NFL Hall of Fame Member Analysis - Introduction to a Series

I recently collected data on every National Football League Hall of Fame member with the help of the Pro Football Hall of Fame website and NFL website. I gathered information of all 261 current NFL Hall of Fame members, including NFL players, coaches and contributors to the game of football. I was determined to find NFL Hall of Fame representation - number of Hall of Famers at each position and over time - to find where NFL Hall of Fame representation is lacking and who should be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In the Pre-modern era of football many players played two positions, if not more. As such, a player may have been inducted as a running back, because that was his primary specialty, but that player may have been a Hall of Fame caliber defensive player also. It can appear to skew the data. There is only one full time place kicker in the Hall of Fame - Jan Stenerud - but Tackle Lou Groza and Quarterback George Blanda are also in the Hall of Fame and they were place kickers, as secondary duties. Many Hall of Famers have kicked a FG or two - mostly in the pre-modern era, as players did it all back then. They weren't just players; they coached, contributed and owned NFL franchises.

Underneath it all, I'm attempting to get at the truth of the NFL Hall of Fame data, extract relevant statistics and translate them into answers for future Hall of Famers. The fans now have a say in the Hall of Fame induction process and can vote here, but first they should be informed, so let me try to inform you about the current landscape of the NFL Hall of Fame.

There are currently 261 Hall of Fame members spanning ten decades; these include 21 Coaches and 18 Contributors to the game of football (many of whom also coached). Of the 222 players in the Hall of Fame, it can safely be argued that there is no dedicated punter. If the Hall of Fame in Canton was tasked with fielding a football team, they couldn't do it, as they would not have a punter. Ray Guy - probably the best punter ever - is up for induction in 2010, so that can be amended. It is probably the most glaring error with the current NFL Hall of Fame representation.

The most Hall of Famers - 77 - come from the Offensive Line and Defensive Line positions combined, but this is to be expected as there are more players at those positions than other positions. Of course, those 77 linemen do not count the 18 linebackers that are in the Hall of Fame from the modern era. In the pre-modern era, a linebacker would've just been considered a lineman.

Hall of Famers generally had shorter average career lengths in the pre-modern era than the modern era. A Pre-Modern era HOF quarterback had a 10.38 year average career length; while a Modern era HOF quarterback had a 15.09 year average career length. But, the overall average career length of a HOF quarterback is 13.87 years, which is - surprisingly - longer than any other Hall of Fame position, except kicker. The 31 HOF quarterbacks played a total of 430 years of professional football.

The most heavily represented decade for a HOF quarterback is the 70's with 78 combined years. At an average of 13.87 years per career, that breaks down to 5.62 quarterbacks from the decade. The next most heavily represented decade for a HOF quarterback is the 60's with 76 years or 5.48 quarterbacks; the 90's already account for 60 years or 4.33 quarterbacks - including Troy Aikman, Dan Marino, John Elway, Steve Young, Warren Moon and Joe Montana - who played in the decade.

I fear that the 1990's representation of quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame may include too many quarterbacks. 60 years of representation for the 1990's is only matched by the OL/DL's, with 66 years of representation at this point, but that's entire offensive and defensive lines. Quarterback is, undoubtedly, the most important position in football, however, these are statistics in progress. As it takes time for Hall of Famers to get inducted (minimum five years from when their career ends), data takes time to even itself out.

I think it is safe to assume that Peyton Manning and Brett Favre will eventually be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When that happens, it will add a total of 11 years of HOF quarterback experience to the 90's, bringing us to a total of 71 years represented. On second thought, that number might be perfectly on pace with the 1960's (76 years) and 1970's (78 years). This might indicate the 53 years represented by HOF quarterbacks in the 1980's may be short-changing someone. Maybe that's an indication that this should be the year to induct a quarterback from that era, such as Phil Simms or Randall Cunningham, who played 10 and 5 years in the 1980's, respectively. Last I checked on the Hall of Fame 2010 fan voting ballots, they were both ranked in the top 10, just barely.

Randall Cunningham had a career 81.5 passer rating. In 1998, Randall Cunningham had a 106.0 passer rating, as he was a part of that sick 15-1 Minnesota Vikings offense that featured rookie wide receiver sensation Randy Moss and outscored any previous NFL offense. More importantly, Randall Cunningham scored 35 rushing touchdowns in his career, which signals what the longtime Philadelphia Eagle quarterback really was - an athlete. The type of athlete who, nowadays, has schemes, like the Wildcat, orchestrated around them. Something tells me Randall Cunningham paved the way for the Michael Vick, Kordell Stewart, Seneca Wallace and Pat Whites of the world.

Randall Cunningham played all 10 years of the 1990's while Phil Simms played the first 4 years of the 90's. With the induction of either Randall Cunningham or Phil Simms into the Hall of Fame in 2010, the career years represented by quarterbacks in the 90's would jump from 60 years to 70 years and 64 years, respectively. With the 11 year assumed addition of Manning and Favre, those numbers would jump to 81 and 75, respectively. Of note is that 81 years of representation would make the 1990's the most heavily represented decade for quarterbacks. Recapping the representation of other decades of the modern era: 50's - 66 years, 60's - 76 years, 70's - 78 years, 80's - 53 years. Although, there were only 15 football teams in the 50's; that number wasn't increase to 24 until the 1960's and gradually increased through the years to 26 (also in the 60's), 28 (70's), 30 (90's) and 32 (00's).

Stay tuned for what further analysis of NFL Hall of Fame member data reveals...