Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Finalists

On Thursday, the 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019 were announced. The list is highlighted by three former players in their first year of eligibility.

Champ Bailey
Tony Gonzalez
Ed Reed

No surprises there. Here are the remaining twelve. The number of times that they've been a finalist are in parentheses.

Steve Atwater (2)
Tony Boselli (3)
Isaac Bruce (3)
Don Coryell (5)
Alan Faneca (4)
Tom Flores
Steve Hutchinson (2)
Edgerrin James (3)
Ty Law (3)
John Lynch (6)
Kevin Mawae (3)
Richard Seymour

When the selection committee gets down to debating and voting on February 2 (Super Bowl Eve) in Atlanta the fifteen finalists will be joined by the Senior finalist:

Johnny Robinson (7)

And the Contributor finalists:

Pat Bowlen
Gil Brandt

There's some players racking up finalist appearances. It might be a silly strategy but sometimes I just want to put deserving players that have been debated for years in the Hall. I still can't believe that the voters had to debate Cris Carter for six years. It just took watching his career for me to know that he was a Hall of Famer. This silly strategy of putting in players that have been waiting would give us a 2019 Hall of Fame Class that looks like this:

Ed Reed
Tony Gonzalez
John Lynch
Don Coryell
Alan Faneca

I like 3/5 of that Class.

The first-time eligibles are easy. Reed and Gonzalez are Hall of Fame locks to these eyes. Some are putting Bailey in as well but I'm not so sure about that. He's definitely a Hall of Famer but Ty Law has been waiting. If Law and Bailey came up in the same year, Bailey gets the nod. Going in as a first-year eligible has to mean something again. Reed and Gonzalez revolutionized their positions and as a result revolutionized the game. Bailey was an excellent cornerback. So was Law. We get logjams at positions when deserving players have to wait. Law's waited long enough.

As much as it pains me I've employed the same Law-Bailey argument with Alan Faneca and Steve Hutchinson. Both deserve induction and I can easily see and want to see both go in this year but I have to choose one and Faneca has been waiting longer.

So my predicted Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019 currently looks like this.

Ed Reed
Tony Gonzalez
Ty Law
Alan Faneca
Tony Boselli
Johnny Robinson
Pat Bowlen
Gil Brandt

We'll know the real Class in about a month.