Brett Favre will be remembered as an all-time great in the NFL. “It began when he replaced Don Majkowski in the Packers” starting lineup on September 27, 1992 and ended on December 13, 2010, when the Vikings turned in their pre-game inactive list with No. 4 on it. He also has a coaching tree that has featured Mike Tomlin, Herman Edwards, Jim Caldwell, Rod Marinelli, Leslie Frazier and Lovie Smith. Before joining Indianapolis, Dungy turned around a perennial loser in Tampa Bay, taking the Buccaneers to the 1999 NFC title game.
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Favre’s father died of a heart attack in 2003, but the Super Bowl champion quarterback has always had him in the back of his mind. He was known as much for his compassion and care for people throughout his organization as for building a winning football team.
“Work as hard as you possibly can, lay it all on the line, and whatever happens, happens”, Favre said. After the suspension, DeBartolo gave control of the team to his sister.
Saturday night’s Hall of Fame celebration began early as Packers fans briefly interrupted the introduction of returning Hall of Famers by chanting “Go Pack Go” each time a former Packers player was introduced.
Nicknamed “Snake” for his elusiveness on and off the field, Stabler helped the Raiders win their first Super Bowl and make it to four other conference championship games in a five-year span.
In thanking several coaches from Southern Miss, he told the story of how one assistant, the late Thamas Coleman, convinced then-Jets personnel executive Ron Wolf to watch the first three years of his college film, not just the last one after the vehicle accident that cost Favre a cracked vertebrae and almost three feet of his intestines. “That I would make it to the Hall of Fame so I could acknowledge the fact of how important he was”.
That player was Oakland quarterback Ken Stabler, who was inducted into the Hall posthumously on Saturday. During his 10 seasons with the Raiders, he was a two-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler.
Outside linebacker Kevin Greene, who played 15 seasons with the Rams, Steelers and Panthers, totaled 160 sacks in his career, including 97.5 when he was 30 or older.
Favre also acknowledged Mike Holmgren, commending him for leaving San Francisco to come to Green Bay and “getting stuck with Brett Favre”. Add in his spirit, competitive fire and fun-loving attitude, and he was such a slam dunk in his first year of eligibility that his candidacy wasn’t even discussed by the selection committee in February.
“I think he is the guard of the century”, said his presenter, Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy.
The first overall choice in the 1997 draft, left tackle Orlando Pace kept pass rushers away from quarterback Kurt Warner and helped open holes for running back Marshall Faulk during the St. Louis Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” years that began in 1999.
It’s unbelievable to look back at Pace’s career and truly think about everything he managed to accomplish-from being selected to seven Pro Bowls to blocking for three-straight MVPs (Kurt Warner twice and Marshall Faulk once) from 1999-2001.
In an eight-season stretch from 1998-2005, Pace played every game in seven of those seasons.
Pace, 40, was presented by his son, Justin.
One of his stars with the Colts was Harrison, who holds the National Football League mark for receptions in a season, with 143 in 2002.
Harrison, who made 1,102 catches, third on the career list, thought about how he got started in football in Philadelphia. His receptions, 14,608 yards and 128 touchdowns are all Colts franchise records.
He was Peyton Manning’s prime target for most of Harrison’s career.
“Once Wolf got here and he got Brett and Holmgren and Reggie, we took off”, Harlan said. Favre, who never thought he couldn’t complete a pass, had the National Football League career record in passing yards (71,838), completions (6,300), most 3,000-yard passing seasons (18) and touchdown passes (508) when he retired following the 2010 season after spending his career with the Atlanta Falcons, Packers, Vikings and New York Jets. Eleven of those were in 2007.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen won the McCann Award from the Pro Football Writers of America for long and distinguished contribution to pro football through media coverage.
“We are thrilled to recognize Ariana and all of our outstanding student-athletes here today”. You saw Vikings fans and Jets fans, and I even found a couple of Falcons-era Favre jerseys.
“Deanna says to me on the plane, you know your dad said to me he had hoped or could not wait for the day that you’re inducted into the Hall of Fame so he could introduce you”.
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“Hey, Tim McGraw one night, Brett going into the Hall of Fame the next”, Lou said.
