Two former Falcons named Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists

There are certainly a number of former Atlanta Falcons that are deserving to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but continue to be snubbed.

Guys like Jessie Tuggle, Mike Kenn, Jeff Van Note, and others all deserve to be elected into the Hall of Fame. You might be wondering why one certain Falcons legend wasn’t just mentioned, well that is because he has been named one of the finalists.

Falcons’ greats Tommy Nobis and Dan Reeves are among Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists

It was announced not too long ago that a total of eight former Falcons members were included in the list of semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. While not all of them are out of it just yet, Tommy Nobis and Dan Reeves are finalists in their special categories.

There are two different categories — Coach/Contributor and Senior finalists — and Dan Reeves is obviously among the 12 Coach/Contributor, while Tommy Nobis is among the 12 senior finalists.

Here are the 12 finalists for the senior category:

• Ken Anderson
• Maxie Baughan
• Randy Gradishar
• Chuck Howley
• Cecil Isbell
• Joe Klecko
• Bob Kuechenberg
• Eddie Meador
• Tommy Nobis
• Ken Riley
• Sterling Sharpe
• Everson Walls

Here are the 12 finalists for the Coach or Contributor category:

• Roone Arledge
• Don Coryell
• Mike Holmgren
• Frank “Bucko” Kilroy
• Robert Kraft
• Art Modell
• Buddy Parker
• Dan Reeves
• Art Rooney Jr.
• Mike Shanahan
• Clark Shaughnessy
• John Wooten

Those are a lot of legends, so the road for the deserving Dan Reeves, who sadly passed away on the first day of the year, is still far from over. Same thing for Tommy Nobis.

Here is what the Pro Football Hall of Fame website says about how things will proceed from here for the Seniors category:

"The 12-person Seniors Committee will meet Aug. 16, and each committee member will discuss one Finalist in detail. The committee’s final vote will send three Seniors to the full 49-person Selection Committee for consideration at its annual meeting in early 2023; each of those three could be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at that meeting."

Then for the Coach/Contributors, they will meet on August 23rd to discuss who advances. The difference for them is that only one will advance.

So, there is still a couple of rounds that these former Falcons have to get through, but at the very least they are being considered. However, Tommy Nobis is well overdue. Not many players, if any, have deserved to be elected for as long as Nobis. It would also be so special to see them honor Dan Reeves by sending him into football immortality.