HOF to announce senior nominees Tuesday
Well, here is a list of the 12. I know they rotate for two senior players between years, here’s my hope somebody good is nominated this year.
Ken Anderson
Maxie Baughan
Randy Gradishar
Chuck Howley
Cecil Isbell
Joe Klecko
Bob Kuechenberg
Eddie Meador
Tommy Nobis
Ken Riley
Sterling Sharpe
Everson Walls
That’s the list of the final 12.
In my opinion, Chuck Howley should absolutely be nominated as a six-time Pro Bowler, five-time First-Team All-Pro and the MVP of Super Bowl V.
Maxie Baughan, I don’t get how he wasn’t a member of the 1960s All-Decade Team when he went to nine Pro Bowls and was a First-Team All-Pro that decade, but somehow Larry Morris made it on there. Just no.
Ken Riley had a lot of interceptions, but another former Bengals DB, Lemar Parrish, went to eight Pro Bowls.
I also really want to see Randy Gradishar and Ed Meador get inducted someday. Howley, Baughan and Meador are all in their eighties, time is running out for them. I want these people to live to see their induction, unlike other overdue names like Bobby Dillon and Cliff Branch who only got enshrined posthumously.
Give me Howley, Baughan and Gradishar over linebackers like Lee Roy Jordan and Tommy Nobis for Canton. With DB’s, I’d take Meador and also Abe Woodson over Walls or Riley.
Sterling Sharpe was very good, but when it comes to senior wide receivers, it starts with Billy Howton for me, and I think Del Shofner and Harold Jackson are missing from Canton.
The Hall had a tremendous chance to put some of these older players in with the expanded 2020 Class, and many are still waiting.
If none of Howley, Baughan, Gradishar or Meador are nominated, I will be extremely disappointed.