Brett Favre and Terrell Owens are among the players who could make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility -- 2016.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2015 was announced prior to the Super Bowl, and will be officially enshrined in Canton, Ohio in August. The enshrinement ceremony will include speeches from all of the inductees, their friends or family members -- Jerome Bettis, Charles Haley, Tim Brown, Will Shields, Junior Seau, Bill Polian, Ron Wolf and Mick Tingelhoff -- and will come the night before the league's annual Hall of Fame game.
But it's never too late to look ahead to next year and who might be announced prior to Super Bowl 50. Each year there are a ton of guys who don't make it that probably deserve it, but each year there's also guys that are such shoo-ins for the Hall of Fame that they make it on their first try. That inevitably pushes someone back, though many will be left out simply due to the structure of voting these guys in.
Who's going to be eligible for the Hall for the first time in 2016? We're going to take a look a couple with good chances of making it below:
Brett Favre
This one is obvious, isn't it? Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards and is second in touchdowns. He was consistently great for much of his career, going to 11 Pro Bowls while being named an All-Pro six times. He is a three-time NFL MVP and has a Super Bowl ring from Super Bowl XXXI.
The biggest knock against him is that he is also the NFL's all-time interception leader with 336, almost 60 more than the guy in second place. Then again, Favre played for an extraordinarily long time. The problem is that people probably remember some of his game-losing interceptions just as much as his game-winning touchdowns.
Terrell Owens
This will certainly be a controversial Hall of Fame year, won't it? Favre is a polarizing quarterback, while Owens is definitely one of the most polarizing receivers. Known for his antics off the field as much as his skill on it, Owens is certainly one of the best receivers to play the game.
Who knows if that's really all that's taken into consideration when it comes to the voting though, as it certainly isn't in the court of public opinion. But if we're talking his on the field production, you can't argue with it. He's second only to Jerry Rice on the all-time receiving yards list and third behind Rice and Randy Moss in receiving touchdowns. He made six Pro Bowls and was named a first-team All-Pro five times.
Alan Faneca
Faneca was a guard with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1998 through 2007, and he was as dominant as they get. In 13 seasons in the league, he was named to nine Pro Bowls, was a six-time First-Team All-Pro, has a Super Bowl ring from Super Bowl XL and was generally great at what he did. Faneca's position is interesting as he's definitely in the same league as the top-flight offensive linemen in the Hall right now, but with a guy like Orlando Pace missing the mark in his first year of eligibility, Faneca may not make it.
Who Will Keep Trying
Aside from the three newcomers mentioned above, there will be plenty of players worth discussing who didn't make the cut this year and haven't in past years. We already talked about Pace, who is one of the most dominant offensive linemen to ever play the game. If he didn't make it in his first year of eligibility, it would be easy to see him either pushing Faneca out of the way next year, or himself getting passed up in favor of Faneca. Multiple offensive linemen may be a tough sell in any given year.
Another guy who was eligible for the first time this year is quarterback Kurt Warner. He won a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams and was named Super Bowl MVP. He appeared in two other Super Bowls, one with the Arizona Cardinals and made it to four Pro Bowls over the course of his career. He was also named the league MVP three times. He's got the accolades, but has never been in the discussion when "best quarterbacks ever" discussions come around.
Former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis and safety John Lynch are two other big names. Both made the cut down to 15 this year, but were cut before reaching the final 10. It's understandable, given just how strong this year's class was, but someone like Davis may have a better chance with Bettis out of the way. These are just a few of the guys worth paying attention to -- it's almost impossible to argue against someone who's made it in, but there are plenty of people who won't make it that probably should. Will these guys end up being on that list, and will it be due to the three first-timers above?
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