By no fault of his own, New York Giants legend Eli Manning’s potential path to the Pro Football Hall of Fame took an unexpected turn on Friday.
The Hall of Fame announced significant changes to the voting process, most notably reducing the selection committee from 50 voters to 28. Hall of Fame president and CEO Jim Porter said the new rules should prevent “unintended biases,” which may have contributed to Bill Belichick’s shocking snub this past cycle.
“We believe these changes both augment what has worked well while addressing opportunities to further strengthen a tradition that means so much to the game and everyone who loves it,” Porter said.
You can find the complete list of rule changes below.
Rule | Old format | New format |
|---|---|---|
Committee size | 50 voters | 25 voters, three non-voting participants |
Committee structure | One selector per NFL club, 17 at-large selectors and one Pro Football Writers of America representative | 27 at-large selectors and one PFWA representative |
Player eligibility | Separate Modern-Era Players and Seniors categories. | A single pool for all eligible players following the mandatory five-year retirement period. |
Contributor eligibility | Individual who “contributed to the game outside of playing or coaching." | Consideration of a candidate’s full football résumé that may include playing, coaching, and other contributions to the sport. |
Candidates considered at final meeting | 15 Modern-Era players, three seniors, one coach and one contributor. | 13 players plus one coach and one contributor. The Coach and Contributor candidates will be determined by the respective subcommittees. |
Seniors on final ballot | Maximum of three senior candidates. | A single pool for all eligible players following the mandatory five-year retirement period. |
Carryover candidates | Candidates who reached the final seven will return automatically as finalists the following year. | Provision has been removed. |
Adrian Peterson, Ben Roethlisberger, and Rob Gronkowski headline the first-year candidates for the upcoming cycle. However, off-field issues could potentially impact Peterson and Roethlisberger’s chances of election.
What do the new Pro Football Hall of Fame rules mean for New York Giants legend Eli Manning?
In the grand scheme of things, nothing about Manning’s Hall of Fame résumé itself has changed. Either you believe, or you do not believe that the two Super Bowl rings are enough to justify an election. There are no advanced metrics that work in Manning’s favor the way we often see with the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Upon reflection, does Manning even qualify as a “Hall of Very Good” quarterback? We urge Giants fans to be objective. Solely from an on-field perspective, Roethlisberger is far more deserving of the Hall of Fame, though the only player whom we’d call a “lock” for election next year is Gronkowski.
We can go down the entire rabbit hole of what makes a Hall of Famer, but most football fans are seemingly set in their ways about Manning. If not for the two championships, he’d be remembered as a solid yet unspectacular starting quarterback. Keep in mind that he never won a postseason game outside of the two Super Bowl runs, and the Giants only reached the playoffs once in his final seven seasons as a full-time starter; we’re obviously excluding 2019 because Pat Shurmur benched him after only two games.
Earning a gold jacket and a bronze bust in Canton needs to mean something, right? Otherwise, you end up with the Basketball Hall of Fame, which sees four or five above-average seasons as reason alone for election. There’s no such thing as a “Hall of Very Good” where the NBA is concerned.
We personally love the Hall of Fame discourse, and the first year of the new system should give us a preview of what lies ahead. But at least for now, we’re skeptical that Manning will enter the Hall of Fame anytime soon.
Add us as a preferred source on Google