Two former Saints named semifinalists for Pro Football Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced their semifinalists for the class of 2024, and two former New Orleans Saints made the cut, with varying Saints success.

With the playoffs right around the corner, Hall of Fame season is also going to start ramping up soon, if you're into that kind of thing of course. Luckily for you New Orleans Saints fans, this writer is a huge history nerd, so you've come to the right place. Speaking of the Saints, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced their 25 modern-era semifinalists for their class of 2024, and two former Saints have made it this far.

Now granted, one is known for his career with the Saints, the other... not so much. Still, it's always cool to see any former Saints player receive the game's highest honor.

The first former Saints player to be named is cornerback Eric Allen. Now while he is known for his time with the Philadelphia Eagles, and a bit of a slight disappointment when he came to the Big Easy, that doesn't make him any less deserving. Allen is a former All-Pro, and six-time Pro Bowl selection, the last of which came in 1995, which happened to be his first season with the Saints. Besides, none other than Deion Sanders has been championing for him to get enshrined which should be good enough for a lot of people.

The second is guard Jahri Evans. Drafted out of division II Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft, the Saints managed to find a steal who went on to become arguably the best guard in the game during his career, and a Super Bowl champion to boot.

Evans would be named as an All-Pro four times in his career, as well as being a six-time Pro Bowl selection. Given the fact that Evans was considered by many to be the best in his position for an extended period of time, that should really help his chances, even if guards get overlooked.

Evans has been named a semifinalist twice with Allen now being a four-time semifinalist, so it will be interesting to see if these two former New Orleans Saints make it to the finalist stage. Either way, we're rooting for them.