NFL Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League (NFL). The hall opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter enshrinees. Including the most recent six honorees announced in February 2012, there are a total 267 members of the Hall of Fame. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is unique among North American major league sports halls of fame in that officials are not inducted. The Baseball Hall of Fame, Basketball Hall of Fame and Hockey Hall of Fame have each inducted game officials as members.

History
Canton, Ohio was selected as the location for the Hall of Fame for three reasons: First, the NFL was founded in Canton in 1920 (at that time it was known as the American Professional Football Association); second, the now-defunct Canton Bulldogs were a successful NFL team based in Canton during the first few years of the league; and finally, the community of Canton successfully lobbied the NFL to have the Hall built in their city. Groundbreaking for the building was held on August 11, 1962. The original building contained just two rooms, and 19000 sqft of interior space.

In April 1970, ground was broken for the first of many expansions. This first expansion cost $620,000, and was completed in May 1971. The size was increased to 34000 sqft by adding another room. The pro shop opened with this expansion. This was also an important milestone for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as yearly attendance passed the 200,000 mark for the first time. This was at least in some part due to the increase in popularity of professional football caused by the advent of the American Football League and its success in the final two AFL-NFL World Championship games.

In November 1977, work began on another expansion project, costing US$1,200,000. It was completed in November 1978, enlarging the gift shop and research library, while doubling the size of the theater. The total size of the hall was now 50500 sqft, more than 2.5 times the original size.

The building remained largely unchanged until July 1993. The Hall then announced yet another expansion, costing US$9,200,000, and adding a fifth room. This expansion was completed in October 1995. The building's size was increased to 82307 sqft. The most notable addition was the GameDay Stadium, which shows an NFL Films production on a 20 ft by 42 ft Cinemascope screen.

Inductees

 * Further information: Semifinalists for Class of 2013

Through 2012, all inductees except one, played some part of their professional career in the NFL (the lone exception is Buffalo Bills guard Billy Shaw, who played his entire career in the American Football League (AFL) prior to the 1970 AFL–NFL merger). Though several Hall of Famers have had AFL, Canadian Football League, World Football League and United States Football League experience, and there is a division of the Hall devoted to alternative leagues such as this, to this point no players have made the Hall without having made significant contributions to either the NFL, AFL or All-America Football Conference. For CFL stars, there is a parallel Canadian Football Hall of Fame; only one player (Warren Moon) and one coach (Bud Grant) are in both halls.

The Chicago Bears have the most Hall of Famers among the league's franchises with 30 enshrinees.

Board of Selectors
Enshrinees are selected by a 44-person committee, largely made up of sportswriters, officially known as the Board of Selectors.

Usually, the representative is a beat writer for the major newspaper in that city, even though this isn't always the case; for instance, the Atlanta Falcons are represented by Len Pasquarelli (who no longer writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and the Jacksonville Jaguars are represented by WJXT sports director Sam Kouvaris.

There are also 11 at-large delegates (usually cities that lose NFL teams keep representation on the board; Los Angeles is the only current city to have lost an NFL team and not been granted an expansion team), and one representative from the Pro Football Writers Association. Except for the PFWA representative, who is appointed to a two-year term, all other appointments are open-ended and terminated only by death, incapacitation, retirement, or resignation.

Voting procedure
To be eligible for the nominating process, a player or coach must have been retired at least four years. Any other contributor such as a team owner or executive can be voted in at any time. Unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, which explicitly waives its five-year waiting period for players who die during that time or while active, the Pro Football Hall of Fame has no provision to waive its waiting period.

Fans may nominate any player, coach or contributor by simply writing to the Pro Football Hall of Fame via letter or email. The Selection Committee is then polled three times by mail to eventually narrow the list to 25 semifinalists: once in March, one in September, and one in October. In November, the committee then selects 15 finalists by mail balloting. Nine members of the Selection Committee also serve as a subcommittee known as the Seniors Committee to screen candidates who finished their careers 25 or more years prior. The Seniors Committee then adds two finalists from that group which makes a final ballot of 17 nominees.

The Selection Committee then meets the day before each Super Bowl game to elect a new class. To be elected, a finalist must receive at least 80 percent support from the Board, with at least four, but no more than seven, candidates being elected annually. If less than four candidates get 80 percent of the vote, then the top four vote-getters will get in that year. If more than seven get 80 percent, then only the top seven vote-getters will be inducted.

Induction ceremony
The induction ceremony is usually held the first full weekend in August. An enshrinement festival is held throughout the week in Canton leading up to the induction ceremonies.

Enshrinees do not go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of a certain team. Rather, all of an inductee's affiliations are listed equally. While the Baseball Hall of Fame plaques generally depict each of their inductees wearing a particular club's cap (with a few exceptions, such as Catfish Hunter), the bust sculptures of each Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee make no reference to any specific team. In addition to the bust that goes on permanent display at the Hall of Fame, inductees receive a distinctive golden jacket and previous inductees nearly always wear theirs when participating at new inductee ceremonies.

Previous induction ceremonies were held during the day (Sunday from 1999–2005, Saturday in 2006), situated on the steps of the Hall of Fame building. Starting in 2002, the ceremony was moved to Fawcett Stadium. Since 2007 the enshrinement ceremony has been held on Saturday night.

Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, an annual NFL pre-season exhibition game, is held the day after the induction ceremony and officially kicks off the NFL Preseason.

Criticism
The Pro Football Hall of Fame uses only media representatives to select inductees. This, along with its policy of inducting only a maximum of seven players a year (six in certain years past), with a current maximum of two "senior" candidates and five "non-seniors," has been criticized by sports columnists, former players, and football fans. Such critics would like to see solutions such as expanding the number of selectors, rotating panel members on and off the selection committee, and allowing former players to participate in the voting. The small number of candidates elected each year has helped foster what some perceive as an inequality of representation at certain positions or in certain categories of player, with defensive players in general and defensive backs and outside linebackers in particular, special teams players, wide receivers, deserving players who primarily played on bad teams, and those from the "seniors" category, being slighted. This has included a 2009 New York Times article which criticized the Hall for not including punter Ray Guy on its ballot, also noting that the Hall does not have an inductee representing the position. There has also been criticism that certain players get overlooked because their team underproduced during their career. Cris Carter is tops among these types of players, having some of the best numbers of any WR in many categories throughout his career, all while on a team that never made it to the Super Bowl. It should be noted, though, that two star players for the Chicago Bears from the 1960s, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus, were inducted despite playing on mostly mediocre Bears teams of that era. Also, several of Carter's teammates have been inducted into the Hall of Fame as well.

The Hall has also recently been the object of complaints by retired players from both the NFL and AFL, who claim that the Hall has not helped injured, disabled and mentally distressed retirees, including numerous members of the Hall of Fame, obtain a reasonable care and retirement package from the NFL and the players' union, the NFLPA.



The selectors have also been criticized for their unwillingness to acknowledge Canadian Football League (CFL) experience as a factor in qualifying potential inductees. For example, Cookie Gilchrist's six straight CFL All-Star selections (followed by four consecutive AFL All-Star picks) appear to bear no weight on his consideration (Gilchrist also had antisocial tendencies stemming from the onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which led him to decline most Hall of Fame honors during his lifetime). The most commonly cited reason for this is because there is already a Canadian Football Hall of Fame for that purpose. This, of course, puts players who played for a shorter time in both leagues, and had success in both (such as Gilchrist and Doug Flutie), at a significant disadvantage. As of 2012, only one player (Warren Moon) and one coach (Bud Grant) are in both the Canadian and American Halls.