Jim Tyrer is a finalist for the Hall of Fame (senior committee)
 

Remember a while back when I posted something about the senior committee nominees? There was a very specific comment that "only on-field considerations are examined". I think the reason for that was that they knew at that point that Tyrer would likely be a finalist.

Who would you cast your vote for? You can select UP TO THREE. Anyone getting more than 80 percent of the Chiefsplanet vote will go in. If no one gets 80 percent, then the top vote-getter goes in.


https://www.profootballhof.com/news/...class-of-2025/

He's now in competition with 2 other players and 2 contributors for 1 to 3 spots, depending on the voting.

The finalists are:

Contributor Finalist (1): Ralph Hay

Hay, an automobile dealer and the owner of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918-1922, is credited with organizing owners of professional football teams in his showroom in Canton in 1920 and forming an association that two years later was renamed the National Football League.

His supporters have said that among all major professional sports only football has yet to enshrine into its Hall of Fame the person (or persons) credited with founding its dominant league(s).

Coach Finalist (1): Mike Holmgren

Holmgren served as head coach in Green Bay from 1992-98, leading the Packers to the playoffs six times in those seven seasons, and with the Seattle Seahawks (1999-2008). His overall record of 174-122 includes winning Super Bowl XXXI with the Packers, ending the franchise’s 29-year title drought. He also reached Super Bowl XL after winning the NFC championship with the Seahawks.

As an assistant, Holmgren also won two Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers.

Seniors Finalists (3): Maxie Baughan, Sterling Sharpe, Jim Tyrer

Baughan, an outside linebacker, played from 1960 to 1970, then came out of retirement in 1974 to provide a veteran presence under longtime mentor GEORGE ALLEN(Opens in a new window) in Washington. A nine-time Pro-Bowler, Baughan won an NFL Championship with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he played from 1960-65 before joining the Los Angeles Rams (1966-1970).

Sharpe made five Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pro squads during his seven-year career (1988-94) with the Green Bay Packers that was cut short by a neck injury. His 18 touchdown receptions in his final season are still good for third best in league history. His career totals include 595 receptions for 8,134 yards and 65 touchdowns.

Tyrer was considered one of the dominant offensive tackles of his era. He was selected as a member of the AFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1960s and played in nine AFL All-Star Games in a career that spanned 13 years with the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs (1961-1973) and – like Baughan – one season in Washington (1974). He won a ring as a member of the Super Bowl IV champion Chiefs and was part of three AFL championship teams with the Texans/Chiefs.

Woah.

Um...Jim Tyrer's post-playing exploits were...uh...not great.

That's a rough look. I mean at a point, you need to really consider stuff off the field if you're going to enshrine someone in your Hall of Fame. I mean even if it only weighs 1%, that 1% in this case is gonna be disqualifying.

I'm really surprised. I figured he'd never get serious consideration. I wonder, though, if this is a covert nod to CTE and the post-playing challenges that some of the old-timers faced.

Tyrer didn't get rich from football, and one could make the case that football caused the ... um ... the "incident". Is it really fair and just for football to hold the "incident" against him if we see a lot of evidence that it probably arose indirectly from his football career?

I doubt that the league's lawyers would allow such an argument to be made public, but I could see a bunch of the league's old-timers pushing for Tyrer in recognition of that argument.

I also think it would be kind of cool to put Ralph Hay in. I mean, the dude just owned a car dealership in Canton and had some office space to hold the meeting in. That was a small gesture that changed the course of sports history. Maybe if he'd had a sales meeting scheduled for that room, the league founders would have declined to go meet at a local diner, and today we'd all still consider baseball to be the national sport.

I'm voting for both Hay and Tyrer. I would also not be disappointed if Holmgren got in.

Sharpe was on a clear trajectory before his injury, but lots of guys can say that, and you have deserving guys with long careers (e.g., Deron Cherry and Albert Lewis) still on the outside looking in.

I don't know a lot about Baughan. I just think that most Rams don't deserve it unless they're Merlin Olsen.

That's a slippery slope, which is why the criteria should be strictly performance on the playing field.

For example, that off the field stuff is being used to keep Curt Schilling out of Cooperstown, even though his supposed "transgressions" are nothing criminal related.

So what is the threshold for off the field issues to mitigate someone's HOF candidacy?

Not sure. But it's somewhere north of "murdered his wife"

OJ is still in Canton, right?

The case presented for Tyrer:

Tough call for me here. Tyrer was surely good enough as a player to get in. What I hate is he wasn't near the player OT was and he deserves it more than any other player from that era on the Chiefs. What the hell did Otis do to piss off the league?

I imagine it will be Holmgren from that list. Maybe Sharp.

I was thinking the same thing. How is a Tyrer a finalist over Otis Taylor. SMH. I just don't get it

Hay should be in.

Maybe a professional league develops without his call to arms but we don't know for sure.

What we do know is the NFL was founded because of his meeting.

Otis was my first sports hero in life, so I'm a massive Otis fan. But in fairness, Tyrer got a lot more accolades during his career.

We have to recall that era and how these guys were, basically, forced to block and that was with their head first. There is, in my mind, absolutely no question about concussions and CTE being an overwhelming factor in Tyrer killing his wife. While pathology isn't always causality, it's hard to argue against it when the guy was pretty calm and easy-going otherwise. Tie in the financial struggles of losing a few businesses and the recipe was easily there to tip someone with mental health issues over the edge.

Should we forever crucify Jim or is there some way to find forgiveness and let him into the HoF he would very much otherwise deserve? It's a tough one, for sure. Morally, I have a difficult time regardless of reason.

Sterling and Holmgren deserve to go IMO. Holmgrens tree is insane.