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Sacco Sez: The Hall of Fame case for Dan Reeves

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The voting has concluded on the special Centennial Class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The announcement of the 15 new Hall members will come on Wednesday, Jan. 15, live on "Good Morning Football" on NFL Network at 5 a.m. MT.

I have written several times that I think former Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar should be selected, but this is the case for former Broncos coach Dan Reeves.

He is one of eight coach finalists, but only two of them will be selected.

Reeves was head coach of the Denver Broncos for 12 years and is a member of our Ring of Fame. He led Denver to three Super Bowl appearances during his time here, and in fact Denver was the only AFC team to go to the Super Bowl three times in the 1980s.

Dan has a total of 38 years in the NFL as player and coach and has had his hand in nine overall Super Bowls, second all-time only to Bill Belichick of New England.

Reeves led the Broncos, New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons to nine 10-win seasons. His regular-season win total as a coach is 190, and he won 11 postseason games, as well.

I have long noted that his record as player and coach has some parallel to Hall of Fame tight end and coach Mike Ditka.

Ditka scored 43 touchdowns as a player and later coached the Bears and Saints to 121 regular-season victories. Reeves scored 42 touchdowns in his eight seasons as a Cowboys running back and then had that staggering total of 190 wins as a head coach.

In my opinion, that stat is very favorable as a comparison.

Regardless, I will always remember Dan as an ultra-competitive individual, and that certainly carried over to his work on the field.

It translated on the field to 38 NFL seasons, including a brief period as one of the last player-coaches in the league.

One hundred ninety career wins are a heck of a total, and they represent the ninth most by any NFL head coach.

A passionate and emotional man, I will always remember him standing at my office with tears in his eyes when he said goodbye to the Broncos.

I am proud to have voted for Dan Reeves as a Ring of Fame member, and I hope he has the votes for the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well.

I'm for Dan, and I hope many others are too.

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