Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist and former New Orleans Saints kicker Morten Andersen, the NFL's all-time leading scorer, was not elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2014. The Hall announced the class Saturday night.
Bringing the total number of members in the Hall of Fame to 287 are linebacker Derrick Brooks, punter Ray Guy, defensive end Claude Humphrey, tackle Walter Jones, wide receiver Andre Reed, defensive end Michael Strahan, and cornerback/safety Aeneas Williams.
Andersen, who played for the Saints from 1982-94 and is the franchise all-time leading scorer with 1,318 points, finished with 2,544 points. He also is the all-time leading scorer for the Atlanta Falcons, for whom he played eight seasons.
Andersen was a seven-time Pro Bowler, a six-time All-Pro and a member of the NFL All-Decade team in the 1980s and 1990s. He made 565 of 709 career field-goal attempts and kicked 302 field goals as a Saint.
Saturday's annual selection meeting was held at the Super Bowl XLVIII Media Center in New York City. The newest members of the Hall of Fame were selected from a list of 17 finalists who had been determined earlier by the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Selection Committee.
The first order of business for the Selection Committee at Saturday's meeting was to discuss and debate the merits of the two Seniors Finalists, Guy and Humphrey.
Both candidates were required to receive at least an 80 percent positive vote to earn election.
Next the Selection Committee presented and reviewed the 15 modern-era candidates that included two cut downs in the process. The first cut of finalists was from 15 to 10. The five eliminated from consideration at that point were Andersen, Brown, DeBartolo, Jr., Dungy, and Lynch. After one last round of discussion, the final 10 finalists were reduced to five. Removed at that point were Bettis, Greene, Haley, Harrison, and Shields.
All five of the remaining finalists – Brooks, Jones, Reed, Strahan, and Williams – then were voted on individually and received the necessary 80 percent positive vote from the Selection Committee to be elected.
Representatives of the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche tabulated all votes during the meeting.
The Class of 2014 will be officially enshrined on Saturday, Aug. 2 in Canton, Ohio as the main event of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Annual Enshrinement Festival Celebration.
