FanHouse AndreReed

TAMPA, Fla. – This morning in the Super Bowl media center, I spotted Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy chatting with a couple of members of the media who are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors. A little bit of eavesdropping revealed that Levy was lobbying on behalf of some of his players, and the Bills' longtime owner.

One of Levy's old players, Bruce Smith, is eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time this year. Smith is one of the greatest defensive ends in history, and he is virtually assured of being selected on Saturday. So Levy doesn't have a lot of work to do there.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced the finalists for the 2009 Hall of Fame class, a list that contains the NFL's all-time sack leader, a current owner, a former commissioner, and six first-time finalists.

The voters will select a minimum of four and a maximum of seven new members on January 31. The complete list of finalists after the jump.

A regular feature profiling each of the 17 candidates for enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Name: Andre Reed

Position: Wide receiver

Career: 1985-1999 Buffalo Bills, 2000 Washington Redskins

Pros: 13,095 career receiving yards, 951 career receptions. Seven Pro Bowls.

Cons: Compiled his numbers while playing in a great offense with a Hall of Fame quarterback passing to him, making it hard to shake the feeling that he's a product of the system.

Verdict: The Bills of the late 80s and early 90s were very good teams, and Reed was an important part of them. But he wasn't as important to the offense as Jim Kelly or Thurman Thomas, and probably not as important as center Kent Hull. And he certainly wasn't as important to those Bills as Bruce Smith, or their coach, Marv Levy. If he's just the sixth-most important member of those Buffalo teams, he falls just short of Hall of Fame material. He gets a vote of NO.

Previous votes:
NO: Richard Dent, Fred Dean, Ray Guy, Michael Irvin, Bob Kuechenberg, Art Monk
YES: Russ Grimm, Gene Hickerson, Bruce Matthews
Note: By rule, the Hall of Fame must induct between three and six new members.