How Bears fans and writers got Olin Kreutz nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame

EDITOR: With today’s news that Olin Kreutz is officially back on the nominees list for the 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, we wanted to remind you guys about the role that Windy City Gridiron’s resident Bears’ historian, Jack M Silverstein, played a little over a year ago in helping get Kreutz back on the list.

You can check out the story and how it all played out below as told by the Superfans...

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CHICAGO, IL September 15, 2017 — Olin Kreutz was a man’s man. He was an old school throwback that would have fit right in with the Hamptons, and the Buffones, and the Ditkas. Could he be a jerk at times? Sure, that’s fair, but he was our jerk.

Kruetz played with the Chicago Bears from 1998 to 2010, then he moved on for four more games with the New Orleans Saints before realizing he was done with pro football. He was elected to six straight Pro Bowls from 2001-2006. He was 1st team All Pro in 2006, and 2nd team All Pro in ‘05. His 191 games played in Chicago is tied for 2nd best in the history of the franchise behind a certain mulletted long snapping great.

He was the leader of his locker room for the majority of his career, he played the game with an edge, and he was one of the best centers in the game for much of his time in the league.

Olin Kreutz epitomized the Bears.

So imagine our disappointment when reading that he wasn’t one of the Bears nominated for the Pro Football Hall Of Fame’s class of 2018.

We remembered he was on there last year, so what gives?

Quite frankly, it pissed us off even more than that whole hashtag fiasco.

But then a miracle happened.

Well, maybe not a miracle, but we were alerted to that Hall Of Fame article being updated. So naturally, we clicked it, and we discovered this.

From our fellow WCG writer and fellow Chicago guy, Jack M Silverstein;

*** UPDATE ON KREUTZ, Sept. 14, 2017 ***

I reached out to the Pro Football Hall of Fame yesterday to inquire about Kreutz’s absence from this year’s list. After doing so, our own Jeff Berckes pointed out to me via email that Kreutz was not a semifinalist last year, meaning he was not an automatic nominee this year.

Today, Pro Football Hall of Fame Executive Director Joe Horrigan reached out to me and explained in further detail what Jeff noted. Chicago Tribune reporter Brad Biggs had emailed Horrigan the same question, and Horrigan sent me the response he sent to Biggs.

As a result of the emails from Biggs and myself, Kreutz will be a HOF nominee for the Class of 2019.

Jack received permission to share the email that he received from the Hall of Fame.

In answer to your question regarding Olin Kreutz, although last year, as a first-year eligible candidate he received a nomination and was on the initial list of nominees for consideration, he did not receive sufficient selector support (at least 4 votes in the reduction to 25 semifinalist) to automatically return to this year’s list of nominees. Also, as required, he did not receive a nomination by anyone to place him on the list of nominees for this year.

In order to be on the annual nomination list, a candidate has to either be nominated or had sufficient selector support — as described above — from the previous year. Your email nomination for next year has been recorded and as such he will return to the list of nominees for consideration for the Class of 2019.

Thanks for taking the time to contact me with your concern and I hope my response answers your question.

Joe

You’ve got to be kidding me.

He did it.

Jack, along with Biggsy, got Kruetz back on the nominees list for the 2019 Hall Of Fame class.

We caught up with our guy Jack to get his take on his legendary move and he took the humble road. “Now, to be fair, it's totally possible that people other than me and Biggs nominated Kreutz. Also to be fair, Kreutz shouldn't need fan/writer nominations.”

Jack speaks the truth.

“He should have been a semifinalist last year.”

Yep, more truth.

But the story gets even cooler, thanks to the man himself.

Jack got retweeted by a legend.

But wait, there’s more!

Thomas Jones also retweeting Jack while offering up his congratulations to Olin!

But then Kreutz replied to TJ and the thread takes on a life of it’s own!

For those not hip to the Twitter thing, @Jmack37 is former Bears fullback Jason McKie.

With three Bears now tagged in the thread, Dave (aka @Dpecilunas8) asked the fellas who their favorite quarterback to play with was. And the fun was on!

Jonathan Quinn!

Fred Flintstone!

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Quinn was benched in that Tampa Bay game in favor of Craig Krenzel after going 5 for 9 with 2 sacks.

The thread goes on a bit longer, with them going on a few tangents, but it was fun seeing three teammates having a little fun. It was at the expense of another teammate, but I’m sure he could take the good-natured ribbing.

Quinn played five games for the Bears in 2004, and he actually made three starts. He was a 52% passer, and he racked up 413 yards while chucking one lonely touchdown pass with three interceptions. He was sacked 15 times and he has a passer rating of 53.7!

But he was a Bear and we love him!

#DaBears