CANTON, Ohio — For the first time in 20 years, Jerry Kramer is again one step closer to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The former Sandpoint High, University of Idaho and Green Bay Packers standout was picked as a senior finalist for the 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

The senior committee selected Kramer and Robert Brazile on Thursday.

The senior committee is comprised of nine members of the Hall of Fame’s selection committee who consider players whose careers ended at least 25 years ago. Through mail vote, the 2018 senior nominees were reduced to a final list of candidates. Then, on a rotating basis, five of the nine members meet at the Pro Football Hall of Fame to discuss each of the candidates and select the finalists.

Kramer will need at least 80 percent of the vote by the 48-member Hall of Fame selection committee when it meets during Super Bowl week in Minneapolis to be elected.

After playing at Idaho from 1954-57, Kramer helped Green Bay win five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls, and the guard was voted to both the 1960s All-Decade team and the NFL’s 50th Anniversary team in 1969. Kramer remains the only member of the 50th Anniversary team not inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Since 1972, the senior committee has selected 57 finalists as nominees to the Hall of Fame and 45 received enough votes to earn induction. Kramer is among the 12 who did not receive the requisite votes. In 1997, he was the lone senior committee finalist but fell short. It was his 10th go-around as a finalist for the Hall of Fame after falling just short nine times between 1974 and 1987.

Kramer has been a finalist for the Hall of Fame more times than any player not inducted.

The Hall of Fame selection committee, at its annual meeting to be held on Saturday, Feb.3, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minn., will consider 18 finalists, including two seniors (Brazile and Kramer), one contributor (to be named today), and 15 modern-era finalists (to be determined from a preliminary list announced in early September; trimmed to 25 semifinalists in November and to 15 finalists in January). Current bylaws call for a class no smaller than four or larger than eight. The Senior Finalists will be voted on for election independent of the other finalists.

Brazile went to seven Pro Bowls and was a member of the NFL’s All-Decade team of the 1970s as a linebacker with the Houston Oilers.