2025 Hall of Very Good Finalists

[SeahawkFever]

I’ve been really busy with life lately so I didn’t have an opportunity to nominate Hall of Very Good players this year.

But it’s cool to see that one of the five people I nominated last year is a finalist (that being Wilber Marshall).

[sluggermatt15]

Is there any chance the committee's vote to trim the list of nominees down to 20 would be made public? If not, no big deal. I'm only curious.

Chris, not sure I fully understand your question, but allow me to shed some light.

Over the past 2-3 years, we've received over 100 nominees each year from the PFRA membership. This year for the first time, the HOVG committee conducted multiple rounds of internal voting in order to trim the list from 115 down to the final 20. For example, we went from 115 to 45, down to 20. We believe it was a more effective, and efficient approach.

The full list of all 115 nominees is posted on page 1 of this thread, as are the 20 Finalists. Are you asking to see who was cut from 115 to 45, then from 45 to 20?

[ChrisBabcock]

Is there any chance the committee's vote to trim the list of nominees down to 20 would be made public? If not, no big deal. I'm only curious.

Chris, not sure I fully understand your question, but allow me to shed some light.

Over the past 2-3 years, we've received over 100 nominees each year from the PFRA membership. This year for the first time, the HOVG committee conducted multiple rounds of internal voting in order to trim the list from 115 down to the final 20. For example, we went from 115 to 45, down to 20. We believe it was a more effective, and efficient approach.

The full list of all 115 nominees is posted on page 1 of this thread, as are the 20 Finalists. Are you asking to see who was cut from 115 to 45, then from 45 to 20?

No. Just what the total number of votes were by the committee in each round of voting. Again, if that's not something the committee wants to make public, that is cool. I was only curious.

[JameisBrownston]

Looks like a lot of returning names. Clem Daniels making it is nice to see. After what we went through last year with Red Dunn, I'm extremely surprised to not only see him back but Jack McBride also, who gets nominated often but I haven't seen him as a finalist. I'll vote for both and am really hoping to push one of them over the edge this time, although I'm afraid they'll just vulture votes from each other (and Peggy Parratt) and end up dead last again.

[JameisBrownston]

..."Super Seniors."
There are a lot of them on this ballot....

That's a "Super Senior" explosion this year. Wow! It kind of feels like a win to see that list even if none of them get in

It's honestly too much. I'm afraid they're just going to steal each other's votes. 3 pre-NFL players is especially too much, if one wants any hope of getting past the threshold. With all of these overly similar nominees, I'm afraid George Christensen might be waiting yet another year.

Most confusing thing about this list is we ended up with only one WR despite the large backlog there... and it's Alyn Beals again. Are we really holding everyone's receiver nominees hostage until Alyn Beals gets in?

[JuggernautJ]

Looks like a lot of returning names. Clem Daniels making it is nice to see. After what we went through last year with Red Dunn, I'm extremely surprised to not only see him back but Jack McBride also, who gets nominated often but I haven't seen him as a finalist. I'll vote for both and am really hoping to push one of them over the edge this time, although I'm afraid they'll just vulture votes from each other (and Peggy Parratt) and end up dead last again.

As a member of the committee it isn't really my place to promote one candidate or another (I've said all I'm going to about Peggy Parratt... ) but it has occurred to me that those of you (us) who support "Super Seniors" might want to communicate and choose a few (or several) for whom you all vote... to avoid just the "vulture-ing" you mention.

Something like a "Super Senior Committee" within the voting body of the PFRA might help to induct more players from the distant past.
We, within the committee, do not discuss for whom we are voting. But, to the best of my knowledge, there is no reason you can't.

[JuggernautJ]

Most confusing thing about this list is we ended up with only one WR despite the large backlog there... and it's Alyn Beals again. Are we really holding everyone's receiver nominees hostage until Alyn Beals gets in?

Absolutely not.
Again, we don't discuss our votes on the committee. There is no collusion. I've never met any of the other members and have only ever communicated with the committee's chairman (other than making a few comments on Pro Football Journal).

Looking at the list of nominees I see several WRs (and I probably missed a few).
Between them, Anthony Carter, Mark Clayton, Carroll Dale, John Gilliam, Horace Gillom, Homer Jones, Steve Tasker and Ahmad Rashad have exactly zero all-pros.
Mel Gray and Gary Clark had one each. Roy Green, Mike Quick and George Saur, Jr. had 2 each.

Alyn Beals led the AAFC with 40 receptions in 1946 and touchdown receptions all four years of the league's existence and was voted First Team All AAFC three times and second team once in the league's four years of existence.
Beals was the AAFC's all-time scoring leader with 278 points.
He was selected one of two Ends on the PFRA's all-time AAFC team.

I would support some of the other WRs nominated (in fact I did) but I don't see anything untoward in Beals name on the list of finalists.

[JuggernautJ]

The above two posts represent my opinions only and do not speak for the HoVG Committee in any official capacity.
(Just for clarification... )

After further thought... I guess I have communicated with others on the committee but never about for who we should be voting.
We have had limited email discussions about how the committee should operate; for instance in instituting an additional cut-down round of voting for this season.

[JameisBrownston]

Huh, I wouldn't have guessed that committee members don't collab. Thanks for the enlightening info! So the list turning out so unusually homogeneous and skewed early is more or less an accident.

[JuggernautJ]

Huh, I wouldn't have guessed that committee members don't collab. Thanks for the enlightening info! So the list turning out so unusually homogeneous and skewed early is more or less an accident.

I'm not sure "accident" would be my choice of words.
I think it reflects the always evolving opinions of members of the committee regarding football history.

Personally, I wonder how much Chris Willis' recently published The NFL's 60-Minute Men influenced the nomination and inclusion of more Super Seniors this time around. It's a wonderful book full of information about players from 1920-45... and I can't help but think it raised many players to the forefront of people's thinking.

Also, it really does effect people's understanding when informative posts are made here, on our forum.
As I mentioned long ago, I had little idea of who Tony Latone was until Tanks and Spartans started posting about him.
That led to more research (and I'm sure not only by me) and eventual inclusion in our Hall.

If there's someone you (anyone) really support for the HoVG you should consider writing about him in our "HOF and HOVG Talk" sub-forum.
A little knowledge and publicity might go a long way.