A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.
One of the great parts of working at the Hall of Fame is that we get to know our enshrinees, not only as football players, but as people. There’s one player in the Class of 2012 that we're still learning more about as a football player. That’s because Jack Butler last stepped onto a football field in 1959 in a game in which he suffered a horrible leg injury that ended his career.
Even though I, like many, never saw Butler play in person I have seen film and read quite a bit about his career. So, as familiar as I’ve become of his playing career, we keep digging deeper to present stories about his nine-year career as we countdown to the Aug. 4 enshrinement in Canton.
This week, I discovered a new fact about Butler’s career and thought it would be perfect for my blog. Jack retired as the NFL’s second all-time leading interceptor. There’s no doubt he had a unique talent in getting the football in his hands on defense.
His NFL career began in a storybook fashion with a bit of foreshadowing. Butler signed as an undrafted free agent with the Steelers in 1951 out of St. Bonaventure. He is the first alum of that university and just the 15th undrafted free agent to earn a bronze bust in Canton.
Butler wasted no time in proving that he could play at the pro level. He played some at end (aka wide receiver) on offense but was being groomed at cornerback. The Steelers won just four games during Butler’s rookie year but something happened in each of those contests … Jack Butler intercepted a pass. In all, he recorded five picks that year but none was more spectacular than his first career interception. That came in a game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park as the Steelers faced the Cardinals. Trailing 14-7 entering the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh rallied to tie the game and then scored two touchdowns in the final one minute, 23 seconds. It started when the Steelers connected on a 33-yard pass play to take the late lead.
The Cardinals’ veteran quarterback Jim Hardy was playing in his first game since being lured out of retirement. He must surely have doubted his decision after trying to engineer a game-tying drive. Butler made his first career snag when he picked off Hardy near midfield and then astutely followed his blockers and made his way 52 yards for a touchdown!
Not only was this a spectacular way to record his first interception, the yardage of the return eventually had some symbolic importance. That’s because Butler’s interception that day was the first of 52 he would record in his career. Only fellow Hall of Famer Emlen Tunnell had more steals than Butler at the time. And it took another Hall of Famer, Mel Blount, to surpass Butler in the Steelers’ record book.
While we don’t have a film collection like our friends at NFL Films, we were able to find this footage (click on image below) which we believe is of Butler’s fifth and final pick of his rookie season. He intercepted a Sammy Baugh pass intended for Bill Dudley. The play came in the Steelers’ 20-10 win on the road over the Washington Redskins in the season finale on Dec. 16, 1951.
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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.
Personally, this is a tough time of year for me now that the NFL season is over. I’m not much of a basketball or baseball fan and I’m a hockey fan living in Ohio (which has its challenges). So, I’m really quite deprived of my sports “fix.” I wandered aimlessly through last weekend and was just happy as can be to start my work week so I could again engulf myself in football again!
One of the tasks accomplished this week was a piece for our website that recounts some of the great moments from the 2011 NFL Season. Give it a read and then leave a comment with what you thought was the most historic footnote to the NFL’s history that occurred in 2011.
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| Calvin Johnson accomplished something that hadn’t been done in the NFL since 1968. Find out by reading our “A Thriller!” story. |
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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.
I start this week’s blog by stating, like I have done many times before, that the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s selection process is one of the best, if not the best, among sports halls of fame. The main reason is that it’s nearly year-round and has several stages in the vetting process to get to the new class of enshrinees. The final step, of course, is the face-to-face meeting that our Selection Committee engages in on the day before the Super Bowl.
This is the time of year that the process is under heavy scrutiny. That’s mostly due to the fact that there are many unhappy fans and dissatisfied members of the media who are disappointed that “their” candidate didn’t get elected. Not surprisingly, our Selection Committee comes under attack. I can assure you, being much closer to the process than most, that our committee is comprised of some of the most dedicated individuals in the industry. In addition, our selectors represent a tremendous amount of knowledge gained from years and years of covering the NFL. The amount of preparation that is put into selecting a new class of Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinees would probably surprise many of you. Our selectors study each candidate thoroughly. It is also very common for most of them to solicit evaluations and opinions from a wide cross-section of the football world ranging from personnel people, scouts, other players, coaches and so on.
Now on to the real topic of this week’s blog. No one can argue that the six-man Class of 2012 – Jack Butler, Dermontti Dawson, Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy, Curtis Martin, and Willie Roaf – are not deserving of the honor bestowed them last Saturday. I offer my congratulations to a great new class of enshrinees. Furthermore, no one can argue that the great players, coach, and owner who did not make the cut, do not deserve it either. All 17 finalists for this year’s class have left their mark on the NFL. Unfortunately, this is the tough part of the process as we see finalists not elected.
Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts was one of the hosts of our Announcement Show on NFL Network from the Super Bowl Media Center in Indianapolis. He made a very poignant remark about those who did not make the cutdown.
© Ben Liebenberg/NFL
“Do not get disappointed. Do not give up,” is the advice he gave to Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Edward DeBartolo, Jr., Kevin Greene, Charles Haley, Bill Parcells, Andre Reed, Will Shields, Dick Stanfel, and Aeneas Williams.
Fouts is right. The fact is that once someone “gets in the room” (i.e. – becomes a finalist and therefore is openly and thoroughly discussed and evaluated during the annual meeting), the odds of making the Hall of Fame are heavily in their favor.
Here are the hard, cold facts. Since 1970, when the Hall of Fame selection process began cutting down to a group of finalists, there are been a total of 258 players, coaches, and contributors who have been finalists. The vast majority, 214, ultimately were elected to the Hall of Fame.
That means 83% of all finalists eventually are enshrined into the Hall. There’s even better news for most of this year’s finalists who didn’t make it. The percentage jumps to 89% for those who are finalists more than once.
So, yes, there’s much disappointment for many after last Saturday’s vote but the truth is that it really becomes an issue of “when” not “if.”
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A new "For Pete's Sake" blog appears each Thursday on Profootballhof.com.
This time of year is like a national (even global) holiday season for football fans. The countdown is on for Sunday night’s kickoff of Super Bowl XLVI between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. For us at the Hall of Fame, our kickoff is Saturday night at 5:30 p.m. ET.
That’s when you can tune into NFL Network to see The Road to Canton: Pro Football Hall of Fame: Class of 2012 presented by Allstate. The show is hosted by Fran Charles who will be joined on the set by a pair of Hall of Fame QBs, Dan Fouts and Warren Moon. The moment we are all waiting for is when a representative from the accounting firm Deloitte will hand the envelope to Hall of Fame President/Executive Director Steve Perry. And, moments later the football world finds out who from our list of 17 finalists has earned a permanent place in Canton.
Computer generated image of stage for Saturday’s show.
People continually are surprised when they learn that no one knows the class before Perry opens the envelope. That’s one of the great aspects of our selection process. The results are tallied by Deloitte accountants and we don’t ever find out the final vote totals.
If you work close to the process, it seems rather simple. Yet, most fans think the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s process is confusing. It really isn’t unless, of course, you’re a selector. Our 44-member Selection Committee has their work cut out for them. Our bylaws only permit a maximum of five of the 15 modern-era candidates to be elected. The class size can be as large as six of seven only if one or both of the senior candidates are elected.
To make it easy for you, here is a simple explanation of how the process works on Saturday.
1. The committee meets behind closed doors with security on the outside. The selectors, who represent some of the most knowledgeable individuals in the football industry, speak openly and candidly. What is said in the room stays in the room.
2. The two seniors, in this case Jack Butler and Dick Stanfel, are discussed in great detail. Then ballots are distributed and each selector can vote for none, one, or both. Deloitte employees come in and gather the ballots and go to a private room to count the results. Butler and Stanfel need 80 percent of the vote to be elected. The outcome won’t be known until Perry heads to the podium some eight hours later.
3. Next, the group begins the long deliberation on the 15 modern-era candidates. The committee then has to vote for 10 of the 15 modern-era candidates. Again, Deloitte employees come in and gather the ballots and calculate the top 10 vote getters.
4. The Selection Committee resumes the meeting by focusing solely on the remaining 10 candidates. After more deliberation, the selectors must vote for five of the 10 remaining nominees. Deloitte tallies the votes and presents the remaining five finalists.
5. At that point, the Selection Committee members vote either “yes” or “no.” In order for any of those five individuals to be elected, they must garner 80 percent of the room’s support.
This year’s meeting will be intriguing. The buzz around the media center in Indianapolis all week is that for the first time in several years, there is no “slam dunk” (not sure why we don’t use a football analogy) among the group. A few other observations I can make is the top debate seems to be on the three wide receivers. There seems to be little doubt that Tim Brown, Cris Carter, and Andre Reed are deserving of a place in Canton. Will this be their year? Will one make it? What about two or even all three? If one considers that then you also have to address the idea that there are three offensive linemen among the modern-era finalists up for consideration. There are also three pass rushers. Will the committee focus on a position? Do they simply take the five best regardless of position? If that’s the case, how do you determine who the five best are as there is no debate all 15 finalists are worthy candidates.
All I can say is that it is going to be a long, long day for our dedicated Selection Committee.
Once their work ends, ours begins in full swing. We’ll get busy getting any of the new class who is Indy over the show. We also get busy dialing numbers to get those not on hand to join by phone. On Sunday, in a relatively new tradition, the new class of enshrinees will be flown into Indianapolis and be on hand for the pre-game coin toss for the Super Bowl. They’ll stay an extra day and meet with some of our staff who briefs them on what life will be like for the next six months.
The road from Indianapolis to Canton will be fast and furious as hundreds upon hundreds of community volunteers in Canton help us put on one of sport’s greatest celebrations, the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival. It all revolves around the Enshrinement ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 4. But, before we can worry about that, we need to find out who gets elected.
Tune in Saturday!
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