FLOWERY BRANCH — A total of 31 players, including several former Falcons, were selected by the Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee to advance in the voting process for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 on Tuesday.
The committee cut the original group of 60 players. It was supposed to be 25 players, but with ties for the final spot, 31 players advanced.
The next cut, in a few weeks, will reduce the group to nine.
Former Falcons players Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Mike Kenn, George Kunz, Clay Matthews Jr. and Tommy Nobis all advanced.
Johnson is the lone member on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary team who has not been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Johnson broke the NFL record for punt return yards in 1985.
Johnson played for Houston from 1974-80. He played 1981 with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League before playing for the Falcons from 1982-87 and with Washington in 1988.
Johnson broke Emlen Tunnell’s punt-return yardage record in 1985. Brian Mitchell, David Meggett, Devin Hester, Darrien Gordon, Eric Metcalf and Tim Brown since passed Johnson, who ranks seventh on the all-time list.
Hester, who ended his career with the Falcons, was enshrined in the Class of 2024.
Kenn, who played for the team from 1978-94, was taken with the 13th overall pick in the 1978 draft out of Michigan. He went on to become a five-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro as he started 251 games at left tackle over his career.
Kunz was a five-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler.
He was drafted second overall in the 1969 NFL draft by the Falcons. He played six seasons each with the Falcons and the Baltimore Colts. Kunz was named to the Pro Bowl team eight times in a nine-year span, and named All-Pro in 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976 and 1977.
Matthews, the uncle of Falcons tackle Jake Matthews, played in the NFL from 1978-96. He played his final three seasons with the Falcons. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and was second-team All-Pro in 1984.
This is the seventh time Matthews has been a semifinalist, although the second time in the seniors category. He broke through to become a finalist in 2021.
Nobis, who died in December 2017, was the first NFL draft pick of the expansion Falcons in 1966 out of Texas. He played with abandon for 11 seasons for the Falcons and was known for the ferocity of his tackling.
Nobis won NFL rookie of the year, played in five Pro Bowls, was selected first-team All-Pro (1967) and is a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1960s.
Nobis averaged almost 18 tackles per game his rookie season. He had 294 tackles as a rookie, the most credited to one player in an NFL season.
Former Georgia Tech linebacker Maxie Baughan, who played 12 seasons for the Eagles, Rams and Washington from 1960-71 and made a comeback in 1974.
Former Packers wide receiver Sterling Sharpe, who played at the old Glennville High School, advanced.
Sharpe made it to the semifinalist stage, one of the last 12 senior nominees, but was not chosen as one of the final three in 2024. Sharpe, who played at South Carolina, was a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro.
His career was cut short after seven seasons because of a neck injury. He set an NFL record at the time for receptions in a single season with 108 in 1992, and then broke it with 112 in 1993. He led the NFL with 18 touchdown receptions in his final season in 1994.
Also, Falcons CEO Rich McKay advanced in the contributor category. McKay was general manager of Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1994-2003); general manager of the Falcons (2003-08); president/CEO of the Falcons, 2008 to present. He helped to build stadiums in both cities and helped to expand the fan bases in the Southeast.
The Hall’s nine-member Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee narrowed its original list of 14 nominees to these 12 individuals: Bill Arnsparger, Tom Coughlin, Jeff Fisher, Alex Gibbs, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Richie Petitbon, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert, Mike Shanahan and Clark Shaughnessy.
Reeves was the Falcons’ head coach from 1997 to 2003 and was the first coach to take the team to the Super Bowl after the 1998 season. Also, Gibbs was the Falcons’ offensive line coach from 2004-06.
Credit: Vernon Biever
Credit: Vernon Biever
Here’s the full list of the senior candidates:
Ken Anderson
Ottis Anderson
Carl Banks
Maxie Baughan
Charlie Conerly
Roger Craig
Ox Emerson
Chuck Foreman
Larry Grantham
Lester Hayes
Cecil Isbell
Joe Jacoby
Billy “White Shoes” Johnson
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
Mike Kenn
Bob Kuechenberg
George Kunz
Albert Lewis
Jim Marshall
Harvey Martin
Clay Matthews Jr.
Credit: AJC File
Credit: AJC File
Eddie Meador
Stanley Morgan
Tommy Nobis
Jim Plunkett
Art Powell
Sterling Sharpe
Otis Taylor
Jim Tyrer
Everson Walls
Al Wistert
Paul “Tank” Younger
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