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ARLINGTON, Va. -- Two longtime general managers are one step from induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bill Polian and Ron Wolf, master team builders and personnel men, were selected Wednesday afternoon as "contributor" nominees for the Class of 2015. Each will be presented to the 46-member full committee Jan. 31 in Phoenix, Arizona, and must each receive at least an 80 percent approval vote (37 yays) for election. This is the first time the Hall has had a separate category for contributors. It adopted the new format in hopes of giving nonplayers and noncoaches a fairer chance for induction. Contributors typically were filtered out when competing against players and coaches for votes. In fact, only nine contributors have been elected in the past 47 years. The nominees were selected by a nine-member subcommittee. The other candidates were personnel men Bobby Beathard, Gil Brandt and George Young; owners Eddie DeBartolo Jr., Pat Bowlen and Art Modell; retired commissioner Paul Tagliabue; official Art McNally; and the late NFL Films president Steve Sabol. Four consultants offered input at the selection meeting in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency hotel -- Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, Chicago Bears chairman George McCaskey, Washington Redskins general manager Bruce Allen and Sports Business Journal executive editor Abe Madkour -- but they were not part of the voting. Polian was a master team builder. He constructed the Buffalo Bills into a squad that went to three consecutive Super Bowls under his direction (and four overall), took an expansion franchise in Carolina and turned it into a conference finalist, and led the Indianapolis Colts to two Super Bowls, winning one. "I'm speechless," Polian said. "It was the furthest thing from my mind. I couldn't imagine that this would happen. I honestly don't know what to say. It's an incredible honor that I never envisioned happening." Wolf was a 25-year assistant with the Raiders and a valuable personnel man for Al Davis. He struggled in his first stint as a general manager, overseeing an expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise that went 0-14 in its first year. But many of the players he brought in proved to be the foundation of the team that won a division title and reached the conference final before losing to the Rams 9-0. His keen eye for talent was never more apparent than with the Green Bay Packers, whom he made relevant again after taking over in 1991. Two of his bigger moves were trading for Brett Favre and signing free-agent Reggie White, each of whom helped Green Bay reach back-to-back Super Bowls and claim one title. "I'm overwhelmed, but I realize none of this would be possible without an awful lot of support from a lot of other people," Wolf said. "So, for me, it's more or less an organizational than just one individual. It's hard to describe what I'm feeling. It's one of those things where you think to yourself that something like this could ever occur to someone like myself. To discover that there is an avenue available to those of us who toil the majority of our time in dark rooms, away from our family, to achieve one goal -- that's to make whoever you're working for a winner -- it's a big thrill to me personally."
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