MHR Hall of Fame 2015-16 ready for kickoff!

The Super Bowl rings have been handed out and the last week of OTAs just wrapped up, which means we are in the "Broncos Summer" (aka, the worst time of the year in so many ways)!

But luckily, we have the Mile High Report Hall of Fame to keep us talking about the good stuff and remembering the best players, games and members who have contributed to our team and our site.

Beginning today, we will solicit nominations for five categories: Authors, Members, Sportsperson of the Year, Broncos Early Era and Broncos Modern Era. We decided to divide the "former Broncos" category into two separate groups from now on in order to better represent players from the early years - yay!

Winners will be forever immortalized in the Mile High Report Hall of Fame honorary section of our website, which is dedicated to highlighting significant figures in Denver Broncos football history. Unlike the Pro Football Hall of Fame or the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame, these inductees are determined by Broncos fans, for Broncos fans.

The MHR HOF is also meant to honor significant contributors to the MileHighReport.com website itself. Community members and former authors are each eligible for enshrinement. Inductees will be nominated by members, voted upon by members, then ultimately voted into the Hall of Fame by the MHR staff.

Below is EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about this awesome effort, so don't skim it! But first, here are our previous winners to

MHR Hall of Fame

Darrent Williams Sportspersons of the Year

Pat Bowlen (2013-14)
Peyton Manning (2014-15)

Players

Class of 2013-14
John Elway
Floyd Little
Randy Gradishar
Terrell Davis

Class of 2014-15
Shannon Sharpe
Rod Smith
Steve Atwater
Karl Mecklenburg

Members

Class of 2013-14
j-man 
ozark_orange 
sadaraine

Class of 2014-15
McGeorge
shasta77
Whorfin

Authors

Kaptain Kirk (2013-14)
John Bena (2014-15)
Bronco Mike (2014-15)

The Basics

There are four groups of inductees: Broncos - Early and Modern Era (real-life players, coaches, personnel, etc.), Authors (former MHR writers/staff members), and Members (current and/or former MHR readers and commenters). Selection will occur in these phases:

• Members nominate candidates in the comments of the specific post for that category (ie, Broncos 1960-1991, which will be the first post coming later today)
• Members endorse favorite nominations via rec'ing the choice (*note: it is more helpful to rec the first nomination of a player rather than mention him again and again in the post because multiple recs are how the finalists are chosen for voting).
• In a later post, members will be asked to follow a link to a survey to vote on the top 10-15 nominees in each category to create a short list of candidates.
• MHR staff members will then vote on and ultimately elect the MHR Hall of Fame Class of 2015-16.

The maximum number of candidates to be inducted in each group will be eight Broncos (four from each era), one Author and up to three Members.

Groups of Inductees

Broncos

While the category name is "Broncos," this group pertains to any "real person" directly contributing to the Denver Broncos Football Club. Anyone who is eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame or Denver Broncos Ring of Fame would also be eligible here, including players, coaches, executives, and (super)fans.

Current active players and personnel associated with the team are not eligible. To be considered, a Bronco must be removed from association with the Denver Broncos Football Club (retired, cut, traded, fired, etc.) for at least four years.

Each class will induct four Broncos out of a final group of seven nominees for each era. To be considered an "Early Era Bronco," players must have been removed from association with the Broncos for at least 25 years, following the lead of the Pro Football Hall of Fame criteria. So "Early Era Broncos" for the 2015-16 HOF must have retired or been cut/traded by 1991.

Darrent Williams Sportsperson of the Year

MHR's Darrent Williams Sportsperson of the Year is a special award given to exactly one former or active player, coach or difference-maker to the Denver Broncos Football Club that year.

The award is given to an active or former Broncos "Player" for outstanding sportsmanship, noteworthiness, football contributions and community service within that year. The SOTY will be chosen from a group of up to four top nominees.

SOTY represents a football figure who we, as fans, are most proud to say represented the orange and blue over the past calendar year. Previous winners of the award can be considered for the award again.

Authors

Authors are former MHR contributing writers, moderators and editors, also known as "staff members." To be considered, they must have been an active official staff member (listed on the Masthead of MileHighReport.com) for at least one year.

Current active Authors are not eligible. Authors must be removed from association with Mile High Report for at least one year to be considered and remain in good standing as a Member of MHR (not banned).

Each class will induct up to one Author out of a group of two to three final nominees.

Members

Members are MHR community members, most often commenters, but can also be Fanposters and those who interact in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Members are those who serve as a beacon of the MHR Community and steward of Broncos Country, showing respect to others and demonstrating football acumen or extraordinary commentary that benefited the site as well as Broncos Country.

Unlike the other two categories, which restricted nominations to retired or otherwise disassociated contributors to Broncos Country, Members can be nominated from active community members.  Current active staff members, however, are not eligible.

Former staff members inducted or nominated for Author consideration are not eligible (Author eligibility overrides a Member eligibility). Banned community members are not eligible.

To be considered, a Member must have been active for at least one year. Each class will induct up to three Members out of a final group of five nominees.

Selection Process

Nomination Phase

Over the next week, MHR community members will have the opportunity to nominate potential inductees via the comments section of the corresponding category. Any member can nominate any eligible person, and multiple nominations can be submitted. The format for a nomination is:

Comment Subject (required): I nominate [Bronco/Member/Author Name]

Comment Body (optional): [reason for nomination]

Once a nomination has been made, the best way to help that candidate make it to the voting round is to rec the original nomination rather than nominating again. The top nominations rec'd in each category will be voted upon in survey format. The top finalists from that round will then be voted upon by current MHR staff members.

Duplicate nominations will be hidden to prevent duplicate recs.  During the Member Nomination phase, members cannot nominate themselves, and any such comment will be hidden. Any nomination that is clearly not related to the Denver Broncos (trolled) will be removed. Repeat nomination violations can result in moderation including being warned and/or banned.

How to Advance: Up to 15 most rec'd Broncos, five most rec'd Authors, 10 most rec'd Members and 5 SOTY nominations will advance to the voting phase.

Voting Phase

In this phase, fans will vote for their favorite candidates in each category with a limited number of choices allowed for each group.

How to Advance: The seven Broncos, two Authors, and five Members with the most votes will advance to consideration in the final selection phase.

Final Selection Phase

The final selection phase will be limited in participation to the Mile High Report staff, who are all avid members of Broncos Country, in order to preserve the final authenticity of the process from the Internet - otherwise fans of other teams could come to the site and skew the final vote.

Tie-breaking

Eligible members are those who served as a beacon of the MHR Community and steward of Broncos Country - showing respect to others and demonstrating football acumen or extraordinary commentary that benefited the site and Broncos Country

Any ties in any phase that interfere with that phase's maximum will be settled by staff vote. MHR Staff members will vote for the most worthy candidate among the tied candidates, with the highest vote-getter advancing to the next phase (or being inducted into the MHRHoF, if in the Final Phase).

If there is still a tie after the staff re-vote, MHR's Managing Editor will have final say and break the tie.

Award Acceptance

Inductees will receive their plaque contingent upon MHR's ability to contact them and confirm their identity. Awards can be shipped to the U.S. and Canada only. Inductees will be asked to submit a short "acceptance speech" in text, photo, or video format to include in their enshrinement - although this is optional.

Disclaimer

These rules are subject to change. Mile High Report reserves the right to change selection processes and criteria at any time. Any updated rules can be found on the Hall of Fame site.

Schedule

While this schedule is tentative, we will do our best to stay as close to it as possible.

PART 1 - NOMINATIONS

Beginning this week and ending Friday, July 8, fans can nominate Broncos, Authors, Members and the Sportsperson of the Year by leaving comments on the appropriate post. Fanposts are also encouraged but must be linked to a comment on the nominations post.

As with last year, we will have separate nominations posts for each MHR HOF group and will ask that all nominations in the post correspond with the correct category (i.e., Broncos, Authors, Members, SOTY).

The better the nomination, the better the chance it will be rec'd and the candidate will move on to the next phase.

• Friday, June 17 - Friday, July 8: Nominations will be open for Broncos, Authors, Members, Sportsperson of the Year. Look for the corresponding post to each category this weekend and next week.

PART 2 - VOTING

In this phase, the most-recommended nominees from the Nomination Phase will be voted on by Broncos Country. Fans will be asked to choose a limited number of their top choices in order to choose the finalists.

• Monday, July 11 - Friday, July 22: Surveys will be available for the community to vote on the top candidates from each category who advanced to the next round.

PART 3 - FINALISTS

The finalists cultivated from the fan-voting stage will then be voted on by the MHR Staff. This final step is limited to the MHR Staff for a few reasons - one major reason being the susceptibility for non-Broncos fans to interfere with any public poll for the Hall of Fame. This ensures that the final enshrinement is done by Broncos fans.

Winners will be announced in August.

PART 4 - INDUCTION

The Class of 2015-16 will be digitally enshrined in our Hall of Fame and winners will receive a plaque honoring their contributions to Broncos Country.

Let the new MHR Hall of Fame year begin!