By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online-Special Contributor
Our Congrats to the Hall of Fame Class of 2011: Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger--who was an Outstanding linebacker in his day ...Shannon Sharpe, Deion Sanders, Ed Sabol, Marshall Faulk, and Les Richter(also a Golden age Great)…as for Charles Haley & Curtis Martin-we can only hope for next year…..Speaking of Jets Players not in the Hall,..how about Joe Klecko getting come consideration??? Or Wr's Cris Carter and Tim Brown??? NY Giants Fans should be please to hear that Bill Parcells, Mike Strahan & Tiki Barber are all potentials next year, and at least one will get in…If Any of them get in we will make the trek to Canton…..
Eli Manning thinks Hakeem Nicks will make "yet another jump" and become one of the best Wr's in the NFL…he says even though several of his 25 int's bounced off WR's hands it still his job"to cut down" on them…Osi also wants Plaxico Burress back….Joining Eli, Brandon Jacobs, and others who have spoken out in Burress' favor…
We have reports of one of our all time favorite players, Giants QB Phil Simms, having a "heated" disagreement with Desmond Howard because of some remarks that Howard made on ESPN’s College Gameday during the season about his son Matt, the Tennessee QB. He made reference to Matt Simms being one of the worst QBs in the SEC during coverage of the Tennessee/LSU game. From Howard’s Twitter account. “At NFL-Xperience and Phil Simms just threatened 2 hit me b/c I said his son was 1 of the worse QBs in the SEC. I told him ‘LET’S GO!’” “I am DEAD serious about the Phil Simms thing. We all thought he was joking, but he kept going and said he wanted 2 take a swing at... Simms Responded through a CBS press release:
"Desmond and I were having a private conversation that became heated," Simms said in a statement released by CBS. "But at no time was there ever a chance of any physical confrontation, or that I felt the police officer assigned to me by the event planners for my appearance needed to separate the two of us."
I have a great deal of respect for both men, but this is simply a case of a Dad speaking up for his son…Any of us in this business are responsible for our comments, and no one is above reproach…At least Phil wasn't acting like Dez's fellow ESPN commentator Craig James when involved in his son Adam's issues with former College Coach MIKE LEACH…
Congrads go out to now former Hartford Colonials OL coach Todd Washington on his Hiring by the Ravens as OL coach…He also had a standout career at Va. Tech. in the 1990's
Lane Kiffin still can't get the "bad taste" of his year at Tennessee out of his head and mouth…The NCAA is investigating him for violations of all sorts...
The TEXAS vs. the Nation Game-Now renamed the "NFLPA college all star game" was played Yesterday with The TEXAS team winning 13-7...Clinton Portis' brother Josh was one of the Qb's featured in the game....
Mike Vick was named the AP's comeback player of the year, Seahawks WR MIke Williams was second in voting….Vick could be franchised, but claims he doesn't mind(probe because he'd still get a better contract then he has now and won't see most of the Money anyway because he's still paying damages from his past court dealings…The Eagles could also earn a greed deal in trading Kevin Kolb, Possibly 2 high draft picks and a player in return...
Pats owner Bob Kraft on The CBA talks:
"People don't want to hear about our squabbling," he said, "and it's criminal if we don't get a deal done.
"I've never seen the health of a business be as bright as this one."
Goodell says-If we don't get a settlement soon "the Cost goes up"
"1 Billion Dollars of revenue could be lost…"
The NFLPA is also trying to get some High profile agents to boycott the Combine and other Draft related activities…..Good Luck with That....
Drew Brees might have been SI's Sportsman of the year for 2010, but his comments regarding retired players before last years SB won't soon be forgotten….
Reports indicate Ravens players were upset with Harbaugh over length of practices leading up to Steeler playoff game...
The Eagles have Promoted Juan Castillo from OL coach to D-coordinator, which might seem strange, but at least one current NFL Head Coach, John Spagnulo of the Rams(the former Eagles LB's coach and Giants D-Coordinator) feels Castillo can make the move...
DeMAcrus Ware and Jay Ratliff glad to have Rob Ryan as the new Cowboys D-coordinator, hopefully the head coach and owner are too….
the U.S. ATF Div. of Homeland Security has the Bomb sniffing dogs from nearly 30 cities working at the SB and related events this week…
Everyone is talking about the Match ups between the two QB's on Sunday evening,..or the Possible Mismatch with Packers DL B.J. Raji vs. the Steelers OL's…but the real match up here is the two teams D-Coordinators,the Packers' Dom Capers(the former Panthers Head Coach) & The Steelers' Hall Of Famer Dick LeBeau…
Finally-Several polls have the Steelers winning the game by a 2-1 margin….
Don't forget FRO is Broadcasting it's Live SB preview show from3-6pm ET @ Public House NYC (140 E 41st. st off Lexington av.)
if you can't make it down in person listen @ www.blogtalkradio.com/Football-Reporters
Showing posts with label NFL Hall Of Fame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL Hall Of Fame. Show all posts
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Saturday, August 02, 2008
NFL Hall Of Fame Day: Art Monk, Fred Dean, Emmitt Thomas, Gary Zimmerman, Darrel Green
NFL Hall Of Fame Days is always a moving event, and 2008 is no exception. Today, Art Monk, Fred Dean, Emmitt Thomas, Gary Zimmerman, Darrel Green are being inducted into Canton. I'm watching it now on NFL Network.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Michael Irvin At Hall of Fame | One Of The Greatest NFL Speeches In History
Please listen to this speech by former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin. It's one of the greatest speeches in NFL history.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Darrell Green, Cris Carter, Tony Boselli, Eric Metcalf of 124 Nominees For Hall Of Fame
Darrell Green, Cris Carter Among 124 Nominees For Hall Of Fame
AP Sports
10/31/2007
CANTON, Ohio (AP) -Cornerback Darrell Green and receivers Cris Carter and Herman Moore were among 124 modern-era players, coaches, and contributors on the preliminary list of nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2008.
Other first-year eligibles are running back Eric Metcalf; offensive tackles Tony Boselli, Lomas Brown and Richmond Webb; and linebackers Levon Kirkland and Hardy Nickerson.
Previously, the senior committee nominated Marshall Goldberg and Emmitt Thomas. Goldberg, a multipurpose back, was a two-way star with the Chicago Cardinals from 1939-1943 and following World War II from 1946-48. Thomas, an all-league cornerback, starred for 13 seasons (1966-1978) for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Voters will choose 25 candidates from that group as semifinalists; that list will be announced late in November. From there, the list will be pared to 15 finalists, who will be considered at the selection committee's meetings during Super Bowl week.
At least four and no more than seven nominees will be elected on the day before the Super Bowl.
To be considered for Hall of Fame election, a player or coach must have been retired at least five years. A contributor - someone who has made outstanding career contributions to pro football in capacities other than playing or coaching - may still be active in his pro football career.
AP Sports
10/31/2007
CANTON, Ohio (AP) -Cornerback Darrell Green and receivers Cris Carter and Herman Moore were among 124 modern-era players, coaches, and contributors on the preliminary list of nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2008.
Other first-year eligibles are running back Eric Metcalf; offensive tackles Tony Boselli, Lomas Brown and Richmond Webb; and linebackers Levon Kirkland and Hardy Nickerson.
Previously, the senior committee nominated Marshall Goldberg and Emmitt Thomas. Goldberg, a multipurpose back, was a two-way star with the Chicago Cardinals from 1939-1943 and following World War II from 1946-48. Thomas, an all-league cornerback, starred for 13 seasons (1966-1978) for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Voters will choose 25 candidates from that group as semifinalists; that list will be announced late in November. From there, the list will be pared to 15 finalists, who will be considered at the selection committee's meetings during Super Bowl week.
At least four and no more than seven nominees will be elected on the day before the Super Bowl.
To be considered for Hall of Fame election, a player or coach must have been retired at least five years. A contributor - someone who has made outstanding career contributions to pro football in capacities other than playing or coaching - may still be active in his pro football career.
Monday, August 06, 2007
NFL Hall Of Fame - Michael Irvin Speech Text Transcript
From NFL Media.com.
MICHAEL IRVIN
JERRY JONES: Will, W‑i‑l‑l, I've never seen anybody with more of it. Competitiveness, whatever it took, the competitiveness for the entire team not just for himself. I think of focus. When it was time to practice, it was complete focus.
To the person that will ever talk about Michael Irvin, it's the first thing they'll say, He's the hardest worker we've ever been around. Strength was his number one thing. I'm talking with physical strength. When I was on the Competition Committee, at my protesting the league made a Michael Irvin rule as to just how much you could use that strength against d-backs.
We had it all on the table there. We spot San Francisco 21 points in five minutes. That team fought back all day long. Michael Irvin statistically had one of his greatest games. It was like a heavyweight prize fight. The battle that Michael was involved in with Deion Sanders on almost every play, boy did he make play after play after play.
It's one of only three games that I've ever teared up after the game was over. It meant that much and more to everybody in the organization. Go with me, if you will, for a high point in his career, to Pasadena, the Rose Bowl. 100,000 people out there. Beautiful mountains in the background. Michael scored two touchdowns in the second quarter. One of them, when he scored, he had his back to the end zone. He wheeled and ran through the end zone with one arm outstretched, and we go up on them. Right then I had the feeling, We're going to be world champions. There Michael Irvin was what the scene was all about.
Mike was going across the middle on a short slant and he didn't get up when he was hit. He didn't get up. That great competitor, the guy who won't take "no" for an answer, the guy with all that will, was laying there compromised.
I got in the ambulance with him. We got his wife Sandy on the cell phone. All of a sudden he started moving. He reached over. I said, Michael, you're moving your hand, you're moving. We got Sandy back and said, Hey, he's moving. He's starting to move. Boy, didn't realize that was it.
Induction day will be like the day you get up when you get an opportunity to be in the Super Bowl. It's a privilege to be there. It's a privilege to be a part of it. But more important than anything, to have the honor to get to be a part of Michael Irvin going into the Hall of Fame, be there, have something to say about him going in there. When I know of all of the people that he's touched and the great things that they can say, for me to get the chance to say those and a few short minutes, it's Super Bowl day for me.
(End of video presentation.)
JERRY JONES: Hey, man, that will fire you up there. What an honor to be here with you, to be right here on this historic ground with these champions, these champions sitting here behind us.
You know, it is unique what can be the makeup of a championship team. A championship team can have a catalyst. They can have a spark, someone that can put a fire in another person's heart.
The Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s were champions. They were in three Super Bowls and won them in four years' time. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you tonight that the heartbeat, the heart and the soul of those championship teams, was Michael Irvin. Michael came to Dallas with a self‑proclaimed nickname, the “Playmaker.”
Now, at first many people didn't understand why this young guy would brand himself with such a bold nickname. But we begin to figure it out real, real soon.
When it was third‑and‑long, opposition coaches knew exactly where Troy Aikman was throwing the ball. The defensive backs knew exactly where Aikman was going with the ball. Everybody in the stadium knew where the ball was going, but they couldn't stop it.
Troy Aikman often said the greatest thing about Michael Irvin is you could throw him the ball when he was covered or you could throw him the ball when it was open, and the results were usually the same almost all the time. It was either a completion and most of the time it was for a first down.
Now, when you've got a quarterback that has that kind of confidence in your receiver, you can have some offense. That's how you earn the name “Playmaker,” and that's how you keep it.
His performance always improved as the level of competition increased. He routinely had his best games against Deion Sanders, Darrell Green, Rod Woodson, Aeneas Williams. And his numbers increased as that long season went along and we got closer to the playoffs. From the regular season to the playoffs, from the playoffs to the Super Bowl, that was Michael Irvin's best days.
At the pinnacle of his career in 1995, he had 11 100‑yard receiving games, a mark that is still an NFL record today. But the Dallas Cowboys' offenses really weren't designed for the receiver to get big stats. They really weren't designed for Troy, the quarterback, to really rack 'em up in statistics.
The teams were designed to win championships, and what that meant was take what the defense gave you. Now, with the backdrop of all of that, the fact that one team could produce the NFL's greatest all‑time rushing leader in Emmitt Smith, the fact that last year the first opportunity that he had a chance to be honored with these men, Troy Aikman came into the NFL Hall of Fame.
And the fact tonight that Michael Irvin is going to go in the Hall of Fame, it just shows you the team concept and shows you the balance that was there. The player that epitomized it more than anyone on the team, the player that taught it, the player embellished it, that was Michael Irvin and his leadership.
You can't get to Canton, Ohio without exceptional talent. But athletic ability alone was only a part of Michael's gifts. His hard work is legendary. In two‑a‑days, the grind of all of it. When you'd be on the field in the morning and in the afternoon, someone would look around and find, Where is Michael? He'd be down on the field with pads on in the hot sun getting some more in.
His passion, his competitiveness were really possibly his greatest gifts he shared them with his teammates on a daily bases. He practiced every day with the determination of a rookie that was hanging by a thread to make the team, and that's the way this great player approached it.
Aikman told me yesterday that Michael would never let the team have a bad practice. If there was a lull, he would create something between the defense and the offense. He'd get some stuff going just so that team could practice and get better for what they had to face Sunday.
Maybe that's the quality that separates the good players from the great players, the Hall of Fame players. Or maybe it's just the natural instinct of a man who had 16 brothers and sisters and knew that nothing in life was going to be given to him.
In the locker room, he was a teammate first, a competitor second, and a superstar third. His leadership style not only transcended the cliques in the locker room, but his leadership style on our team and our organization went from the locker room and the equipment room all the way to the boardroom. It permeated it.
I don't know that we'll see again a professional football player with a combination of his strength and his skills as an athlete on the field and his unbelievable people skills. Smart, resourceful, communication, charm, the kind of charisma and tremendous will with the strength to get the respect of the team. He had his faults. But in a unique way, that only Michael Irvin could pull off.
His fallibility by the people who followed him, by the people who were looking at him, his fallibility gave them strength because they knew, too, how fallible they were, and they wanted to see somebody that could go down and come up stronger and try to get better when they got on their feet. That's what Michael Irvin brought to the Dallas Cowboys and his locker room.
He learned his game from his older brothers in Fort Lauderdale. He had a great high school he played for, St. Thomas High School. He became a star at the University of Miami, drafted by Gil Brandt and Tex Schramm. He was nurtured by coach Tom Landry. He was coached in college and embellished when he got to pro football by one of the greatest coaches, Jimmy Johnson.
He spent his entire career in the loving embrace of the Dallas Cowboys. His journey reaches a destination tonight here in Canton, and it was a longer journey than most, with a lot of bumps in the road. He got knocked down for the last time at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. But tonight he'll get up again and he'll take his place among the immortals of this great game.
Michael Irvin, he's a friend. If you're in my shoes, you feel like he's a son. He's an inspirational and natural born leader. He's a loving father and husband. He's a wonderful brother and son. He's a Dallas Cowboy.
And tonight, forever more, he's a member of the professional football Hall of Fame. It's with pride that I present to you Michael Irvin. C'mon up here.
MICHAEL IRVIN: Thank you. Father, I'd like to thank you for allowing us all to travel here safely, thank you in advance for the same in allowing us to travel home.
Father, thank you for the man that you sent me to help me in Bishop T.D. Jakes, my spiritual father. I ask you now to put your arms around my Hall of Fame classmate Gene Hickerson and his family. Father, hold them tight and love them right. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
Thank you.
I want to send a special love to all the people in Dallas, Texas, special love to all the Dallas Cowboy fans all over the world. Special love goes to my hometown of South Florida and all the Miami Hurricane fans, St. Thomas Aquinas fans.
I want to send love to every fan everywhere because you hear so often that people say, Oh, these are the guys that built the game. No. It's your hunger and your love for the game, your love for what we do that make this game what it is. I thank you for loving the game like we love it.
Jerry, those were kind words. Thank you. You know, when I first met Jerry he had just purchased the Dallas Cowboys. He had a bit of a concerned look on his face. I said to him, I said, We will have fun and we will win Super Bowls. You see, I knew Jerry had put all he had into purchasing the Cowboys. That's the way I see Jerry. He's a man that's willing to give all he has and all he wants to bring the Cowboy family Super Bowls.
Jerry, I appreciate your commitment to family, the Dallas Cowboy family and your own family. He has a beautiful wife, Jean. I tell her this. I just love her to death. Her spirit exudes beauty. Her mannerisms exude class. She's one of a kind. Jean, I do love you.
They have beautiful kids, daughter Charlotte, son Steven and Jerry, Jr. Each have played a role in my life and I thank all of them.
A heartfelt thank you to the selection committee, especially Rick Gosselin and Charean Williams. Charean is the first woman to have a seat on the selection committee. Charean, congratulations to you.
These gentlemen behind me, these men, they inspired me to become the player that I became. As I spent this week with these gentlemen that I've admired growing up, I kept thinking about how gifted they are. Man, they're gifted to run and cut, gifted to throw and catch, gifted to run through blocks and make great tackles.
And then I met their wives and their families and I realized that it's not only about the gift God gave us, but equally important is the help that God gave us. It's the people that God put in place to support us on our journey. So I will try to put the credit in the right place tonight and share with you my help and my journey.
I thank God for the help of my father Walter Irvin, whom I lost at the age of 17. He was my hero and he loved, I'm telling you, he loved the Dallas Cowboys. I woke up this morning smiling knowing that my father had not be here in the flesh but that he is in heaven watching and celebrating with his all‑time favorite coach, Coach Tom Landry.
Also Tex Schamm, Derrick Shepard and Mark Tuinei. Those guys, we think about them here, we feel them here. They will always be with us.
Before my father made his journey to heaven I sat with him. His final words to me were, Promise me you will take care of your mother. She's a good woman. As you've heard, my mother raised 17 children, most of whom are here tonight. There were challenges. But she would never complain. She always walked around the house and said, God has promised me that my latter days will be better than my former days. My mom and my Aunt Fanny, her oldest sister, they are part of my travel squad now.
As we travel, all they want is a nice room and an open tab on room service. When my workday is done I get to come by their room and we tell stories and we laugh and we have fun. We always end the night with them telling me, Baby, this is what God meant when he said, Our latter days will be better than our former days.
I can't tell you how it makes me feel to know that God uses me to deliver His promise. I love you, mom. I love you, Aunt Fanny.
For better or for worse, those are the vows we take before God in marriage. It's easy to live with the for better, but rarely can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandy, my beautiful wife, I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the for better. But I also gave you the for worse, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it.
But through it all I experienced the depth of your love and I thank God for you. I love the mother that you are, the wife that you are, I love the way that you take care of our family, our daughters Myesha and Chelsea, and our sons Michael and Elijah. I thank you from a place that I can't mention, I can't even express, baby, for keeping our family together. I love you so much.
My football family, as Jerry told you, began at St. Thomas Aquinas High School under the wise tutelage of a great coach named George Smith. George Smith dedicated 37 years to that great program. He's a great man. I thank all the people at St. Thomas for believing in a young man like me.
And then I went on to the University of Miami. I think most of y'all know how I feel about the U. Yeah, the U. You better believe it. After that I was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys where I played and worked with some of the best to ever be around this game. For example, Emmitt Smith. Emmitt Smith is the all‑time leading rusher.
The great thing about that, his rookie year he said to me he was going to become the all‑time leading rusher. I doubted him like I think everybody would have. But what an inspiration to be in a room and see a man set a goal so high and then be persistent, be dedicated, and accomplish that which he set out to accomplish. Emmitt, you're an inspiration to so many.
The third part and the third member The Triplets is Troy Aikman. My quarterback, our leader. Troy Aikman led us to three Super Bowls. When I said "led," I mean led, to three Super Bowls. He's the winningest quarterback in the decade of the '90s. If you talk to him and you ask him what's his most memorable game, he will tell you that '94 NFC Championship game that everybody's talking about.
It's a game we were down by 21 and we lost, but we never gave up. That's the mark of a true leader. All he wants is for each player to give all he has all the time. That's Troy Aikman.
That game is one of my most memorable games for all those reasons, but it had a little something extra for me. We were down 21. Troy came to that huddle with those big blue eyes and he looked up and he said, Hey, I'm coming to you no matter what. Whew, let me tell you. As a wide receiver, that's all I ever wanted to hear. Just come to me no matter what. And he did, he did. He came to me no matter what.
But, Troy, you've always come to me no matter what, and I'm not just talking about on the football field. For that, you have a special place in my heart. You always will no matter what. I love you, Troy. I love you deeply.
As The Triplets, we received most of the press, the credit. But we were surrounded with some great guys, great players, talented guys. Guys like Darren Woodson, Dallas Cowboys all‑time leading tackle. My Cowboy counterpart Jay Novacek, what a great tight end he is. Daryl Johnston, the unsung hero, Moose. Larry Allen and Eric Williams are two of the better linemen, if not the best linemen, to ever play this game. The big fella, Nate Newton. Jim Jeffcoat. And one of the best cornerbacks and the finest athlete I've ever been around, that's Deion Sanders, Prime Time.
So, so many more.
You can't accomplish what we've accomplished with just great players. You also need great coaches. And we had that. We had guys like Norv Turner, Dave Wannstedt, Dave Campo. My position coach, coach Hubbard Alexander, who is my heart. Coach, you took me as a young man out of high school, and I know I gave you a lot of mess through the years. Thank you for being there, Coach. And our head coach, he had always be my head coach, that's Jimmy Johnson.
We worked hard. We had the best, and I'm telling you the very best, and I'm willing to take an argument with anybody on this, strength and conditioning coach in the world. His name is Mike Warsick. He has six Super Bowl rings. Six, people. Twice he has won three Super Bowls in four years, once with us and now with the New England Patriots. So if anybody wants to take an argument, I am a debater. I am here and ready.
Mike Warsick, you are, man, the very best. You put me back together from that knee injury. As we always tell each other when we say good‑bye, MissPaw (phonetic), which means may God hold you till we see each other again.
I also walked on campus at the University of Miami the same day with our PR director, Rich Dalrymple. I know some of you are saying it's fitting that you are tight with the PR director, Michael. But Rich has been a great friend. When I walk in his office now Rich has a picture of us. He has pictures of us at the University of Miami with this nice beautiful black hair, and then he has pictures of us now when he's all gray.
He says to me all the time, You see these gray hairs? I say, Yeah. He says, You gave them to me. I tell him, I say, Well, you see those four championship rings you have? I gave them to you, too.
I have experienced all this game has to offer on the football field, the losing, going 3‑13, even 1‑15. In my second season the career‑threatening knee injury, thinking I would never play this game that I love again. And even in 1999, the career‑ending neck injury. That which football players fear the most.
But I've also had some beautiful victories. We won three Super Bowls in four years. I can't tell you what that feels like. And we did it with guys that we loved to play with and guys that we loved. Folks, I'm telling you, that's the true essence of a football family, and that's exactly what we are ‑ not was ‑ what we are. I love all of those guys that I played with.
Since retiring I have developed a deeper awareness and understanding for this game. First as a fan and then as an analyst. That is why I've learned it's so much more than merely a game. Thanks to ESPN. Thank you, ESPN, for giving me the opportunity to travel to NFL stadiums throughout this country, visiting with fans, and seeing this game from a completely different perspective.
The movie, Remember the Titans, is my favorite movie, staring Denzel Washington. I love the way in this movie the game of football brings those boys together, it unites those boys on that football field. It unites a whole town, black, white, old, young, rich and poor. It happens every year around this time in NFL locker rooms and NFL stadiums. So don't tell me it's just a game.
My favorite day was Monday, September the 25th, 2006. New Orleans, Louisiana, site of the Superdome. I watched our people who had suffered so grievously through Hurricane Katrina fill a stadium hours before a game and stay hours after the game. I witnessed those fans as they looked for each other, hugged one another and just be thankful to be in that stadium.
You see the game flexed its greatest muscle that day: the ability to heal. I experienced a football game that contributed to the healing of a city. So don't tell me it's just a game.
You know the Bible speaks of a healing place. It's called a threshing floor. The threshing floor is where you take your greatest fear and you pray for help from your great God. I want to share something with you today. I have two sons. Michael, he's 10, and Elijah, he's 8. Michael and Elijah, could you guys stand up for me. That's my heart right there. That's my heart. When I am on that threshing floor, I pray. I say, God, I have my struggles and I made some bad decisions, but whatever you do, whatever you do, don't let me mess this up.
I say, Please, help me raise them for some young lady so that they can be a better husband than I. Help me raise them for their kids so that they could be a better father than I. And I tell you guys to always do the right thing so you can be a better role model than dad. I sat right here where you are last year and I watched the Class of 2006: Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Harry Carson, Rayfield Wright, John Madden, and the late great Reggie White represented by his wife Sara White. And I said, Wow, that's what a Hall of Famer is.
Certainly I am not that. I doubted I would ever have the chance to stand before you today. So when I returned home, I spoke with Michael and Elijah . I said, That's how you do it, son. You do it like they did it. Michael asked, he said, Dad, do you ever think we will be there? And I didn't know how to answer that. And it returned me to that threshing floor. This time I was voiceless, but my heart cried out. God, why must I go through so many peaks and valleys?
I wanted to stand in front of my boys and say, Do it like your dad, like any proud dad would want to. Why must I go through so much?
At that moment a voice came over me and said, Look up, get up, and don't ever give up. You tell everyone or anyone that has ever doubted, thought they did not measure up or wanted to quit, you tell them to look up, get up and don't ever give up.
Thank you and may God bless you.
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