The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced this week the list of 183 senior player nominees for the Class of 2025. Joe Jacoby’s name is on that list.
I look forward to the day when Jacoby’s name is not on the list. That would mean the great Washington offensive tackle would have a bust in Canton, along with his fellow Hog, guard Russ Grimm.
Maybe this is the year.
We all know that Jacoby belongs in the Hall of Fame. They know it, too. But there are a number of other players on this list who belong there as well. The great Kansas City receiver Otis Taylor is on that list. Broncos defensive end Rich Jackson is there. Miami safety Jack Scott is there. So is former Redskins running back Larry Brown.
But only one each year winds up a Hall of Famer.
It’s a difficult, often maddening process, one that Jacoby, 65, has been through, first in the modern-era selections and then the seniors list. He has come close. Two years ago he was on the narrowed-down list of finalists. But not last year.
Maddening.
Still, it remains a fight worth fighting, and Jacoby — a four-time Pro Bowler named to the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1980s — has people in his corner, including the man who helped launch his pro career.
Former Washington general manager Charley Casserly was a scout for the organization when he made the trip to Louisville to check on a mammoth lineman who would be undrafted in the class of 1981.
He signed Jacoby as a free agent and the 6-foot-7, 300-pound tackle would anchor perhaps the greatest offensive line in the history of the game.
Now Casserly is working to help Jacoby take another step – this one into immortality.
“There is no question in my mind that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame,” Casserly said. “He had the ability to play big in big games. He was the only one to start in all four (Washington) Super Bowls. In those Super Bowls, he gave up no sacks. In 14 playoff games, he only gave up two sacks.”
This is the case that Casserly and others will be making to the seniors screening committee among football writers, in a new process set up this year.
Over the next several weeks, they will reduce that list to 50. That list then goes to a senior “blue-ribbon” committee, which in the late fall will select three seniors as finalists for possible election with the Class of 2025.
They can change the process or create all the committees they want. The result should be Jacoby in a very large gold jacket.
The Commanders are part of this effort to present Jacoby’s case to the decision-makers. They have created a fact sheet to present to voters.
It’s a Hall of Fame sheet.
In one section titled, Competing Against the Best, the sheet states: “Throughout his playing career, Joe Jacoby competed against some of the best edge rushers in NFL history. Jacoby also played in the toughest division in the NFL during his career. Spanning from 1981-1993 the NFC East produced seven Super Bowl champions with the rest of the NFL producing six during that span. Jacoby appeared in 76 total games against Hall of Fame edge rushers. He competed in a division that featured arguably the two greatest pass rushers of all-time in New York Giants LB Lawrence Taylor and Philadelphia Eagles DE Reggie White.”
Another one of those Hall of Fame pass rushers who Jacoby faced often was Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Randy White, who told me in 2018 that Jacoby was “one of the best that ever played the game.
“When he would block down on me, it felt like a truck hit me,” White said. “He was solid as a rock, big and tall. Most of the time those big guys are a little soft, but Joe was 310 pounds of solid muscle. When he would block down on me, I had to give it everything I could to smash into him.
“He is going to get into the Hall of Fame, it’s just a matter of when,” White said. “I hope it is this year because he is very deserving of it. I can tell you he’s one of the greatest players I ever played against. I have all the respect in the world for him.”
The greats speak for the greatness of Jacoby.
Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs has reached out to voters and made the case for his old offensive tackle.
The time is right for Jacoby to take his place with his old coach in Canton.
⦁ You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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