MHR Hall of Fame - It’s that time again...

It’s almost time for training camp to begin, signaling the start of the 2017 season.

And that means MHR needs to hurry up and officially finish last season by nominating its Hall of Fame Class of 2016-17.

Beginning Friday, we will solicit nominations for five categories: Broncos Early Era, Broncos Modern Era, Authors, Members and Sportsperson of the Year.

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 inductees to the MHR Hall of Fame:

Darrent Williams Sportspersons of the Year

Pat Bowlen (2013-14)

Peyton Manning (2014-15)

Wade Phillips (2015-16)

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

Class of 2015-16

Tom Jackson

Lionel Taylor

Louis Wright

Rick Upchurch

Simon Fletcher

Tom Nalen

Dennis Smith

Ed McCaffrey

Mike Shanahan

Members

Class of 2013-14

j-man

ozark_orange

sadaraine

Class of 2014-15

McGeorge

shasta77

Whorfin

Class of 2015-16

anon76returns

metalman5050

Calikula

Rodney Adams

Authors

Kaptain Kirk (2013-14)

John Bena (2014-15)

Bronco Mike (2014-15)

Styg50 (2015-16)

Troy Hufford (2015-16)

The Basics

There are four groups of inductees: Broncos - Early and Modern Era (real-life players, coaches, personnel, etc.), Authors (former MHR writers), 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 5-10 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 2016-17.

The maximum number of candidates to be inducted in each group will be eight Broncos (four from each era), one Author and two 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 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 1992.

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.

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.

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

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

The Class of 2016-17 will be digitally enshrined in our Hall of Fame and community winners will receive a plaque (sometime before the following summer ;) ) honoring their contributions to Broncos Country. Awards can be shipped to the U.S. and Canada only. Inductees will be asked to submit a short "acceptance speech" for the announcement post.

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.

Let the new MHR Hall of Fame year begin!