How are officials affected by new Hall of Fame nomination rule changes?

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced some changes to the rules governing not only the overall selection process, but also some changes to how they select coaches and contributors for enshrinement. Two new “screening committees” will independently evaluate nominees in the modern-era players and seniors categories. These 11-person committees will consist of Hall of Fame members, football historians, former NFL front office personnel, and media members.

These screening committees will pare down the list of nominees to 50 candidates each, with the modern-era players going through the usual process of reduction votes to get to 15.

Senior candidates will be sent to the seniors blue-ribbon committee for a selection of three finalists for the current class. Coaches and contributors will be selected similarly, with a coach blue-ribbon committee and a contributor blue-ribbon committee reducing the nominees down to a single finalist for each of those two categories.

The five combined finalists for seniors, coach, and contributor will be voted on by the selectors. Out of this cluster of five nominees, no more than three and at least one must be selected for enshrinement with an 80% approval required.

One additional change that was made was the reduction in the waiting period from five seasons out of the game to one season for coach candidates, which is great news for recently retired coach Bill Belichick. Contributor candidates have no such waiting period.

For the past two enshrinement cycles, coaches and contributors combined occupied only one spot on the final balloting.

It is unclear how this will affect the future enshrinement of on-field officials. Art McNally is the first and only on-field official enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. With the separation of the coach and contributor committees, it is possible we will see more officials reach the selection committee for enshrinement, as a contributor is guaranteed to reach the final ballot. However, with only one inductee required per year from the senior/coach/contributor group, and the likelihood that seniors and coaches would be prioritized, it may still be a tough road to get additional officials such as Jim Tunney, Jerry Markbreit, and Jerry Seeman their deserved place in Canton.

This is before we even consider the fact that the contributor category is swarmed with candidacies of owners, general managers, and (lately) scouting personnel.