One of the more controversial candidates for selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is getting another chance.
Via Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News, former Raiders punter Ray Guy and former Falcons defensive end Claude Humphrey have been named as the two Seniors Committee nominees.
Those two will be automatically included as finalists for the voting, which takes place the day before the Super Bowl. They’re considered separately from the 15 modern finalists, but each must receive at least 80 percent of the vote to be inducted into the Hall, meaning it’s far from a rubber-stamp process.
Guy has been a finalist seven times before (1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2008), and his exclusion to this point has been much-debated. He blames it on “stupid people,” effectively claiming discrimination against punters in general.
This time, however, he won’t have to worry about competing against other worthy candidates at other positions. That means he’ll either go into the Hall or not based on his own merits.