FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Arguably the biggest surprise of Wednesday’s New England Patriots Hall of Fame Nomination Committee meeting was the stalemate among voters between senior candidates Raymond Clayborn (cornerback) and Leon Gray (offensive tackle).
It sparks the question of whether either will break the 80 percent senior threshold in the coming years to earn induction.
Both Clayborn and Gray have strong cases to be in the Patriots Hall of Fame. They have been finalists multiple times in the general voting, but the way the process is set up -- three finalists are chosen by the committee by a vote and then one is chosen by fans for induction -- can make it more challenging for players who played in the 1970s (Gray) and into the 1980s (Clayborn) compared to those who suited up more recently.