re: Deion Sanders: Pro Football Hall of Fame Is Becoming a ‘Free-for-All’

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Having ground rules that stipulate that 4-8 members per year must be elected is a big part of this problem. There should be no set quota

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Technically there isn’t a set quota.

There is a running list of players under consideration. Each year notable players are added to that list once they’ve been retired at least 5 years.

That list is eventually narrowed down to semi-finalists, then to 15 finalists. From that list of 15, the HOF committee chooses 5 players to be placed before a final vote. Technically, all five could be denied final approval.

There’s also the same process for coaches and contributors, but only one finalist is selected for a final vote.

Once a player has been retired for 25 years, his name gets moved to the senior committee. That process used to have only one finalist, but that committee now nominates two players for a vote.

So, that’s 5 modern era players, plus 1 coach/contributor, and 2 older players from the senior committee.

The max is eight if all finalists are selected. There is no official minimum, but they have a goal of at least four inductees for each class. I don’t know why that’s a stated goal, because they always exceed it.

They make a big announcement about the 15 finalists, but never reveal the actual five players up for the final vote because once you’ve made it that far, you’re 99% assured of getting in.

They went a little crazy in 2020 by electing a bunch of executives, coaches, and contributors in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the the establishment of the professional league that would evolve into the NFL No one noticed because there wasn’t a ceremony due to Covid, but there were 15 people elected.