The 15 modern-era finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2014 were announced Thursday on NFL Network. A vote calling for fans to pick a "Final 15" of their own delivered significantly different results.
First, here's the official list of finalists:
Morten Andersen
Jerome Bettis
Derrick Brooks
Tim Brown
Edward DeBartolo
Tony Dungy
Kevin Greene
Charles Haley
Marvin Harrison
Walter Jones
John Lynch
Andre Reed
Will Shields
Michael Strahan
Aeneas Williams
And now the list of 15 decided by nearly two million fan votes on NFL.com. The players are listed in accordance to the number of votes they received. We've highlighted where the fans differed from Hall voters:
- Marvin Harrison, 116,360 votes, 5.9 percent
- Michael Strahan 115,272 votes, 5.8 percent
- Jerome Bettis, 108,621 votes, 5.5 percent
- Morten Anderson, 101,381 votes, 5.1 percent
5. Jimmy Johnson, 100,113, 5.0 percent
6. Roger Craig, 95,617, 4.8 percent
7. Steve Atwater, 92,520, 4.7 percent - Charles Haley, 87,477, 4.4 percent
- Walter Jones 83,533, 4.2 percent
10. Steve Wisniewski, 78,933, 4.0 percent
11. Karl Mecklenburg, 76,867, 3.9 percent
12. Don Coryell, 76,866, 3.7 percent- Edward DeBartolo, 74,943, 3.8 percent
14. Paul Tagliabue, 73,886, 3.7 percent - Tony Dungy, 71,057, 3.6 percent
- Edward DeBartolo, 74,943, 3.8 percent
Takeaways:
» We enjoyed the kicking stylings of Morten Anderson as much as the next guy. In general, it's hard not to root for a guy named Morten. That said, there's no way he should've gotten 18,000 more votes than Walter Jones, one of the best left tackles in NFL history.
» Tim Brown missed the fan cut by 103 votes. Though there's no connection, this feels foreboding for Brown's real-life Canton chances.
» Speaking of wide receivers, Andre Reed isn't a top-15 finalist?!? Were any of the fan voters alive during the first Bush administration?
» Harrison and Strahan were popular picks by fans in their first year on the ballot. Derrick Brooks got snubbed in his first year, however. John Lynch, a Brooks teammate in Tampa, was also bypassed by fans. You guys are going to get Sapp angry.
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