Michael T. Mondak speaks about the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame nominees

Just recently, the Pro Football Hall of Fame released its list of nominees for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

Six of them are former Steelers players:  Hines Ward, Casey Hampton, James Farrior, James Harrison, Mike Vrabel and Gary Anderson.

Ward, Hampton, Farrior and Harrison were part of the Steelers teams that won two Super Bowls in the 2000s decade.  Vrabel went on to become a head coach in the NFL.  Anderson, along with Ward, are the two former Steelers whose jersey numbers are no longer issued by the team.

I have said for many years that until Hines Ward is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, do not expect me to drive my Hyundai Elantra Limited on George Halas Drive in Canton, Ohio.  This is similar to my father’s own vendetta against driving in Cooperstown, New York until Bill Mazeroski was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.  (I made my first visit to Cooperstown in August 2005.)

Now one of the members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting committee is Pittsburgh Post Gazette sportswriter Ed Bouchette, who replaced Myron Cope as a member in 1996 after Cope resigned upon Lynn Swann not being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 1996.  (Swann was inducted in 2001.)  If Hines Ward is not inducted as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2025, then I also suggest that Ed Bouchette resign as a member of the voting committee and have Tim Benz of TribLIVE replace Bouchette.

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