ASU icon Terrell Suggs is 1 of 16 1st-time eligible Pro Football Hall of Fame nominees

Hamilton High and ASU football legend Terrell Suggs is one of many NFL icons eligible for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

Suggs was announced on Wednesday as one of 167 modern era candidates for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and one of 16 players who are eligible for the first time this year in their first year of possible eligibility.

The 41-year-old Suggs is eligible five years after retiring following the 2019 NFL season. The 17-year NFL linebacker and defensive end won his second Super Bowl that season, and his first with the Kansas City Chiefs in his only season with the team. He had also played for the Arizona Cardinals that season.

He had played the prior 16 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, where he won AP Rookie of the Year in 2003, AP Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 and a Super Bowl in the 2012-13 season. He was also named first-team All-Pro in 2011. Suggs made seven Pro Bowls in his career.

Suggs had 11 seasons with 11 or more tackles for loss and seven seasons with 10 or more sacks. He led the NFL with seven forced fumbles in 2011 with seven. He amassed 202 tackles for loss and 139 sacks in his career.

The other 15 players eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year in their first year of eligibility are quarterback Eli Manning, kicker Adam Vinatieri, linebacker Luke Kuechly, running backs Darren Sproles and Marshawn Lynch, centers Travis Frederick and Ryan Kalil, defensive backs Antoine Bethea (played two years with Cardinals), Earl Thomas and Aqib Talib, guard Marshal Yanda, tackle Joe Staley, wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and tight ends Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker.

Suggs was selected by the Ravens 10th overall out of Arizona State in the 2003 NFL Draft. Suggs took home five awards in his final season with the Sun Devils. Those were the Bronko Nagurski Award (Most Outstanding Defensive Player), the Vince Lombardi Award (Lineman of the Year), the Ted Hendricks Award (Defensive End of the Year), a Unanimous Consensus All-American selection and Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

If the likely outcome happens and Suggs is enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (with a potential first-ballot selection even), Suggs would join Curley Culp, Mike Haynes, John Henry Johnson, Randall McDaniel and Charley Taylor as one of six Sun Devils to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Culp was the most recent ASU player to be inducted (2013).

Fifty of the 167 modern-era players will remain in consideration for enshrinement in the 2025 class in mid-October when a screening committee narrows the list. Eventually, the list will be trimmed to 15 finalists before the Super Bowl.

At that point, the players need 80% or more of the vote to get in. Three to five players will get in as modern-era candidates.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suggs among 1st-time eligible Pro Football Hall of Fame nominees