Pattern Recognition, Pt. 2: Number of HOF Recipients by NFL Franchise

It's the 21st century. Technology has invaded all aspects of our lives. Subjectivity is less tolerable when there are ways of measuring and quantifying attributes of a group, population, or NFL franchise.

The source of the data for this article is a database of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The data has been aggregated by NFL franchises.

Examining the data reveals some new information which may challenge earlier assumptions about the teams that have had Hall-of-Famers, at some point in their history.

For example, some folks think that the Oakland Raiders have not received enough recognition at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The data reveals that Oakland has had an above average number of recipients.

These players may have played for several teams, but it seems that any team of which an NFL player has had an affiliation is mentioned in the database.

Here is the data:

Franchise		Number of HOF Recipients
Arizona C		16
Atlanta F.		2
Baltimore R.		1
Buffalo B.		9
Carolina Panthers		1
Chicago Bears		35
Cincinnati Bengals		2
Cleveland Browns		21
Dallas Cowboys		17
Denver Broncos		4
Detroit Lions		18
Green Bay Packers		26
Houston Texans		0
Indianapolis Colts		13
Jacksonville Jaguars		0
Kansas City Chiefs		14
Miami Dolphins		10
Minnesota Vikings		14
New England Patriots		4
New Orleans Saints		5
New York Giants		27
New York Jets		6
Oakland Raiders		20
Philadephia Eagles		17
Pittsburgh Steelers		24
San Diego Chargers		11
San Francisco 49ers		16
Seattle Seahawks		4
St. Louis Rams		23
Tampa Bay		3
Tennessee Titans		11
Washington Redskins		29

Observations

1. The Oakland Raiders, for example, have a frequency of 20 players. The frequency exceeds the average of the entire data set.

2. The franchise with the maximum number of HOF inductees is the Chicago Bears.

3. Two teams have not received any HOF awards. They are the Houston Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

4. The average number of HOF recipients for all 32 franchises is 12.59.

A Ranking of the Top 10 Recipients of HOF Awards

Franchise                   Rank

Chicago Bears               1

Washington Redskins     2

New York Giants            3

Green Bay Packers        4

Pittsburgh Steers          5

St. Louis Rams             6

Cleveland Browns          7

Oakland Raiders            8

Detroit Lions                 9

Dallas Cowboys            10

This introductory study simply profiles the rank and frequencies of the number of HOF recipients, aggregated by franchise.

A lot of information is embedded in NFL and HOF data. Exploring the use of various statistical and mathematical concepts will give more insight to fans and others as they examine the data.

Your comments are invited.

Note on Adjustment:  The numbers in this study must be adjusted. A phone call (8:28 am CDT, August 31, 2009) to an HOF researcher indicated that the data source contained glitches because of a transfer to new website. An update will be provided at a later data. Note that is customary for analysis to be iterated, refined, and adjusted.