Steve Tasker named Senior semifinalist for NFL Pro Football HOF Class of 2024

Former Buffalo Bills special teams superstar and Wall of Famer Steve Tasker has been named one of 31 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame (HOF) Class of 2024 in the Senior, Coach/Contributors category, as selected by the HOF’s 12-person Seniors Committee.

Tasker is an all-time great for the Buffalo Bills. He’s perhaps the greatest to ever play special teams — yes, even better than Devin Hester, Dante Hall, or even Dion Sanders. Tasker’s the first person considered by nearly anyone with an opinion about football’s third phase.

What Tasker did on special teams transcended highlight-reel returns. His play was pivotal in establishing one of the most fearsome special teams units in NFL history, season after season. Tasker was selected to the NFL Pro Bowl seven times, a remarkable feat for a player who made his hay utilizing an apex predator-like nose for the football.

But Steve Tasker has been overlooked for far too long in far too many realms. It’s easy to understand how NFL personnel might have overlooked a 5’9”, 180-pound player who didn’t make huge waves as a receiver.

Hall of Fame head coach Marv Levy innately saw how good Tasker could be for his Bills. Levy made Tasker a priority waiver-wire signing the moment he signed on to coach the Bills. The rest became rich history. But 25 years following his retirement, Tasker’s still chasing down that elusive NFL HOF bust. Tasker’s been a semifinalist nine times, eight of which came during his modern era eligibility.

There are many within Bills Mafia who only know Steve Tasker as a broadcaster, and someone who now co-hosts “One Bills Live” with Chris Brown. But acknowledging him as an accomplished media personality first, overlooks his incredible talent as a professional football player. This NFL Films interview with Steve Tasker helps to introduce or remind people why Tasker’s inclusion in the NFL Hall of Fame is necessary.

Per an article about Steve Tasker’s most recent HOF opportunity via the official website of the Buffalo Bills:

The respective selection committees now will consider the candidates and vote to send 12 Seniors and 12 Coach/Contributors through to the next stage. The results of those reduction votes will be announced July 27.

The Seniors Committee will meet Aug. 22 and may select up to three Seniors for final consideration as members of the Class of 2024. Expansion of the Seniors pool for election to the Hall was approved in 2022 for the Classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025.

This video, also by NFL Films, can form a line behind the Dick Butkus face-spitting event it references. Indiscriminate bashing of special teams players by those who’ve never played in the NFL should meet a fateful pit full of deaf ears.

It’s time to put Steve Tasker in the NFL Hall of Fame!