Report: Mark Davis Tried To Convince Hall Of Fame To Change Its Rules For Ken Stabler

Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis tried to cajole the Pro Football Hall of Fame into changing its rules about posthumous inductions before former quarterback Ken Stabler’s induction this August, according to Alex Marvez of Sporting News.

Marvez says that Davis attempted to persuade the Hall of Fame to give a jacket and ring to Stabler’s family in July, but Davis asked him not to report on it “because he was optimistic the matter could be settled privately.” From the report:

Davis already was unhappy about the fact Hall voters snubbed Stabler while he was alive before approving his induction as a senior candidate last February, seven months after he died from colon cancer at the age of 69. The jacket-and-ring issue made him incensed.

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Davis said he had possession of the Hall ring given to his late father Al upon his 1990 Hall induction, and the Stablers should be given the same opportunity. Davis then told me he planned to personally meet with Hall president David Baker upon arriving in Canton, Ohio, for pre-induction festivities in hopes a change could be made to a bylaw that, to him, made no sense.

This week, Stabler’s daughter Kendra Stabler Moyes said the Hall of Fame had denied her family a ring and jacket for her late father, as well as a request to buy a ring. Families of deceased inductees receive a plaque.

ESPN reporter Jim Trotter said on Twitter that the family of former linebacker Junior Seau had also only received a plaque when he was inducted in 2015. The Seau family had to fight the Hall of Fame in order to let his daughter Sydney speak on his behalf at the ceremony.

The Hall of Fame sent Deadspin a statement regarding Stabler’s family:

Additionally, every living Hall of Fame member receives a Hall of Fame Gold Jacket and a Hall of Fame Ring of Excellence to wear as symbols of his personal Hall of Fame achievement. The Hall of Fame has never presented either of these two personal items posthumously. The Hall of Fame does present to the family of a posthumously elected Hall of Famer, the Gold Hall of Fame Crest that is featured on the Hall of Fame Gold Jacket. This is done during Enshrinement Week at the Hall of Fame Gold Jacket Dinner when the other Class members are presented their Gold Jackets.

[ Sporting News]