Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith are locks. Then there's: Cris Carter, Tim Brown, Andre Reed, John Randle, Aeneas Williams, Thannon Tharpe, Eddie George among others.

Then 2011 adds Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Jerome Bettis and Deion Sanders.

Is Shields eligible in 2011 or 2012?

It does in my mind. Lynn Swann would've been inducted over my rotting corpse. I'm a stickler across the board:

Pete Rose - NO
Shoeless Joe - NO
Lynn Swann - NO
Dan freaking Reeves - NO

If you don't have at least a couple SB rings in your collection as a coach, you better impress the hell out of me as to why. Or else have something else to put on the resume, like a Dick LeBeau.

Hall of Fame coaches are guys like Gibbs, Walsh, Parcells, Lombardi, Landry, Shula, Brown, Noll and Belichick. Guys that defined the job and were outstanding at it for a prolonged period.

53% regular season record despite lengthy stays with the clubs he coached, and no Super Bowl victories? Not even close, in my mind.

I guess you are correct the playoff record is too hard to overlook. If just1 just frickin 1 of those 13-3 teams got a ring he would be a sure thing HOF coach.
Cowher walks on water and won 1 ring. I think that would have been enough for marty.

There is no way in hell I'd even give a second thought about leaving Eddie George out of the hall.

He was just a mediocre back that got a lot of carries.

Jerry Rice
Emmit Smith
Shannon Sharpe
Cris Carter

Those should be the locks... Brown, Reed, Randle, George will get in, but maybe not this year.

There will be a few old timers in the next class, but those 4 are who I would vote for ...

Eligible for class of 2012.

If you're putting Belichick in there with those guys, you have to include Shanahan.

The Pro Bowl / All-Pro voters would disagree.

http://www.pro-football-reference.co...n/all-pros.htm

Reeves coached Denver from '81-92. Were there a bunch of other HOFers? No. But there was very solid talent.

Belichick has dominated the NFL for years with one all-world QB and a bunch of "very solid talent" that isn't likely to get into the HOF either. Seymour, maybe. Vinatieri, maybe. Moss, obviously, but none of the SBs involved him (yet).

I agree, the dude had a career 3.6 ypc average. However, the media loves him.

I think Shanarat is a HELL of a coach. Unfortunately, he was not a hell of a GM. I don't think the world sees him at quite the level of the guys I mentioned, but without reviewing his record I'd still think he's a HOF coach. He's got the multiple rings and was consistently extremely good for a very long time.

I'd like to see his stats, but that's about my impression too. I'd change "mediocre" to "slightly above average" and I agree.

I don't think the GM piece will matter much when he's considered for the HOF, many years down the road... he'll be coaching in 2010, so he'll build on his legacy.

http://www.pro-football-reference.co...G/GeorEd00.htm

I'd call that mediocre, and I'd be generous in doin so.

If he's smart, he'll let someone else run the Front Office.