The initial list of Hall of Fame nominees is out, and there are a few familiar faces on it.

Along with the start of the 2014 season comes the beginning of the official selection process for The Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2015. And the first step in that process is compiling an initial list of 113 modern-era nominees who will be evaluated by a 46-person committee for their on-field achievements and overall legacies. Towards the middle of October, the top 25 players from this list will be selected to move on to the next round as the committee ultimately whittles its list down to seven inductees.

Going through the initial list (which you can see here), it quickly becomes clear that selecting each new Hall of Fame class is no easy feat; there are some All-Time names up for football's highest honor. And among those names are a few that we Patriots fans should be more than a little familiar with: Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Ty Law, and Willie McGinest. There are a few other nominees who played with the Patriots - Junior Seau, Ted Washington, and Shawn Springs among them - but should they get inducted, it's more than likely that they enter the Hall as a member of the team with which they spent the most time.

Anybody who has been a Pats fan for more than ten years undoubtedly has some wonderfully fond memories of all four of these gentlemen, and much as I'd love to see all of them don the gold jacket at some point, at the end of the day I think we're more likely to only see one, Law, make his way into Canton. You can most certainly make a case for Harrison as well, but he wasn't exactly the most popular guy in the NFL, and who knows how much that will hurt his stock. McGinnest was great, and Bruschi is one of New England's most memorable and beloved players, but I don't think that either of them are future Hall of Famers. But still, it's great to see some of the members of that early 2000s dynasty team get the respect they so fully deserve.

We as fans can do our part, though. Click on the above link and vote for our boys early and often. With a little determination and some Luck, who knows what could happen.

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