As you may be aware, the Pro Football Hall of Fame has announced a “Contributor” category that is now separate for the standard process, which included builders in the past. In the first year of this new category, the first two non-players who will be fast tracked to the Finalist category are former Raiders and Packers Executive, Ron Wolf and former Bills, Panthers and Colts, General Manager, Bill Polian.
Ron Wolf was a key executive with the Raiders organization and was part of the reason that the organization drafted so well in the 1970’s and built up a team that would win the Super Bowl in 1976, 1980 and 1983. Wolf would later join the Green Bay Packers in 1991 and build a team that won the Super Bowl in 1997, mostly through engineering a trade for Brett Favre and signing superstar Free Agent, Reggie White, proving to other NFL players that Green Bay was a place you wanted to play!
Bill Polian took over as the General Manager of the Buffalo Bills in 1986 after a campaign where they went 2 and 14. Through Polian’s shrewd drafting, the Bills would become an AFC juggernaut and win the conference (though sadly no Super Bowls) in four consecutive seasons. He would later join the expansion Carolina Panthers and in the franchise’s second year of existence would compete in the NFC Championship Game.
It was leaked that the following non-players were also considered:
Gil Brandt, former Dallas Cowboys Scout.
Pat Bowlen, Owner of the Denver Broncos
Edward DeBartolo Jr., former Owner of the San Francisco 49ers
Art Modell, former Owner of the Baltimore Ravens
Steve Sabol, former President of NFL Films
Paul Tagliabue, former NFL Commissioner
It was also announced that the following year, only one Contributor candidate will be considered, and revert back to two the following year. The new process was designed to aid the glut of deserving non-players to potentially enter the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
It will be very interesting to see how the Football Hall will treat the Contributing Finalists this year, and the upcoming years to come.
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