Hall Voter Predicts Dungy & Lynch Get In Tonight
February 6th, 2016
Only one man representing the Tampa Bay region casts a vote for the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees.
He is the Custodian of Canton, eye-RAH! Kaufman.
Kaufman, of The Tampa Tribune, will be a busy man today and tonight. As is customary the day before the Super Bowl, the 50 or so Hall voters gather, present, discuss, argue and cast their ballots.
Yesterday, Kaufman joined the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, and talked all things Hall of Fame. He put his foot down and predicted Bucs icons Father Dungy and John Lynch, both finalists again this year, will become Hall of Famers this year.
Via this link above, you can hear Kaufman and Duemig talk all things Hall of Fame.
Real wild cards on this year’s 15-finalists ballot this year are Kurt Warner and freaky Terrell Owens, the NFL’s second leading receiver of all time with 15,934 yards.
Lynch also might lose votes to former Broncos safety Steve Atwater, who is a first-time finalist. Lynch and Dungy are on the finalist ballot for the third time.
Per Kaufman, Brett Favre is a lock, and Marvin Harrison also will get the required 80 percent of the vote. He also likes linebacker Kevin Greene to get in.
Interesting note: Kaufman says he will be the final presenter this year. He believes he can leverage that position to get Lynch the necessary votes. It’s an important year for Lynch, with fellow safety Ed Reed becoming eligible in a couple of years.
February 6th, 2016 at 8:40 am
Good luck to both of them!
I was a big fan of Tony Dungy personally…still am. But I hated his coaching style. I was not a fan of pounding the rock and playing suffocating D. Don’t get me wrong I was happy to win, just happier that going forward we might get to see some offense!
TD should get in because he’s done something that always impresses me. He won BIG with two different franchises. And he turned the Bucs around. Yeah it was with Sam Wyche’s talent but Dungy is the man who turned the culture from losers to winners.
And we can say he had a ready made team when he went to Indy but there was a job opening there for a reason. He got the Colts over the hump and so helped Peyton get his only SB win!! That may change tomorrow night.
TD should absolutely be in the HOF. Another metric would be how many coaches he developed who went on to be HC’s.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:06 am
Dungy over Jimmy Johnson? c’mon man!
February 6th, 2016 at 9:12 am
That would be awesome! Lynch has got to be my favorite bucs of all time
February 6th, 2016 at 9:12 am
Peyton Manning won a SB in spite of Tony Dungy. Any other QB and Dungy would have been fired from his second franchise. John Lynch absolutely deserves to be in the HOF. Great player. Great human being. Dungy is a nice guy and a great DC, but he’s not a HOF HC.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:13 am
I agree wit you Dewey and I hated those cowboys. Im curious to know how some of you felt seeing Lynch all Broncos jerseyed down at the afc championship game tho??? Kinda made me cringe a little. I know he did a brief stint there but to me that was kinda riding that organization’s coattail.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:20 am
The only reason Jimmy Johnson isn’t in is because his tenure was too short. I think he will and should get in eventually. The other thing that separates Dungy is that he had 2 great teams where Johnson only had success with one team. I’m a fan of both guys (Cane fan as well) but Dungy does have better credentials if you are looking at more than Superbowl wins.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:28 am
Like you Luther I admire and respect JJ’s wins in Dallas. But he also had an owner who would give him anything.
And he had Troy Aikman!!! Who did TD have in Tampa. I honestly forget!
Bill Belicheat is considered a great coach…but he has never won without Brady.
Once again we get back to the fact that most “great” coaches have great QB’s.
This is why I consider Don Shula the greatest NFL coach ever. He won with great QB’s and some mediocre ones. And he won with two different teams.
Bill Parcells is a guy who won in four different places..gotta respect him too.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:30 am
Meh…it’s tough to get in on your first time around. If both of them do it in the same year it will be amazing. I don’t know. Sapp and Brooks got in on their first go. I think it just shows us Buc fans just how great they were. It’s easy for us to think of how great they were. When others around the country recognize it, that’s a bigger story. No longer were fans of opposing teams able to look at their schedule, see the Bucs on it and chalk it up as a win for their team.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:31 am
SPBF…Dungy had Dilfer.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:34 am
BTW if you are what your record says you are then there is no competition between JJ and TD. JJ has two SB’s compared to TD’s 1…after that though it’s not even close..
Johnson with a .556 win % with two teams over 9 years.
Dungy with a .668 win % with two teams over 13 years!!!
It’s not even close!!
Dungy was an amazing .759 in seven years with the Colts. That’s winning 3 out of every four games!!!
JJ was only .550 with the Cowboys..thanks to his horrible first year…But TD’s record is also torn down by his hard first year with the Bucs.
Now somebody tell me why Jimmy Johnson is more deserving that TD!!!
February 6th, 2016 at 9:36 am
87
From last night…you should start writing again man. It’s never too late.
I thought he had Dilfer…not exactly a guy to carry a team…but Brian Billick managed an SB with him. Then again Billick may have had the only D that could rival the Bucs Super Bowl D.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:37 am
Didn’t Jimmy build his team prior to free agency?
February 6th, 2016 at 9:42 am
Yeh, Lynch only played 60 regular season games for the Broncos. That hardly counts. None of us would ever allow ourselves to be honored for so little. I know I would never “tag on to those coat tails”. Right.
Aggravated me when the bucs didn’t resign him. The safety’s play is the most critical in the Tampa 2 scheme. Without great safety play, everything else is hampered. I hope he gets the HOF, he deserves it as much as any other part of those great buc defenses.
February 6th, 2016 at 9:51 am
I HATED Dilfer!
February 6th, 2016 at 10:02 am
StPete
Here is the most important stat that seperates JJ and Dungy
Dungy Playoff winning %: .474
Jimmy Johnson playoff winning %: 692
Sorry a coach who left multiple super bowls on the table with 2 teams and that has a below .500 career playoff record should not enter the Hall of Fame before a multiple super bowl wining coach with a nearly .700 playoff wining percentage.
I personally lost all respect for dungy the way he handled the vick situation. Vick deserved a second chance and he paid his price but Dungy is a hypocrite in a lot of ways. You can’t play holy roller and pick and choose who deserves redemption that’s above his pay grade. Dungy like Lovie was his own first enemy coaching.
Lynch made multiple pro bowls with Broncos so it was hardly a cameo. Not sure he gets in before atwater though.
February 6th, 2016 at 10:04 am
^^^ worst not first
February 6th, 2016 at 10:07 am
considering the hall of fame talent that Dungy had in both tampa and indy there is simply NO excuse for a below .500 playoff record.
February 6th, 2016 at 10:08 am
You can’t play holy roller and pick and choose who deserves redemption that’s above his pay grade.
Tmax
I dislike the holy rollers as well but that has absolutely nothing to do with TD’s record.
JJ had one good run with Aikman…that’s it! He had a losing playoff record with the Dolphins. And so because a guy went 3-0 on the way to two consecutive SB’s..that’s 6-0 right there…he was .500 in the playoffs for the rest of his career.
There really is no competition. If we go by your metric of playoffs being the only thing that counts then I guess Peyton can kiss the HOF goodbye.
February 6th, 2016 at 10:14 am
StPete
You are a very smart man sir. You are not naive enough to think for one minute just like the pro bowl the hall of fame voters don’t consider even if it’s subconsciously the media / public perception of candidates. Come on.
Nice reach on the Manning crack.. Really funny… Coaches are judged solely on records and Superbowls it’s the only metric that matters where has a player has their individual stats after all the hall is an individual honor so your argument is completely invalid.
February 6th, 2016 at 10:18 am
Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman believe that the Cowboys would have won 5 SB’s if Jimmy wasn’t let go. I kind of believe them.
February 6th, 2016 at 10:22 am
Jimmy Johnson had 5 hall of famers in dallas if you want to compare hall of famers.
Between Tampa and Indy Dungy will end up with about 5 or 6 in my opinion total so that’s a wash in my opinion
obviously Manning destroys aikman statistically so advantage dungy
Here is another interesting point. Jimmy Johnson had a direct hand in picking (drafting) the hall of famers on his roster minus deion. Dungy has ZERO drafted players that will be hall of famers. he never built a winner where has JJ built his teams. Some of the personnel movies johnson made are still talked about and considered legendary Herschel walker trade anyhow, JJ should be in the hall of fame. Not saying dungy should not be in by any stretch I personally feel the under .500 playoff record would be a deal breaker though.
February 6th, 2016 at 11:29 am
Dungy repulses me. Overrated beyond comprehension. Carry on.
February 6th, 2016 at 3:19 pm
I’m rooting for them!
February 6th, 2016 at 4:10 pm
StPete
also what coach from the dungy tree won a superbowl… I am curious… Tomlin is not a dungy guy he was with dungy 1 season. he is a kiffin / gruden guy and unlike the rest of the dungy tree is very open minded and not married to the zone schemes. head coaches from the dungy tree have been colossal failures if you look at it none more so than marinelli who had that fabulous 0-16 season enough said on him. To refresh your memory herm edwards has a .422 regular season record with a playoff record of .333 (2-4) hardly successful. Caldwell and Lovie are .500 regular season coaches with bad playoff records. I am no dungy basher but he gets a lot of credit that he does not deserve. perception is not reality.
February 6th, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Let’s not forget the coaching tree that dungy assembled, wich is one of the greatest of all time. Herm edwards, Mike tomlin, lovie smith, and the great Monte Kiffin and the former DL coach wich I can’t remember his name but all those guys became successful head coaches beside arguebly the greatest DC of all time. So cut the man sum slack will ya?
February 6th, 2016 at 4:57 pm
Here is a list of Hall of Fame coaches. I think TD and JJ fit in well with this group and both should be inducted.
George Allen 1966-1977
Paul Brown 1946-1962
Guy Chamberlin # 1922-1927
Jimmy Conzelman # 1921-30, 1940-42, 1946-48
Weeb Ewbank 1954-1973
Ray Flaherty # 1936-1949
Joe Gibbs 1981-1992
Sid Gillman 1955-1969, 1971-1974
Bud Grant 1967-1983, 1985
George Halas # 1920-29, 1933-42, 1946-67
Earl (Curly) Lambeau # 1919-1953
Tom Landry 1960-1988
Marv Levy 1978-1982, 1986-1997
Vince Lombardi 1959-1967, 1969
John Madden 1969-1978
Earle (Greasy) Neale 1941-1950
Chuck Noll 1969-1991
Steve Owen # 1930-1953
Bill Parcells 1983-1990, 1993-99, 2003-06
Don Shula 1963-1995
Hank Stram 1960-1974, 1976-1977
Bill Walsh 1979-1988
February 6th, 2016 at 5:01 pm
Here is the list of DB’s in the Hall. No doubt Lynch belongs in this group. He was the best in the League at his position for many years. Defined the modern strong safety.
Defensive Backs (24)
Herb Adderley (CB) 1961-1972
Lem Barney (CB) 1967-1977
Mel Blount (CB) 1970-1983
Willie Brown (CB) 1963-1978
Jack Butler (CB) 1951-59
Jack Christiansen (S) 1951-1958
Darrell Green (CB) 1983-2002
Mike Haynes (CB) 1976-1989
Ken Houston (S) 1967-1980
Jimmy Johnson (CB) 1961-1976
Paul Krause (S) 1964-1979
Dick (Night Train) Lane (CB) 1952-1965
Yale Lary (S) 1952-1953, 1956-1964
Dick LeBeau (CB) 1959-1972
Ronnie Lott (CB-S) 1981-1994
Mel Renfro (S-CB) 1964-1977
Deion Sanders (CB-KR-PR) 1989-2000, 2004-2005
Emmitt Thomas (CB) 1966-1978
Emlen Tunnell (S) 1948-1961
Roger Wehrli 1969-1982
Aeneas Williams (CB/S) 1991-2004
Larry Wilson (S) 1960-1972
Willie Wood (S) 1960-1971
Rod Woodson 1987-2003
February 6th, 2016 at 7:02 pm
Dungy’s Bucs couldn’t get in the end zone, in particular in the playoffs. Even with Peyton Manning, his Colts had the same problem in the playoffs. I believe the Patriots, Jets, and Broncos, all kept the Colts from scoring a TD, and knocked them out of the playoffs. Great DC, mediocre HC, nice guy. Not HOF worthy IMO, and this from a ’76 Buc fan. Jimmy Johnson built a complete team from scratch and won it all twice. Dungy built half a team and fired his best OC. Not an impressive resume. HOF coaches have a winning percentage in playoff competition. He doesn’t.
February 7th, 2016 at 1:54 am
Congrats to Coach Dungy and it looks like Ira will be able to muscle Lynch in next year!