Eight notables were elected on Saturday to the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
Junior Seau, an outstanding linebacker with the San Diego Chargers (with whom he was selected as National Football League defensive player of the year in 1992 and was a key cog in the Chargers' lone Super Bowl team two seasons later), played nearly two decades in the NFL and was a member of the New England Patriots team that went 16-0 in the 2007 regular season before losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants. Mr. Seau committed suicide by shotgun wound to the chest in 2012 at age 43. Later studies showed that the 12-time Pro Bowler and eight-time first-team All-Pro had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Junior was the only one elected posthumously.
Two of running back Jerome Bettis' eight 1000-yard season came with his original team, the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams. But it was with the Pittsburgh Steelers that Mr. Bettis really blossomed. He played on the Steelers' Super Bowl XL title team (that game was played in "The Bus'" native Detroit). Jerome went to the Pro Bowl on six occasions and was selected as an All-Pro twice.
A five-time Pro Bowl and two-time All-Pro (as well as five-time Super Bowl winner), Charles Haley played 13 seasons (eight with the San Francisco 49ers where he won two Super Bowl titles, and five with the Dallas Cowboys, where Mr. Haley captured the Vince Lombardi trophy thrice) and recorded 100.5 sacks, two interceptions, and eight fumble recoveries.
Wide receiver Tim Brown, a former Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame, played seventeen NFL seasons, mostly with the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, and ranks fifth in receiving yards (14,934). He holds the record for most consecutive games with more than one catch (147). Mr. Brown came closest to winning a Super Bowl after the 2002 season but the Raiders lost Super Bowl XXXVII to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In his rookie season with the Raiders in 1988, Tim a rookie-season record for most combined total yards gained (2.317).
12-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro offensive guard Will Shields spent his entire 14-year NFL career (1993-2006) with the Kansas City Chiefs, blocking for such notable running backs as Marcus Allen, Priest Holmes, and Larry Johnson. Mr. Shields started all but one of his 224 games at guard and he ended up on the NFL's All-Decade team of the 2000s despite never winning a championship.
The lone candidate from the senior committee, Mick Tinglehoff was one of the best centers of his era. He 240 consecutive games for Bud Grant's Minnesota Vikings and played in all four of the Vikes' Super Bowl appearances. Mr. Tinglehoff did play on the Vikings' NFL title team (1969) in the final year before the NFL-AFL merger was completed.
From the newly-minted Contributors category, Ron Wolf was one of the most successful personnel men in league history. He spent 23 years with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders who had winning seasons in all but six years during that span, playing a role in all three of the Raiders' Super Bowl championship teams (SBs XII, XV, and XVIII). Mr. Wolf later had a successful decade-long run with the Green Bay Packers, hiring Mike Holmgren as head coach and trading for quarterback Brett Favre (both in 1992). The Packers appeared in back-to-back Super Bowls, winning SB XXXI against New England and losing to Denver in SB XXXII.
Like Mr. Wolf, Bill Polian was nominated from the Contributors category. Mr. Polian made a reputation for building solid playoff teams. On his watch, the Buffalo Bills appeared in four consecutive Super Bowls in the early-to-mid 1990s. Next, he helped built the Carolina Panthers to the point where they won seven games in 1995, their inaugural season, then came within a victory of a Super Bowl appearance in their second year. He late became president of the Indianapolis Colts in 1998, and his first year, drafted Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning with the first overall selection in that year's NFL college draft. With Mr. Manning at the helm, the Colts won Super Bowl XLI over the Chicago Bears.
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