Peyton Manning’s Former Teammate Dwight Freeney Does Not Feel Bad for Eli Manning After 2025 Hall of Fame Snub

There were a few names that most were certain would make it as 1st-ballot members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 — Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri, Eli Manning. However, none of them made it. The committee instead inducted Jared Allen, Sterling Sharpe, Antonio Gates, and Eric Allen. There’s no doubt that the quartet featured all deserving candidates, but many couldn’t help but scream, “Eli was snubbed.” Not Dwight Freeney though.

The younger Manning was always going to be an interesting test case for HOF voters. He’s 11th all-time in completions, yards, and TDs. He beat the GOAT, Tom Brady, not once, but twice in the Super Bowl. Both were epic upsets. And yet, he never won a playoff game apart from those two Cinderella runs in 2007 and 2011.

Freeney, a former longtime teammate of Eli’s brother, Peyton, was weighing all these numbers while talking about the snub on Up & Adams. When Kay Adams asked Freeney if he “felt bad” for Eli failing to get in on his 1st ballot, the man with the unstoppable spin move laughed — because he knows how many more shots Eli has.

“No, I don’t [feel bad]! … Because Eli was an amazing player, he had a great career, he’s gonna have his time in the sun. It’s okay. I think they picked some really good guys, there’s a bunch of guys they could’ve picked,” said the member of the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

“I think that Eli had a great career, and if you’re defining 1st-ballot as complete ‘game-wrecker-changers, you have to stop this guy or it is going to be a wreck’, then no. But he’s a Hall of Famer,” Freeney added.

While Eli’s career is exemplary, he made just four Pro Bowls and never earned All-Pro honors. His 117-117 all-time record doesn’t scream HOF either.

When considering all of that, a nod on his first try was always going to be tough. Eli, never one to get super high or super low and ever the realist, was predictably unperturbed by the perceived “snub”.

“I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be my night, and I understand that. I’m totally at peace. It’s not gonna change my outlook on my career and how I feel about it,” said Eli.

Manning also recognized that it wasn’t like he was snubbed for some scrubs either. Antonio Gates was about as close to a shoo-in to be inducted as a 1st-ballot guy in 2024, but he had to wait until 2025.

Jared Allen was a four-time 1st-Team All-Pro and his 136.0 sacks rank 12th on the official all-time list. He recognized the greatness of both players.

“I competed against Jared Allen, I sent him a text, I feel like I kind of got him in because he sacked me so many times, I helped his resume. Antonio Gates, when I was coming out, thinking about going to the Chargers… they were telling me, ‘We’ve got this guy on the practice squad who didn’t play college football but he’s going to be a superstar, Hall of Famer,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ So happy for him,” Eli elaborated.

Luke Kuechly, who was a middle linebacker for the Carolina Panthers from 2012-2019, was probably the biggest snub of the bunch. He won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, then went on to seven straight Pro Bowl and All-Pro campaigns, including five 1st-Team All-Pros. He also won Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.

Eli and others are victims of HOF becoming more exclusive

Those with a keen eye will notice that there were only four modern-era candidates chosen for the class of 2025, whereas the most common class sizes have historically been about five to seven inductees. According to Freeney, a member of the seven-man 2024 class, that was an intentional move by the committee.

“They had a conversation with us last year in one of the meetings, and they said ‘We’re gonna make it tougher to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.’ They want it to be a tough place to get into… They want it to be more of an exclusive place. So this year, they decided to go with a smaller class… I like the exclusivity part of it,” said Freeney.

We’re not quite sure why they feel the need for this exclusivity. There have been over 25,000 men to suit up in the NFL, only 327 of which have earned the HOF honor.

For the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, 110 NBA players have been enshrined out of a pool of just under 5,000 players all-time. The oldest of these, the Baseball Hall of Fame, has enshrined only 278 players out of about 20,500 players all-time.

If we’re looking at percentages here, that’s 1.3 percent of NFL players who’ve made it to the Hall of Fame. Compare that to the NBA (2.2) and the MLB (1.4) and it’s a bit confusing why a sport that fields a whopping 22+ starters on each team is considering tightening the books. Especially when you consider the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s backlog issue.

Sorry Torry, Steve, and Reggie, maybe next year (or not, the 2026 class is going to be even tougher).