In less than a half an hour the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies will begin. I must say I am not much of a fan of Halls of Fame. I think I have made this clear on these pages before. I still think Ken Anderson, the former quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals, deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Moody Blues are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They deserve to be there…but I hope that call never comes. They are much better than that address in Cleveland.
I won’t try to pretend to know everything about all the Hall of Fame inductees tonight. Dick Stanfel was a player and a coach I know of. I can’t hold forth on him. Eddie DeBartolo Jr. was the owner of the 49ers. They beat Ken Anderson’s Bengals in Super Bowl XVI. I hope his time on TV tonight is short.
Kevin Greene was a sack master. He played for the Rams and the Steelers. He was fun to watch and is deserving of his place in Canton.
Ken Stabler died last July. He was a quarterback and played the game the best way he knew how…his way. Paul Anka could have been thinking about Ken Stabler when he wrote the song “My Way”. Though I doubt it. It was a hit for Frank Sinatra in 1969. Ken Stabler was fun to watch. The Raiders were must see TV before there was such a thing.
Tony Dungy. There is not enough room on this post to give him. Quiet. Solid. True. Tony Dungy was a large part of a group that reinvented football in Indiana. As the coach of the Colts, with a guy named Peyton Manning at quarterback, he helped lead a renaissance of football in my home state. I am forever grateful.
Orlando Pace was a lineman. It is always good to see a lineman getting his due. What I remember about Orlando Pace is that his college coach John Cooper sat next to me at a coaches clinic in 1993 and had video of Orlando to share with us to show good lineman technique during his presentation.
Above is the commemorative USPS envelope that honors the record 86 TDs that Peyton Manning threw to Marvin Harrison. It happened on October 17, 2005 on Monday Night Football. I was fortunate enough to be in the Hoosier/RCA Dome that night. It was awesome. Marvin was one of those football pioneers in this state. He was a part of it. We love football in Indiana like never before…thanks to Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, and the leader of that charge, Peyton Manning.
Brett Favre is going into the Hall tonight also. Enough said. We miss his child-like enthusiasm. I do. I saw Brett play for Southern Miss in 1989. Missed the greatest finish in a college game since Doug Flutie’s miracle against Miami when he threw the pass the Gerard Phelan in November 1984. Favre threw a miracle of a pass that bounced off the helmet of a University of Louisville DB and landed in the hands of a Southern Miss receiver who took it the rest of the 79 yards on the game’s final play. We missed it. We were taking my five year old brother to pee. In 2009, my dear wife, Carrie, and I went to Minneapolis and watched Brett play for the Vikings in a game against the Baltimore Ravens. The Vikes won 33-31 when the Ravens kicker missed a field goal on the last play of the game.
And so it goes.
Football is here. It’s about time.
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson