Three additional players who wore the Green & White have been nominated to become members of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 as Seniors, less than two years after Jets veteran Joe Klecko entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Seniors Candidate in 2023. Three resides in Long Island and New York, and two are members of the Jets Ring of Honor. The third was a quarterback for the Green & White throughout his illustrious career.
DE LB Larry Grantham, QB Boomer Esiason, and Mark Gastineau, Klecko’s pass rush partner for the New York Sack Exchange, are three of the 183 contenders that the Hall’s Seniors Screening Committee is currently considering to move on to a list of 50 semifinalists.
With 74 official sacks throughout his 10-year Jets tenure, as well as 107.5 regular-season sacks from 1979–81 when sacks were not officially tallied, and 116 total sacks, including postseason takedowns, Gastineau maintains the team record for official sacks (since 1982). With 22 sacks in 1984, Gastineau also established an NFL record that remained in effect for 17 seasons until Michael Strahan’s 22.5 sacks for the Giants in 2001. Gastineau belonged to the 2012 class of the Ring of Honor.
One of the first solid cornerstones of the Jets organization and a defensive standout on the squad that won Super Bowl III, Grantham passed away in 2017 at the age of 78. He was a founding member of the New York Titan/Jets, having worn the venerable No. 60 for each of his 13 professional seasons. He was inducted into the Ring of Honor in 2011 and was awarded an AFL All-Star five times and an AFL All-Pro first team member five times apiece.
Before becoming a sports talker and game analyst in New York and across the country, Esiason was a top-tier NFL quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals for 14 years. The Bengals traded him to his hometown Jets in 1993, and he was named to the final Pro Bowl of his four-year career at the end of that season. During his tenure with the Jets from 1993 to 1995, “Boom” started 42 games and completed 764 of his 1,302 passes for 8,478 yards, 49 touchdowns, and 39 interceptions.
WR Art Powell, who played only for the blue-and-gold New York Titans from 1960 to 1962, never wore green and white, but he was also considered by the screening committee. Powell passed away in 2015 at the age of 78. He started all 42 of the Titans’ games, hauled in 204 receptions for 3,178 yards, and 27 touchdowns, making him one of the best early pass-catchers in franchise history. With 14 touchdown catches in 1960, he led the AFL. Powell and Don Maynard combined for 1,000-yard seasons in 1960 and 1962, with Powell recording the highest receiving yardage in the league in 1960.
K While he will be remembered as the Kansas City Chiefs’ Pro Bowl kicker from 1980 to 1993, Nick Lowery spent the final three seasons of his 18-season professional career as the Jets’ kicker from 1994 to 1996. Lowery is also on the Hall of Fame’s inaugural list of seniors to be considered for inclusion.
This year, the Hall established a new body called the screening committee to provide feedback on the selection process as a whole. The Seniors Blue Ribbon Committee will further reduce in phases after the committee has finished narrowing down the 183 nominees to 50+ ties over the course of the next few weeks. Three seniors will be chosen as finalists by the Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee in late fall, with the intention of selecting them for the Class of ’25.
Players are not eligible for nomination by the Seniors Screening Committee if they haven’t played for at least 25 complete seasons. The new class will be chosen in the days leading up to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, and they will be inducted in August into the Canton, Ohio, Hall of Fame.
