The campaign for L.C. Greenwood to go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame will last another year.
Greenwood, a four-year letterman at the present-day University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff who won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was not selected for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer although he was a finalist in the senior, coach and contribution ballot. Greenwood, a 1968 Ebony magazine All-American at then-Arkansas AM&N College, would have been the first UAPB alumnus to make the hall in Canton, Ohio.
The class was unveiled Thursday during the NFL Honors banquet in San Francisco. The inductees include former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, former Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly, former New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, former San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig and former San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
The five will be inducted Aug. 8 in Canton.
The hall did not unveil the final tallies for each finalist, but Craig was apparently the only candidate from his ballot to receive 80% or more of the vote from the hall’s selection committee, which qualifies one for induction. Up to three individuals from the ballot could have been elected.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The committee had received attention in the past week after news broke that neither Patriots Coach Bill Belichick nor Patriots Owner Robert Kraft was elected on their first ballot. Belichick was the coach for all six of New England’s Super Bowl victories between the 2001 and 2018 seasons, and Kraft is going for his seventh in Sunday’s big game against the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif.
That appeared to improve Greenwood’s chances of making the hall, given only three candidates – him, Craig and former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson – remained.
Greenwood played 170 games in 13 seasons (1969-81) with the Steelers, winning Super Bowls in the 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979 seasons. He collected 78 sacks, before the NFL officially began tracking such a statistic, and 14 fumble recoveries as a member of Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defensive line that also featured Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes and Dwight White.
Craig, who like Greenwood was born in Mississippi, was a three-time finalist in the senior division. The University of Nebraska alumnus won Super Bowls in the 1984, 1988 and 1989 seasons and was the 1988 Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year after gaining more than 2,000 scrimmage yards.
