NFL Hall of Fame process:
Eligibility
Players and coaches become eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame after having been retired for five years. Any other contributor, such as a team owner or league executive, can come up for voting at any time.
Selection process
Inductees to the Hall of Fame are selected by a 44-member board of selectors made up primarily of football writers. The members of the board are usually beat writers from NFL cities, and aside from one representative from the Pro Football Writers Association, the board members are selected to open-ended terms.
Any player, coach or contributor can be nominated for the Hall of Fame via letter or email. The selection committee then narrows the nominees to 25 semifinalists in October. A month later, the committee narrows the list of 25 to 15 finalists via mail balloting. Once the 15 finalists have been determined, a nine-member subcommittee, known as the seniors committee, will add two "senior" finalists from candidates who finished their careers at least 25 years prior to the vote. Those two finalists are added to the pool, bringing the total number of finalists to 17.
The final vote is conducted in person the day before the Super Bowl. One member of the committee presents a case for each finalist. To be chosen for enshrinement, a finalist must receive at least 80 percent of the vote. However, if fewer than four finalists receive 80 percent, then the top four finalists will be chosen for enshrinement, regardless of the percentage they received. No more than seven candidates can be enshrined in any given year, so if more than seven finalists receive 80 percent of the vote, then the top seven vote-getters will be enshrined.
Seems a lot more professional and exhaustive than either our HOF or Immortal processes.
