It took 10 years, but Bryant Young finally got his gold jacket. It was announced on Thursday night that the stalwart, longtime defensive tackle for the 49ers will be inducted to the Hall of Fame.
NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco is one of the 50 Hall of Fame voters who was part of that process in getting Young into the Hall.
On Friday, he revealed that the campaign to get Young in was unlike almost any other. Maiocco said he consulted with former 49ers public relations director Kirk Reynolds.
What they realized was that while Young didn’t have some of the sack numbers as other Hall of Famers, he had the widespread respect from his peers. So they cobbled together a plan to solicit some of Young’s former foes as references
“The thing that we always knew about Bryant Young was that he had tremendous respect, obviously not only from his teammates and his former coaches, but from players around the league,” Maiocco said.
Maiocco got help from former offensive linemen who faced Young, saying that Robbie Tobeck, the former Seattle offensive lineman, was the one who really led the charge.
A group of at least Robbie Tobeck, Mark Schlereth, Jerry Fontenot, Adam Timmerman, Willy Roaf, and Kevin Gogan, all former offensive linemen, got on a Zoom call to make their case for Young.
“These guys went to bat for him,” Maiocco said. “Bryant Young had no idea this was taking place and he was flattered when he found out that all these guys — he didn’t even know these guys.”
John Lund asked Maiocco whether this is common practice in Hall of Fame voting.
“Not at all,” Maiocco said. “Unprecedented.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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