During the past 30 years I saw all of them play. Briefly each of them was unique in their own way in which they dominated the game.
-Anderson impressed me with the longevity of his career. He played for five teams over 25 years and was named to the NFL All Decade Teams of the '80 and 90's. He scored 2,544 points over that 25 year career.
-Terrell Davis spent his entire career with the Denver Broncos and when he was in the backfield with John Elway the Broncos were a force with which to be reckoned. When the Broncos won Super Bowl 32 Davis was named the MVP as he scored the winning touchdown with less than two minutes left to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24.
-Kenny Easley played at Safety for the Seattle Seahawks from the early to mid 80's I only saw him on television since the Seahawks were still in the AFC at that time and the team I followed at Busch Stadium II, was the old St. Louis Cardinals before their move to Phoenix. I remember Easley as quick and a hard hitter. What surprised me was how long it took him to get to the Hall of Fame.
-Jerry Jones, who bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 and still owns them today, was never one of my favorites. When he fired longtime Dallas legend Tom Landry I thought Jones was an ego maniac more interested in promoting himself than helping the Cowboys win. What I didn't know at the time was he would hire his friend Jimmy Johnson and with Johnson's sills the Cowboys would win three Super Bowls in the mid '90s. Jones also should be recognized for building a one billion dollar stadium with private funding.
-Jason Taylor was a quick strong defensive end whom I mainly remember from the Miami Dolphins. I never saw him play in person in St. Louis even when he played for the Redskins. Taylor made six pro bowls and was a first year inductee into the Hall of Fame.
-LaDainian Tomlinson to me was the face of the San Diego Chargers. I remember watching him play in college for TCU and knew he would be good in the pros. And he was. In 2006 Tomlinson rushed for 28 touchdowns and scored three more on pass receptions. Tomlinson was named to the All Decade team by the NFL for the 2000's. It's a shame he never got to play in a Super Bowl.
-Kurt Warner as a member of the St. Louis Rams became one of my favorite players and I count myself fortunate to have seen him play many a game for the Rams in their Super Bowl seasons of 1999 and 2001. To be honest I never thought St. Louis would win a Super Bowl after they lost the Cardinals in 1987. But, little did we know at that time a young man by the name of Warner would lead them to victory over the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl 34. You've probably heard the story of rising from grocery store stock clerk to pro quarterback so I won't re-visit that, but if a Hollywood screen writer had written it, the story would have been dismissed as unbelievable. Warner quarterbacked "The Greatest Show on Turf" and with his talented offensive teammates, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt along with the coaching of Dick Vermeil and "Mad Mike" Martz, those teams re-wrote the offensive record books. Warner, became a role model in St. Louis and he lived his Christian faith and gave back and continues to give to the St. Louis community today while living in Arizona.
The induction ceremony on Saturday night lasted four and a half hours and the speeches were long. I am not going to include videos for all seven of the inductees. But, because Warner is one of my favorites players I am including the link to his speech. The NFL Hall of Fame does not permit the video to be embedded into this blog so here again is the link to watch it on YouTube. It lasts about a half hour but I loved every minute of it. I hope you enjoy it as well.
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| Photo courtesy of azcardinals.com |
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