The greatest NFL players are inducted into the Hall of Fame. They’re selected based on their stats, Pro-Bowl appearances, and championships, so they know a thing or two about football. But sometimes it pays to listen to them because they know a thing or two about life.
Every summer, the Hall of Fame inductee class is awarded their gold jackets and their bronze busts are revealed. The ceremony, typically held in Canton, is a large affair with a lot of fanfare and rightfully so. It’s a testament to those special players that exhibited a sustained and consistent success. Players that have set the bar higher or achieved unique accolades few athletes have done before walk up to their shrouded bust to officially review their physical manifestations that will be forever enshrined in the Hall and also in NFL history books.
Many of the former players that earn Hall-of-Fame honors have larger-than-life personalities, flamboyant and brazen personal styles and unrivaled swagger, which makes for entertaining stage antics but also impactful and powerful speeches. Many of the players have an exuberance of charisma that fans learned to either love or hate during their career, but it’s also humbling and emotionally invoking when they stand up in front of an audience and thank the people that helped them along the way.
That’s something I find to be one of a kind in the NFL. When live bullets are flying during the season, fans form grudges or root against players on division-rival teams and will hold on to distaste for those players, seemingly forever, if their favorite team is on the losing end of a potential Hall of Famer’s performance. It’s different during the HoF induction, though. It becomes a little more personal for the players, their families, and even the fans. The speeches are symbolic of something bigger than an athlete who played for a team for 10 or 12 or even 15 years. It’s a humanizing reminder that the players are just like the rest of us. They’re faster and stronger, sure but, they’re not just players or athletes; they’re people. I think that gets lost sometimes and it’s always inspiring to hear the adversity other successful people have battled and how they overcame it. The speeches are, in a way, poignant and eye-opening because of the nature of the never-ending NFL cycle.
The NFL is 24/7. It gets covered year round. Some of the narratives get driven into the ground with the skyrocketing interest in fantasy football and its myriad of sub-types. The regular and post seasons take up September through the first week of February. If you include the preseason and training camp, you can push up the coverage to late July. After the Super Bowl, free agency and NFL Draft seasons heat up and dominate the media until the end of April. The dead zone of the de facto NFL season is May and June. The NFL has made attempts to stay relevant in those two months by releasing the official schedule and the Top 100 players from the previous season, but it’s an uphill battle against the NHL and NBA playoffs.
So, in a perpetual state of NFL, it’s possible to almost always stay plugged-in. It’s a fast-moving industry and it’s also a dog-eat-dog business for the players who are frequently shown the door if the on-field merits are up to a certain standard. This cut-throat side of the business is tough on those who are traded or cut, for example, along with their friends and families. I’m not blameless. I, like many other fans, enjoy the process of building a 53-man roster that will be, theoretically, the best representation of one’s favorite franchise for the regular season.
Considering the difficulty it takes to play in the NFL for an extended period of time, it’s a wonder anyone makes the Hall of Fame. That’s something else I find unbelievable about the honored players.
This year’s class featured former superstar players and accomplished contributors Brian Dawkins, Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, Jerry Kramer, Brian Urlacher, Robert Brazile, Terrell Owens, and Bobby Beathard.
Personally, I am not a particularly big fan of any of the players, but I recognize the importance of their careers and the impacts they made in the league. sometimes, the speeches become cliche or redundant to some, but each player’s unique idiosyncrasies and beliefs get to shine once at the podium.
Something that I always look forward to are the speeches. This year was not short on the pomp and circumstance and the speeches were as emotionally and spiritually hard-hitting as each speech giver’s physical play on the field. After storming the stage in a tiger-crawl approach, Brian Dawkins made an incredible speech about his mother and father and included some of the values they instilled as he journeyed through his football career. Dawkins mentioned a tenet his father preached to him as he was growing up: “finish what you started”. I always manage to find little phrases or mantras during the speeches that strike a chord. Often times, I find inspiration in the greatest NFL players and learning the core values they emphasized over the course of their career can add fuel to the fire in my belly.
Finish what you started. I love that phrase. I say it all the time and when Dawkins was in the spotlight up at the dais with his booming, emphatic voice, he thanked his father for teaching him that. I think it’s a quality that defines those with a good character. I try to exercise my work ethic and perseverance in every job I do, and it resonated with me that Dawkins tried to practice that belief as well. It translates to learning to find success despite the speed bumps and red tape and knowing that you saw something through to the very end. I can certainly appreciate that school of thought.
Ray Lewis is another colorful character that graced the football field and, other than his play, he was well-known for his pep talks and dances. That emotional expression came alive in the form of his pacing akin to a preacher giving a Sunday morning sermon. One part of his speech that became meme-worthy was mention of his still kissing his children on the mouth, which was vehemently denied with aggressive head shaking as the cameras panned to his sons. I audibly laughed out loud. I imagine many other sons would’ve done the exact same thing if their father had said that in front of a crowd of people. I know I would’ve denied it. I guess every man when they were a boy, can recall a time when their family members embarrassed them. It’s just another growing pain, I suppose.
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My favorite part of the ceremony was a portion of Randy Moss’ speech. He talked about his upbringing in the small West Virginian town, Rand. Moss was choking back tears as he talked about the small community and what it meant for a kid from Rand to carve out an incredible path to the Hall of Fame. From small beginnings to the Hall of Fame, Moss appeared forever grateful for his smalltown, USA. Even Moss’ alma mater could be considered small. Marshall isn’t exactly known for being an NFL prospect hotspot. Maybe that was a theme this year– small towns and small colleges aren’t slouches when it comes to supplying talent. Marshall, New Mexico (Urlacher), Chattanooga (Owens), Idaho (Kramer), and Jackson State (Brazile) all had representatives this year. That’s an ode to the underdog if I’ve ever heard one.
There’s a lot to be taken from the words of battle-tested football extraordinaire. But lest we forget they’re also words of people like you and me. They’re worth listening to. As Kramer said during his speech from his former high-school coach: “You can if you will”. And these guys certainly did.
Photo credit: USA Today Sports
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