Cincinnati Bengals Legend Ken Riley Finally Earns Pro Football Hall of Fame Acceptance, Will Be Inducted Posthumously in August

BY ALLISON BABKA

It only took three decades, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton has finally decided that yes, the late Cincinnati Bengals legend Ken Riley was HOF material.

The Hall of Fame announced its class of 2023 inductees during the NFL Honors ceremony on Feb. 9, just three days before Super Bowl LVII. Riley was selected by the seniors committee, which chose players whose careers ended during or before the 1996 NFL season. Seniors finalists needed 80% approval from the committee during a January vote.

Riley will be enshrined in the hall during an induction ceremony on Aug. 5 in Canton, becoming just the second longtime Bengal to receive the honor.

Riley, widely considered one of the sport’s greatest cornerbacks, died at age 70 in 2020, and his son Ken Riley II received the Hall of Fame’s call on his father’s behalf. Former Bengals offensive tackle Anthony Muñoz, who already is in the hall and whose tenure on the team overlapped with Riley’s, called Junior with the news.

“I am calling you to say congratulations,” Muñoz told Riley Jr. on a call shared by the Hall of Fame. “Your dad is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2023.”

“Wow,” Riley’s son said, clearly emotional. “I was praying for this call. It’s kind of surreal. I thank you for your support and appreciate you.”

“Honored to call you, and I am so excited and thrilled to be able to do this,” said Muñoz, who has voiced support for Riley’s inclusion over the years.

Riley’s son has been campaigning for his father to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for decades, with the honor finally happening in Riley’s 35th year of eligibility. Riley’s grandson –an athlete like his father and grandfather – also has been vocal about the cornerback’s inclusion.

Via the Bengals’ social media channels, team owner Mike Brown remarked on Riley’s selection.

“Ken Riley was a wonderful person. Everyone at all levels with the team respected him. Ken looked out for others. He was known as someone who would help,” Brown said. “Had he lived, Ken would have delighted in being selected to the Hall of Fame. Now the extended

Bengals family will have to do that for him. We miss him and we celebrate him.”

Including Riley, a total of nine players and coaches were selected as part of the class of 2023. Joining Riley are:

• cornerback/safety Rondé Barber

• coach Don Cornell

• linebacker Chuck Howley

• defensive end/defensive tackle/ nose tackle Joe Klecko

• cornerback Darrelle Revis

• offensive tackle Joe Thomas

• linebacker Zach Thomas

• linebacker/defensive end DeMarcus Ware

In August, Riley was announced as a seniors finalist for induction, along with Howley and Klecko. The selection committee had whittled down a list of 25 semi-finalists to 12 finalists before selecting the trio to move forward. At one point, the hall said in a press release, the selection committee reviewed 127 former players.

Riley spent his entire career with the Bengals between 1969 and 1983 and is considered one of the team’s best all-time best players with 65 interceptions — fifthmost in NFL history. Nicknamed “The

Rattler,” Riley played 207 games over 15 seasons with the Bengals, both in the AFL and the NFL. With Riley, the team went to the playoffs five times and had its first Super Bowl run in 1982.

Riley later became head coach and athletic director at Florida A&M, the alma mater where he had been a starting quarterback, had been selected for a Rhodes Scholar Candidacy and later would coach his son, Ken Riley II.

Riley was excluded from the NFL’s “In Memoriam” segment during the Super Bowl in 2021, just months after he had passed away. The snub incensed fans and increased the calls for his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame even more. After the Bengals tweeted about the brush-off, Ken Riley II replied, “Thank you @Bengals for the support, it was truly disappointing! My father Ken Riley Sr is part of the NFL History. He is # 5 All Time on the Interception list but he was an even better Man!!! It is truly a crime he never got the recognition he deserved.”

When the hall’s selection committee called Riley’s son in August to say that his father had finally gotten to the final round, Junior said, “Oh, wow! Really? That is awesome. I told [my father], ‘One day, you’re going to do it.’”

Former Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson was a finalist on 2023’s modern-era ballot in his 10th year of eligibility but was not selected for enshrinement. Anderson spent 12 seasons with the Bengals before finishing his career with the Baltimore Ravens. Cincinnati selected Anderson in the first round of the 1996 draft, and he started 116 consecutive games between 1999 and 2007.

Former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson was under consideration as a senior but did not make it to the committee’s final vote. Anderson played for the Bengals for his entire 16-season career. Along with Riley, he led the team to its first Super Bowl in 1982 and was crowned the Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year. He’s one of just five players to have earned four passing titles. Anderson remained connected with the Bengals even after his playing days were over, serving as a quarterback coach and radio broadcaster. His lack of selection to the Hall of Fame thus far is widely considered an egregious snub among sports experts, as Riley’s had been until this year.

Both Riley and Ken Anderson were inducted into the Bengals’ own inaugural Ring of Honor class in 2021. Willie Anderson joined them in 2022.