At work the other day I started wondering which U of M player might be the next inductee to the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Tom Brady is a lock, of course, but who else could possibly climb that mountain? I went to the Pro Football HOF site http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/colleges.html to do a little research. Here is Michigan’s current member list: George Allen: Class of 2002 Coach (Alma College, Marquette, Michigan, Eastern Michigan) 1966-1970 Los Angeles Rams, 1971-1977 Washington Redskins Dan Dierdorf: Class of 1996 Tackle >>> 6-3, 275 (Michigan) 1971-1983 St. Louis Cardinals Len Ford: Class of 1976 Defensive End >>> 6-4, 245 (Morgan State, Michigan) 1948-1949 Los Angeles Dons (AAFC), 1950-1957 Cleveland Browns, 1958 Green Bay Packers Bennie Friedman: Class of 2005 Quarterback >>> 5-10, 183 (Michigan) 1927 Cleveland Bulldogs, 1928 Detroit Wolverines, 1929-1931 New York Giants, 1932-1934 Brooklyn Dodgers Bill Hewitt: Class of 1971 End >>> 5-9, 190 (Michigan) 1932-1936 Chicago Bears, 1937-1939 Philadelphia Eagles, 1943 Phil-Pitt Elroy Crazylegs Hirsch: Class of 1968 Halfback, End >>> 6-2, 190 (Wisconsin, Michigan) 1946-1948 Chicago Rockets (AAFC), 1949-1957 Los Angeles Rams Tom Mack: Thomas Lee Mack Class of 1999 Guard >>> 6-3, 250 (Michigan) 1966-1978 Los Angeles Rams ***They have Dierdorf’s photo on Mack’s page or these guys are twins! Ralph Wilson, Jr.: Class of 2009 Founder/Owner (Virginia, Michigan) 1960-Present In case you are wondering, this is how the Top Ten HOF Contributing schools work out: Southern California (11) Notre Dame (10) Michigan (8) Alabama (7) Illinois (6) Minnesota (6) Ohio State (6) Oregon (6) Syracuse (6) Penn State (5) Southern Methodist (5) The following is a list of random schools for the heck of it: Gonzaga (2) Washington of St. Louis (1) Tulsa (3) Syracuse (5) Jim Brown, Larry Csonka, Al Davis* , John Mackey, Art Monk, Jim Ringo Scottsbluff (1) Dick “Night Train” Lane Northwestern (2) Otto Graham Morgan State (3) Leroy Kelly Minnesota (5) Bobby Bell, Carl Eller, Bud Grant, Bronko Nagurski, Leo Nomellini, Charlie Sanders Miami NTO (2) Miami (4) Jim Kelly, Jim Otto, Michael Irvin, Ted Hendricks Milliken (1) Fort Valley State (1) Rayfield Wright Grambling (4) Willie Brown, Junious (Buck) Buchanan, Willie Davis, Charlie Joiner Duke (3) Sonny Jurgenson California Polytechnic (1) John Madden Arizona State (4) Mike Haynes, John Henry Johnson* , Randall McDaniel, Charley Taylor Illinois (4) Dick Butkus, Harold (Red) Grange, George Halas, Bobby Mitchell, Ray Nitschke, Hugh (Shorty) Ray Iowa (3) Paul Krause, Andre Tippett* , Emlen Tunnell* Indiana (1) Louisville (1) Johnny Unitas So, just for some off season discussion, let’s nominate possible candidates for future HOF induction (and any other junk you want to throw out). Off course, the list must start with…. Tom Brady