Patriots owner Robert Kraft is one of 24 league contributors who has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The 2013 list of modern-era nominees includes 127 nominees -- 89 players, 14 coaches and 24 contributors -- including Kraft, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and owners Bud Adams, Jr., Jack Kent Cooke, Ed DeBartolo, Jr. and Art Modell.
Offensive linemen Larry Allen and Jonathan Ogden, defensive linemen Warren Sapp and Michael Strahan, defensive back John Lynch and kicker Morten Andersen, are among the 13 first-year eligible modern-era candidates.
From the list of 127, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee will choose 25 candidates who will advance as semifinalist nominees. The list of 25 semifinalist nominees will be announced in late November. That semifinalist list will be further reduced by a mail ballot to 15 modern-era finalists and announced in early January.
The Class of 2013 will be selected from the list of the 15 modern-era finalists plus the two senior nominees (former Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Oilers nose tackle Curley Culp and former Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins linebacker Dave Robinson) who were selected last month by the Hall of Fames Senior Selection Committee.
The actual voting for the Class of 2013 will be conducted at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committees annual meeting, which will be held on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 the day before Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La. The election results will be announced at a live announcement show immediately following the meeting.
While there is no set number for any class of enshrinees, the selection process by-laws provide that between four and seven new members will be selected.