This week, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced their 15 finalists for the class of 2022 and former Packers safety LeRoy Butler was on the list. It’s the third straight year Butler was a finalist and hopefully, the third time will be the charm for the former Florida State star.

Butler was appreciative of the honor. Shortly after the announcement, he tweeted:

Once again my teammates were amazing!! Thats the reason I’m a finalist for the

@ProFootballHOF

again, thank you guys,and playing for one team is amazing as well

@packers

fans are platinum

Here are five reasons Butler deserves to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

1. Butler Was a Dominant Player

The Hall of Fame isn’t just for very good players, it’s for elite players and Butler was just that. Butler earned All Pro four times in his career, after the 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998 seasons. That meant that he was considered the best player at his position in the league during those four years.

He was also named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1990s and is the only member of that team to not yet be inducted into the Hall.

2. Butler Revolutionized His Position

There are great players and then there are players that change the way the game was played. Don Hutson changed the way receivers played by running specific pass patterns like no player before him. Lawrence Taylor changed the outside linebacker position because of his ability to rush the quarterback.

Butler started his career as a cornerback but moved to safety in 1992 when the Packers selected Terrell Buckley in the first round of that year’s draft.

Butler is the first defensive back in NFL history to finish his career with more than 20 sacks and 20 interceptions. No safety combined his ability to cover like a cornerback and blitz like a linebacker.

Former Packers defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, who coached Butler during much of his time in Green Bay, had this to say about Butler in the 1997 Packers Yearbook. He said Butler has a “great instinctive feel for the ball. [He] gives us an opportunity for a lot of flexibility in our defense with his ability to blitz, to rush the passer. A very smart, innovative guy, a leader.”

3. Butler Was a Part of Winning Teams

Whether it’s fair or not, players on winning teams and championship teams get more respect and consideration for the Hall of Fame than players on losing teams do.

Butler played on teams that made the playoffs six straight years from 1993-1998 and played in back-to-back Super Bowls. The Packers won the Super Bowl after the 1996 season.

Butler picked up his game in the postseason. He had three playoff sacks, made two fumble recoveries and intercepted a pass. In 1995, he had 20 total tackles in just three playoff games.

One of his fumble recoveries came in the 1996 NFC Championship Game and he sacked Drew Bledsoe once in the Packers 35-21 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.

Butler was a cornerstone of winning teams and played well in big games. That should help his candidacy for the Hall of Fame.

4. Butler Was a Leader

Throughout his career, Butler was a leader. He, Brett Favre and Reggie White were considered the biggest leaders on those great Packers teams.

Butler spent part of his childhood in a wheelchair and overcame physical issues to become an elite athlete.

He was smart, worked hard and did things the right way and younger players looked up to Butler throughout his career.

Packers secondary coach Bob Valesente had this say about Butler in the 1998 Packers Yearbook: “He has a tremendous concept of what we’re doing, and it makes it easier for us to use him in certain ways. He’s a great talent, but he studies hard. We do a lot of teaching in the classroom and on the field and he’s not only picked up on it, but he’s become a teacher himself with the younger guys.”

Butler not only lifted his own game but the play of his teammates. That is true leadership.

5. He Created the Lambeau Leap

Butler is credited with creating the Lambeau Leap back in 1993. The move is now iconic and is a great symbol of the closeness the fans in Green Bay have with their team.

In a December 1993 game against the Los Angeles Raiders, Butler took a lateral from Reggie White and scored a touchdown. He jumped into the stands as part of his celebration and that has been a part of the culture in Green Bay ever since.

Butler checks all the boxes needed to be in the Hall of Fame. He was a dominant player on a winning team who changed the way his position was played, won championships and impacted the game on and off the field.

This is his third straight year as a finalist and quite honestly, he should have been in before some of the other safeties who got in before him.

Perhaps Brett Favre summed it up best back in 2015. “It’s crazy that LeRoy Butler is not in the Hall of Fame,” Favre said. “We don’t win nearly as many football games as we did or have the kind of success we did without LeRoy Butler.”