Two College Football Hall of Fame center/linebackers with Alabama football roots are among the 60 players who have taken a step toward the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.
On Thursday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the players still in consideration to be nominated as senior candidates for the Class of 2025, including Maxie Baughan from Bessemer High School and Lee Roy Jordan from Excel High School and Alabama.
In a new format this year, each member of the Seniors Screening Committee cast a ballot for 50 players from a list of 182 nominees, and the top 50 players plus ties remain under consideration for nomination.
A nine-member Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee will select three senior candidates as finalists for consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.
To be a senior candidate, the nominee cannot have played in the past 25 seasons. For this year’s class, senior candidates played their entire NFL careers before the 2000 season.
Under last year’s selection process, Baughan was among the 12 semifinalists for senior consideration. But the senior candidates were linebacker Randy Gradishar, defensive tackle Steve McMichael and wide receiver Art Powell.
The 20th pick in the 1960 NFL Draft, Baughan played his first six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, spent the next five with the Los Angeles Rams and, after serving as the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, came back to play in two games as a player-coach for the Washington Redskins in 1974.
The Eagles won the NFL championship in Baughan’s first pro season in 1960, when he was chosen for the Pro Bowl.
Baughan earned a Pro Bowl invitation in nine of his first 10 NFL campaigns. He received first-team recognition at linebacker in The Associated Press’ All-Pro selections in 1964 and 1969 and was an AP second-team choice six other times.
