WR Tim Brown – The time has come. Brown, who has been a Hall of Fame finalist for six years in a row and ranks in the top 10 of every major receiving category in NFL history, needs to stop being snubbed and that time is now. Every receiver who is ahead of Brown on the all-time rankings are Hall of Famers or soon-to-be Hall of Famers, as are many of the receivers behind him on those rankings. He is one of a select few receivers in NFL history to play 16 seasons for the same team. Jerry Rice is the only WR in NFL history to play more games at WR than he has. But more impressively – unlike Rice, who had a pair of Hall of Fame QBs throwing him the ball, Brown was able to become one of the greatest receivers in NFL history with almost no consistency at the QB position. This induction is long overdue but should come tonight.
Head Coach Tony Dungy – Is it a little unfair to let Tony Dungy in on his first ballot when coaches like Bill Cowher, Don Coryell and Jimmy Johnson have been left out and guys like Bill Parcells had to wait what seemed like forever? Maybe. Will it matter? Probably not. And not just because of what Tony Dungy has meant to football, but for the doors he opened for African-American head coaches everywhere by becoming the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl with a win over Lovie Smith’s Bears in Super Bowl XLI. Among coaches that have coached at least 200 career games, Dungy ranks 4th in winning percentage with .668 – only George Halas, Don Shula and Paul Brown were better in the regular season. He did what precious few coaches have ever done for two franchises – he made the Tampa Bay Buccaneers relevant for the first time ever, and he made the Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl Champions.
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