Parcells, Levy Head Hall of Fame List

Bill Parcells and Marv Levy, coaching rivals in the last Super Bowl played in Tampa 10 years ago, are among 15 finalists for today’s election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Parcells, who retired as director of football operations for the New York Jets this month, was on the sidelines when the New York Giants defeated Levy’s Buffalo Bills, 20-19, in the 1991 game.

That was the first of four consecutive Super Bowl trips for the Bills and Levy, an unparalleled stretch of success. “That should have put him in the Hall of Fame on the first ballot,” said Bill Polian, who was general manager of that Buffalo team.

Parcells, whose Giants also won the 1987 game, returned with New England in 1997, one of only four coaches to take two different teams to the Super Bowl. Don Shula, Dan Reeves and Dick Vermeil are the others.

Parcells is one of three candidates to make the finals in their first year of Hall of Fame eligibility. The others are tight end Art Monk, who set records since broken for catches in a season (106), consecutive games with at least one catch (183) and career receptions (820), and tackle Jackie Slater, whose 259 regular season games were the most by an offensive lineman at the time of his retirement.

The ballot includes nine other players--linebacker Harry Carson, tight end Dave Casper, defensive lineman Dan Hampton, cornerback Lester Hayes, guard Mike Munchak, wide receivers John Stallworth and Lynn Swann, tackle Ron Yary and defensive end Jack Youngblood. All except Hampton and Hayes have been finalists in previous elections.

The only administrator on the ballot is Ralph Wilson, longtime owner of the Buffalo Bills. Nick Buoniconti, linebacker for Miami’s No-Name defense, is the old-timers nominee, a category reserved for candidates who completed 70% of their careers by 1976. Both are finalists for the first time.

To be elected, finalists must get 80% of the votes from the Hall of Fame’s 38-member Selection Committee. At least four modern era candidates must be elected, but the total class, including the Seniors Committee nominee, cannot exceed seven.

Swann and Youngblood, both among the six finalists a year ago, automatically were included among the final 15.

Buoniconti has been eligible for 20 years. Swann and Yary are both in their 14th year of eligibility. Casper and Youngblood have been eligible for 12 years, Hayes 10, Stallworth nine, Carson eight, Hampton six, Levy and Munchak three each.

Nine of the finalists spent their entire careers with only one team. That group is headed by Wilson, one of the founders of the AFL and owner of the Bills franchise since 1959.

The Hall of Fame induction will be Aug. 4 at Canton, Ohio.