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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.

This time of year is a busy time for us in Canton as we prepare for the upcoming election of the Class of 2012 in Indianapolis on the eve of Super Bowl XLVI.

We take a huge step toward that this Saturday with the announcements of our finalists. They will be revealed on NFL Network’s pre-game show sometime around 1:30 p.m. ET and we’ll have extensive coverage right here on Profootballhof.com.

There will be 17 in all. Two of them we know already as they are the senior nominees – former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback from the 1950s Jack Butler, and guard Dick Stanfel who starred for the championship Detroit Lions teams of the early ‘50s and finished his career with the Washington Redskins.

The other 15 will come from the list of 26 semifinalists we announced in November. Take a look at the list and add your comments with who you would include as the 15.

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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.

If you were like millions of other Americans last Sunday night, you capped your Christmas day by watching the Green Bay Packers take care of the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football. Even if you happened to miss the game, you surely by now have seen what is being called the “sign of the year.”

Just before halftime, a NBC camera got a shot of a Packers fan who held up a sign that read, “MY CHEATING EX BOYFRIEND IS WATCHING FROM COUCH INSTEAD.” She got to enjoy the game live at Lambeau while her “ex” missed out on the opportunity.

Well, this Sunday I will be relegated to the couch also. And, no I didn’t cheat on my wife to get this chance. Rather, it comes with the territory of working at the Hall of Fame. I often tell people that one of the greatest perks of my job is sitting in the living room and watching football on Sunday and telling my family, “ssshhhh, I’m working!”

As is the case every year, it seems like Kickoff Weekend was just last week. Yet, another unbelievably exciting NFL season is nearing an end. It’s been a great year with so many memorable moments. And to cap off the regular season, it comes down to a great slate of games filled with playoff implications.

It’s going to be a great Sunday in my house. I’ll be glued to the couch watching all of the action. And, who knows my wife might just grab a seat next to her faithful husband.

Enjoy Week 17.

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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.

In the spirit of the holidays, this week’s blog is a play on the “12 Days of Christmas” but with a football twist. So here are 12 memorable moments from the 2011 NFL Season.

12 – Veteran Ed Reed had a pair of picks in the Baltimore Ravens’ Week 1 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was the 12th time of his career that he had at least two interceptions in the same game.

11 – Devin Hester ran back a 69-yard punt return for a TD in the Bears’ Week 4 win over the Carolina Panthers. It was his 11th punt return taken back for a score which allowed him to gain sole possession of the record for punt return touchdowns in a career that he had shared with Eric Metcalf.

10 – The start of the 2011 season was wild and unpredictable. One such example was when the 49ers rallied to beat the Lions in Week 6. It marked 19th time, and the most ever through the first six weeks of a season, that a team rallied from a 10-point deficit to win the game.

9 – Drew Brees became the first player to throw for 3,000 yards through the first nine games of a season. He broke his own mark of 2,985 yards through 9 games in 2008 when he became the second player in history to have 5,000 yards passing in a season.

8 – As in 108 yards. Kickoff Weekend is like a holiday for football fans. And, there was no better way to bring in the season with a bang than having Green Bay Packers’ rookie Randall Cobb run back a kickoff 108 yards for a TD. His return was just one of three kickoff returns of more than 100 yards during Kickoff Weekend (49ers Ted Ginn and the Vikings Percy Harvin were the others).

7 – After seven seasons with the Cardinals, Anquan Boldin made history when he faced his former team in Week 8. The Ravens WR had seven catches for 145 yards which is the most yardage by any receiver in his first game against a team in which he racked up 7,500 receiving yards.

6 – Tebow mania has struck in Denver and around the country. When QB Tim Tebow and the Broncos came back to beat Chicago two weeks ago it marked the Broncos’ sixth straight win and seventh in eight games since he took over as the starter. That includes a remarkable six wins they had after trailing in the second half.

5 – or should I say 500. Tom Brady has a great start to yet another season when he became the 11th player in NFL history to pass for 500 yards in a game. He followed that performance with 423 yards in Week 2 to make him the only player to follow a 500-yard game with a 400-yard effort.

4 – The Steelers Ben Roethlisberger earned his 70th win as a starting QB during a Week 2 shutout of the Seattle Seahawks. It was his 100th career start which made it the fourth fewest games needed to reach the milestone. The only other QBs to reach 70 wins faster were Roger Staubach, Tom Brady, and Ken Stabler.

3 – Week 15 marked just the third time in league history that an undefeated team was handed their first loss of the season on the same day (at least 11 games into the season) that a winless team earned its first victory. That came last Sunday when the Chiefs upset the Packers and the Colts beat the Titans.

2 – It took until the NFL’s 92nd season before two rookie quarterbacks threw for 3,000 yards. The Panthers Cam Newton and the Bengals Andy Dalton now hold that distinction.

1 – There’s nothing like the first time. The Houston Texans earned their first playoff berth in style by clinching the AFC South with three weeks remaining in the season when third-string rookie QB T.J. Yates passed for 300 yards and threw the game-winning TD pass with two seconds to play in Houston’s 20-19 win over the Bengals in Week 14.

Of course, I expect some of these to be trumped in the remaining couple of weeks of the regular season along with the typically exciting NFL playoffs.

And in the spirit of the holidays let me take time to thank the staffs of the NFL, Elias Sports, and our very own research team in Canton who spend countless hours compiling and charting facts about this great game we all love.

I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season.

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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.

Not even George Orwell could have predicted a 1984 like the one experienced in the National Football League.

This season there is a buzz about the potential of not one, not two, but possibly three quarterbacks surpassing the record-breaking aerial yardage by Dan Marino in 1984.

Let's flash back to Marino's memorable season. Marino, in just his second year with the Miami Dolphins, became the first player in league history to throw for 5,000 yards. The big story was Don Shula and Marino had Miami off to a hot start as the team ripped off 11 straight wins to begin the season before an overtime loss to the San Diego Chargers ended their winning streak of 16 straight regular season victories. A week later Marino made history when he threw four TDs in a win over the New York Jets on Monday Night Football to tie the NFL mark of 36 TDs in a season shared at that time by Y.A. Tittle and George Blanda.

He continued to fire touchdown passes (he finished with a then-record 48) but much of the focus turned to whether he set the record for passing yards in a season. He took aim at Dan Fouts' 1981 total of 4,802 but then it became apparent that he might just keep going. Could Marino become the first player in history to throw an unfathomable 5,000 yards? He finished the season with a flurry. Not only did he throw 4 TDs in each of the Dolphins' last three games but he eclipsed the 400-yard mark twice in that span including a season-high 470 yards against the Raiders in Week 14. He closed out the year by throwing for 340 yards in the finale against the Dallas Cowboys that allowed him to eclipse the 5k-mark.


There wasn't another 5,000-yard passer until 2008 when Drew Brees came within 16 yards of Marino's long-standing record. It'll be interesting to see if can withstand the threat again in 2011. While much of the discussion today is about how the game is built for passing, that wasn't necessarily the case a quarter century ago. Despite Marino's hefty total, no one could argue that the league had catered to the passing game. That's because another second-year player and future Hall of Famer was busy with his assault on the single-season rushing record. Eric Dickerson set the record by totaling 2,105 yards on the ground that season. And, unlike Marino's staggering number, his record remains safe in 2011.


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