NFL 100 All-Time Team: Offensive Linemen And Tight Ends

The reveal of the NFL 100 All-Time Team continued last night with the big guys. The big guys that make offenses go. The offensive linemen. Tight ends, a position that was once an extra lineman but is now mostly an extra pass catcher, were revealed as well. In all, 23 new players were added to the NFL 100 All-Time Team. Here's the All-Time Offensive Linemen and Tight Ends.

Centers
Mel Hein
Jim Otto
Dwight Stephenson
Mike Webster

Guards
Larry Allen
Dan Fortmann
John Hannah
Bruce Matthews
Randall McDaniel
Jim Parker
Gene Upshaw

Tackles
Roosevelt Brown
Forrest Gregg
Cal Hubbard
Walter Jones
Anthony Munoz
Jonathan Ogden
Art Shell

Tight Ends
Mike Ditka
Tony Gonzalez
Rob Gronkowski
John Mackey
Kellen Winslow

        ***

Unanimous Choices
Jim Parker
Anthony Munoz
John Mackey

Jim Parker probably would've been a unanimous pick at tackle as well.

Perhaps it's my fondness for football's past but Mel Hein should've been on every voter's ballot. He was the league's MVP in 1938. A center was the Most Valuable Player in 1938! Well, he played linebacker as well.

I'm thrilled to see the voters included pre-1950 players on this team. Too many people, fans and media, seem to think that the league started with Super Bowl I. It didn't. This is the NFL's 100th season, 46 of those seasons were played before the first Super Bowl. Of the 18 offensive linemen on the team, three played before 1950:

Cal Hubbard: 1927-36
Dan Fortmann: 1936-43
Mel Hein: 1931-45

As a Minnesota Vikings fan, I'm thrilled to see Randall McDaniel on this team. In my book, he's one of the 2-3 best guards in league history. That makes him an automatic for this team but I wasn't certain that the voters would view McDaniel as I do. Apparently they see him as one of the seven best guards in league history and that gets him a much deserved spot on the All-Time Team.

Four coaches were added to the list of ten coaches that will lead this team. And the four are some of the biggest names in NFL history.

George Halas
Tom Landry
Curly Lambeau
Vince Lombardi

Next week, we get the receivers. There should be two former Vikings in that group.