Walter Jones elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame
After having his way with would-be tacklers for 12 dominating seasons as the Seahawks’ left tackle, Walter Jones was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in his first year of eligibility.
NEW YORK – The obvious has become the actual, as Walter Jones was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in his first year of eligibility.
Jones, a dominating blocker at left tackle for the Seahawks from 1997-2008, became a member of the Class of 2014 when the Hall of Fame selection committee met on the eve of the Super Bowl XLVIII matchup between the Seahawks and Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. But the announcement was not made until Saturday night at Radio City Music Hall, as part of the NFL Honors show on FOX.
Also elected to the Class of 2014: Michael Strahan, Andre Reed, Derrick Brooks, Aeneas Williams, Claude Humphrey, and Ray Guy.
Jones was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and also named All-Pro six times after being a first-round draft choice 1997. He also was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s and had his No. 71 retired by the Seahawks in 2010.
He joins wide receiver Steve Largent (1995) and defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy (2012) as the only members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who played their entire careers with the Seahawks.
Other players who spent part of their Hall of Fame careers with the Seahawks include quarterback Warren Moon (1997-98), defensive tackle John Randle (2001-03), running back Frank Harris (1984), defensive end Carl Eller (1979) and wide receiver Jerry Rice (2004). The late Mike McCormack, a Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns, served as the Seahawks’ president and general manager from 1982-88, and also served a stint as interim head coach in 1982.
Jones will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall in Canton, Ohio, on August 2, 2014
His selection was considered a slam dunk, as Jason La Canfora offered in this assessment at CBSSports.com on Saturday: “No one did it better, as a big man with the feet and grace of a ballerina. Just like Jonathan Ogden was an automatic first-ballot Hall of Famer at left tackle, so, too, is Walter Jones. He helped Shaun Alexander to some historic seasons, chunks of those yards and so many of those touchdowns coming to the left side behind Jones’s massive frame. He was named to an All-Decade team and came to define the way a position should be played. This is a total no-brainer. This is what a first-ballot Hall of Famer looks like.”
Indeed, and the selection committee couldn’t help but agree.
Walter Jones elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame