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Minnesota Vikings May Have To Wait For Their Next Hall of Fame Inductee

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

With the announcement that center Mick Tingelhoff will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2015, the Minnesota Vikings have had six inductees into the Hall of Fame in the last eight classes:

2015 - Mick Tingelhoff
2013 - Cris Carter
2012 - Chris Doleman
2010 - John Randle
2009 - Randall McDaniel
2008 - Gary Zimmerman

However, it looks like it may be a bit of a wait for the next member of the purple and gold to get into Canton for a number of reasons.

Sure, quarterback Brett Favre becomes eligible as a part of next year's class, and he's a complete shoo-in for enshrinement. But seriously, nobody really identifies Favre as a Viking, and with good reason, so I don't think we can really count him. Frankly, the most interesting part of that whole thing is going to be listening to fans of the team that Favre is identified with pretend that they didn't want to see him die in a fiery car wreck from August of 2009 to December of 2010. (And, in some cases, significantly beyond.)

The next prominent Viking that will be eligible for the Hall of Fame will be wide receiver Randy Moss, who will become eligible in 2018. Now, if the Hall of Fame voting process were based entirely on football, there's absolutely no doubt that Moss would be a first-ballot Hall of Fame lock.

But it's not, and we know it's not. Right around early January every year, the voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for some reason begin to feel that it's the Pro Football Hall of Congeniality, and think back to all the times that players didn't bow down or kiss the ring or whatever else. Moss didn't get along with the media terribly well. . .which is funny, because by all accounts he's a very good media type now. . .and that's eventually going to come back and bite him when it comes time for enshrinement in Canton.

My guess is that, even though Moss becomes eligible in 2018, there's not a chance that he gets in before 2020, and that might even be an upset.

So, it looks like it's going to be a while before we're celebrating another member of the Minnesota Vikings being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, barring someone like Jim Marshall taking the Seniors Committee route that just got Mick Tingelhoff into Canton.