While generally a cause for celebration, Saturday’s announcement of the class of 2016 for the Pro Football Hall of Fame carried a somber tone as Ken Stabler, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, was elected days after it was publicly revealed that he had suffered from Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease, before his death in July.
Stabler, who won a Most Valuable Player Award in 1974 and led the Raiders to the team’s first Super Bowl victory after the 1976 season, was previously a finalist for election three times, but this year, as a senior candidate, he was elected alongside Dick Stanfel, a star offensive lineman of the 1950s.