With the Pro Football Hall of Fame voters gathering on Saturday to cast ballots, there are two candidates that stand above the rest.
On rare occasions, the presentation of a candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame can be boiled down to two words.
His first and last name.
Brett Favre, Dan Marino and Walter Payton are among a short list of men who needed no presenter speech to convince the Hall of Fame selectors that they deserved enshrinement in Canton, Ohio.
On Saturday, there could be two in one class.
Tight end Tony Gonzalez and safety Ed Reed are a group of 15 Modern Era finalists who will be up for discussion among the 48 Hall selectors up for consideration. Aside from the 15, there are two Contributor candidates (former Dallas executive Gil Brandt and Denver owner Pat Bowlen) and one Senior candidate (safety Johnny Robinson).
Of the 15 Modern Era candidates, a maximum of five can selected in a given year. Over the past six years, only one candidate (Favre) was elected with essentially no discussion by the group.
Gonzalez and Reed could be next. Over the past seven years, I have surveyed NFL coaches, executives and/or former players to gauge the strength of candidates. This year, I surveyed 300, asking each to name their top five of the 15. Not everyone named five (some discerning folks thought there weren’t five who were qualified.
In all the years I have done this, only one candidate got 100 percent in the survey. That was Favre in 2016.
Gonzalez (272 votes, 90.6 percent) and Reed (262, 87.3) are the next highest. They received far more support in this than other candidates who made it in their first year, such as defensive end Jason Taylor or defensive tackle Warren Sapp.
For Hall selectors, a brief discussion for a couple of candidates might be welcome on a day that figures to be, as always, difficult. While cornerback Champ Bailey also appears to be a strong candidate, the selection committee has had a tough time sorting through a number of strong candidates.
Offensive linemen Tony Boselli, Alan Faneca, Steve Hutchinson and Kevin Mawae all made the first cutdown from 15 to 10 candidates last year. However, all of them seemed to cancel each other out beyond that. Coaches Don Coryell and Tom Flores are solid candidates for very different reasons. Coryell was one of the greatest innovators the game has ever seen. Flores helped guide the Oakland (and then Los Angeles) Raiders to two Super Bowl championships.
Safeties John Lynch and Steve Atwater have been finalists multiple times, including six consecutive years for Atwater. Defensive lineman Richard Seymour and cornerback Ty Law helped propel New England to its first three Super Bowl titles. Wide receiver Isaac Bruce and running back Edgerrin James were part of two of the most explosive offenses of their era.
All of them figure to dominate a long and thorough discussion that is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. and last until approximately 3 p.m. in Atlanta. The discussions can range anywhere from 20 minutes to sometimes an hour. Unlike the Baseball and Basketball Halls, all of the selectors are together at one time to argue the merits of each candidate.
It’s a process that some people considered flawed, but many others consider the best of its kind.