Second cousins Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox were both working together around Nashville in the late 1990’s, doing background vocals and playing in various bands. The two of them were playing in a nightclub at one point and their part-time guitarist couldn’t make it for the gig. DeMarcus then called up a guy he knew in a backing band he was playing in named Joe Don Rooney. Rooney showed up, and when the three of them played together that night, they say they felt an instant bond. The trio then recorded some demos, which they took to Lyric Street Records who found them to be incredible and signed them in 1999. From that point, they were a success; country enough for the radio charts but pop enough for a youthful audience who we’re coming to see them. For 2 decades they became one of the biggest groups in country music, collecting CMAs, ACMs, People’s Choice Awards, Grammys and highly successful tours. In 2020, the band announced that they were breaking up and going to embark on a farewell tour to close out the group. Unfortunately, the tour was cancelled because of covid and the group just split up on their own. In 2025, they reunited to go tour and released a new duets album.

With a mother who owned a beauty salon and a father who was a car salesman, becoming a successful country music singer wasn’t exactly in the cards for Blake Shelton. But after learning to play the guitar in his early teens, he began writing songs and traveling around the local bar circuit around his county. As soon as he graduated high school, he moved to Nashville in an instant. Going through the same path as a lot of people on this list, he started out in the business as a song-writer, before getting his own recording contract later. Beginning with a very traditional style, he had off and on hits throughout his early years. But a few things happened in the later 2000’s: he connected up with Miranda Lambert (soon after, they became an “it couple” in Nashville), he switched to adding more pop sounds to his songs, and he gained significant national attention by becoming a coach on the singing competition “The Voice”. These things all allowed him to continue getting hits and becoming one of the biggest names in the country genre. He is still in the midst of his radio career right now, and the longer that goes on the better shot he has of entering the Hall Of Fame in the future.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives. As such, it is important to us that the New England Patriots have chosen Mike Vrabel as their 34^th inductee.

A three-time Super Bowl Champion with the Patriots, the Linebacker began his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it was not until he joined New England in his fifth NFL campaign (2001), and joined Bill Belichick that he became a starter.

Vrabel played for the Patriots from 2001 and 2008 where he was not just a three-time champion, he was a First Team All-Pro in 2007. With New England, he compiled 11 Interceptions, 48.0 Sacks and 606 Tackles.

Vrabel will be inducted alongside Dante Scarmecchia, the former Offensive Line Coach, on a time and date to be determined.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Mike Vrabel for earning this impending honor.