Favre, Stabler head new Hall class
Harrison, Greene, Pace and Dungy also elected
San Francisco — Brett Favre and the late Ken Stabler, a pair of kindred- spirit QBs who each won a Super Bowl, were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Also voted in for the class of 2016 a day before the Super Bowl were modern-day players Kevin Greene, Marvin Harrison and Orlando Pace, coach Tony Dungy, contributor Ed DeBartolo Jr., and senior selection Dick Stanfel.
The freewheeling Favre, as expected, was a first-ballot entry, a reward for a long and distinguished career, mostly with the Green Bay Packers, that included three consecutive NFL MVP awards from 199597 and a championship in the 1997 Super Bowl.
Stabler, a left-hander nicknamed "Snake" for his ability to slither past defenders, goes into the Hall as a senior selection about six months after dying of colon cancer at age 69 — and just days after researchers said his brain showed widespread signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
CTE is a disease linked to repeated brain trauma and associated with symptoms such as memory loss, depression and progressive dementia. It has been found in the brains of dozens of former football players, including one of last year's Hall inductees, Junior Seau, who committed suicide in 2012 at 43.
Stabler was the 1974 league MVP and helped the Oakland Raiders win the 1977 Super Bowl.
He was represented at Saturday's announcement by two of his grandsons.
Favre played for 20 seasons, eventually retiring — after famously vacillating about whether to walk away from the game — as the NFL's career leader with 6,300 completions, 10,169 attempts, 71,838 yards and 508 TDs.
Before Green Bay, he briefly was a member of the Atlanta Falcons. Afterward, he had short stints with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.
Five nominees were eliminated in the final vote: coach Don Coryell, running back Terrell Davis, offensive lineman Joe Jacoby, safety John Lynch, and quarterback Kurt Warner.
Earlier Saturday, the selection committee reduced the list of 15 modern- day finalists by cutting wide receiver Terrell Owens, running back Edgerrin James, safety Steve Atwater, guard Alan Faneca and kicker Morten Andersen.
A candidate needs 80 percent of the vote to get in.
The induction ceremony is in August in Canton, Ohio.
Greene was a linebacker and defensive end who accumulated 160 sacks while harassing quarterbacks for four teams across 15 seasons.
Harrison, Peyton Manning's top receiver while with the Indianapolis Colts from 1996-08, holds the record for most catches in a season: a hard-to-fathom 143 in 2002.
Pace, like Favre in his first year of Hall eligibility, was an imposing left tackle who blocked for the winners of three consecutive NFL MVP awards during his 13-year career, the first dozen with the Rams.