{"id":96353,"date":"2019-01-04T18:13:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T01:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/champ-bailey-among-1st-time-eligible-finalists-for-hall-of-fame\/"},"modified":"2019-01-04T18:13:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T01:13:25","slug":"champ-bailey-among-1st-time-eligible-finalists-for-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/champ-bailey-among-1st-time-eligible-finalists-for-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Champ Bailey among 1st-time eligible finalists for Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Denver
Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey was one of the game\u2019s great defensive players for 15 seasons. He will get a chance at the Hall of Fame this year.<\/span>Jack Dempsey\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

First-time eligibles Tony Gonzalez, Ed Reed and Champ Bailey are among 15 modern-era finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame\u2019s class of 2019.<\/p>\n

They will be joined in balloting on Feb. 2 by Steve Atwater, Tony Boselli, Isaac Bruce, Don Coryell, Alan Faneca, Tom Flores, Steve Hutchinson, Edgerrin James, Ty Law, John Lynch, Kevin Mawae, and Richard Seymour. Although previously eligible, Flores \u2013 who coached two Raiders teams to Super Bowl titles \u2013 and longtime defensive lineman Seymour are finalists for the first time.<\/p>\n

Also being considered for induction are senior committee nominee Johnny Robinson, a star safety for Dallas\/Kansas City from 1960-71, and contributors finalists Gil Brandt, former personnel director for the Cowboys and now the NFL\u2019s top draft consultant, and Broncos owner Pat Bowlen.<\/p>\n

A maximum of eight new members can be elected, five from the modern-era group. Inductions are Aug. 3 in Canton, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez played 17 seasons with the Chiefs and Falcons, but never made a Super Bowl. No matter: he holds the career record for tight ends with 1,325, second only overall to Jerry Rice, and gained more 15,127 yards while scoring 111 touchdowns. His string of 211 straight games with a catch lasted from 2000-13.<\/p>\n

Reed spent 12 seasons with the Ravens, Texans and Jets, winning an NFL title in 2012. He\u2019s one of two players to lead the NFL in interceptions three times (2-4, 2008, 2010) and was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2004.<\/p>\n

Bailey played 15 seasons with Washington and Denver and was a three-time All-Pro. Considered one of the game\u2019s best cover cornerbacks, he had a career-high 10 interceptions in 2006.<\/p>\n

Lynch, a standout safety for Tampa Bay and Denver, becomes a finalist for the sixth straight year. Coryell, who coached the high-powered offenses of the Cardinals and Chargers in the 1970s and \u201880s, is a five-time finalist.<\/p>\n

In all there, are three safeties, two cornerbacks, two offensive tackles, two coaches, one guard, one center, one tight end, one running back, one wide receiver and one defensive lineman as finalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atwater also a finalist for third time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[1545,926,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-denver-broncos","tag-football","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96353"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}