Both men are deserving, but both were left out this year.
The golden age of Indianapolis Colts football produced some of the greatest players of all time. Jim Irsay has been working to add them to the Ring of Honor at Lucas Oil, but there is a prize far bigger than local stardom. Several of those Colts greats have found themselves enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame. Manning, Harrison, Freeney, James, Polian, and Dungy have all received a prestigious gold jacket. That is an incredible level of success from a short period of time, but there are two other deserving names waiting their turn in Adam Vinatieri and Reggie Wayne, both of whom were denied entry with the 2025 class. The question now is, who was the bigger snub?
Vinatieri is known as the greatest kicker of all time. It is one of the few things in sports that really isn’t debatable. He is the highest scorer in NFL history with 2,673 total points. He has four Super Bowl rings with two of those coming on last second field goals with the Patriots. The only knock on his resume, and the thing that kept him out of the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, is that he is a kicker. I understand kickers are treated differently in this regard, and there are only five in the HOF to date. Keeping the NFL’s greatest scorer out on the first ballot though, kicker or not, seems like a snub to me.
Wayne’s case is different. While he is worthy in my opinion, the field gets more crowded every year at the receiver position, especially as the game continues to change. Tenth in receptions and yards puts Wayne in rarified air regardless of who is on the docket to go into the HOF. Throw in postseason numbers of 6th all time in catches and 7th in yards shows he wasn’t just a regular season stat hog. He showed up when it mattered most. Once again, there are just a lot of deserving receivers waiting in line and coming up the ranks. Wayne’s ranking won’t fall off a cliff, but with the game turning predominately pass happy and as the league continues to add regular season contests, he will fall down the list. The sooner he can get in, the better.
I think both players were deserving, but if I had to pick “most shocking snub”, I would lean towards Vinatieri. Yes, he is a kicker, but I feel he had a first ballot career. He is the all-time leading scorer, extremely clutch, and a four-time Super Bowl champion. What more does the committee want to see? I still feel that both will make it in, but time is ticking much faster for Wayne. The class of 2025 wasn’t their year, but here is to 2026.