On Saturday night at the 2015 NFL Honors awards ceremony, the 2015 NFL Hall of Fame class was announced. Names such as Pittsburgh Steelers fullback Jerome Bettis, San Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau and Indianapolis Colts executive and current ESPN personality Bill Polian headline the class.
The rest of the class is rounded out by: former Kansas City Chiefs guard Will Shields, wide receiver Tim Brown, defensive end Charles Haley, Minnesota Vikings center Mick Tingelhoff and Green Bay Packers executive Ron Wolf.
Every person who is to be inducted boast a remarkable resume. Both Seau and Shields played in 12 NFL Pro Bowls. Seau was named to eight NFL All-Pro teams and won the the 1994 Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Shields is a three time NFL All-Pro selection and he too won the Man of the Year award, with his coming in the 2003 season.
Bettis, Brown and Haley round out the modern inductees. Bettis will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest fullbacks to ever play the game in the NFL, and his career is one which will be long remembered. Bettis is a six time Pro Bowl and two time All-Pro selection, 1993 NFL Rookie of the Year, 1996 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, 2001 Man of the Year award and he left the game as winner when the Steelers won the 2005 Super Bowl.
Brown has much in common with his fellow inductees: he was selected to the Pro Bowl on nine occasions but never made an All-Pro team. The closest he came was in 1997 when he made the second team. Haley made five Pro Bowls and was a two time All-Pro and won five Super Bowl titles.
Tingelhoff was inducted after being nominated by the seniors committee, and he was a six time Pro Bowl selection and a five time All-Pro selection. The Hall of Fame class is rounded out by two executives: Bill Polian and Ron Wolf. Both played critical roles in building recent dynasties, and both are still talked about.
Members of the younger generation may know Polian more for his punditry on ESPN but before that he built three terrific football teams. Polian was the Buffalo Bills general manager for the first three of their four consecutive Super Bowl losses, the general manager of the expansions Jacksonville Jaguars which made the 1996 NFC Championship Game, and the architect of the Indianapolis Colts dynasty which Peyton Manning came to symbolize. Polian's lone Super Bowl ring came from the Colts.
Wolf began his career scouting for the Oakland Raiders and worked for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1970s before becoming general manager of the Green Bay Packers in 1991. He crafted the Green Bay team which won the 1996 Super Bowl and appeared in the 1997 Super Bowl. In recent years, Wolf has done consulting work for the San Diego Chargers and New York Jets.
The 2015 NFL Hall of Fame class will be inducted in Canton, Ohio on the weekend of August 7-9, 2015.