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Smith, Rice lead 7 new football Hall of Famers
By Barry Wilner
February 6, 2010
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — All-time greats Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith led a class of seven into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.
The NFL’s career receiving and rushing leaders were joined in the Hall by John Randle, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Floyd Little and Dick LeBeau. Little and LeBeau were elected as senior committee nominees.
“I am just honored … to stand up there with greatness,” Rice added before breaking down in tears.
Rice and Smith both made it in their first year of eligibility. They were elected a day before the Super Bowl, a game they each won three times.
“This is almost perfect,” Smith said. “I don’t think even Steven Spielberg could have written a script this nice.”
They will be inducted into the Canton, Ohio, shrine on Aug. 7.
Nobody could stop Rice, the league’s top pass catcher and all-time touchdowns leader, when he played for San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle. Rice made 1,549 catches for 22,895 yards, had 14 1,000-yard seasons and scored 208 touchdowns.
Nor could they handle Smith, who rushed for 18,355 yards and 164 touchdowns for Dallas and Arizona. Like Rice, he won an MVP award in the NFL’s championship game.
And no one could deny them immediate entry into the Hall. A nominee needs 80 percent approval from the 44 media members who vote and they were slam-dunks.
“We were rewarded on this day and the both of us get the chance to do what we want to do,” Smith said.
“It’s just like playing in that big game, this is something you think about, and it is happening. I never thought I would go in …. with this guy here,” Rice added about Smith.
Steve Young, one of two Hall of Fame quarterbacks who threw to Rice, got the first hug from the new Canton member, then said: “They made yards after the catch a stat because of Jerry Rice.”
Two other all-time top receivers, Cris Carter and Tim Brown, were not elected. Carter, in his third year of eligibility, stands third in career receptions with 1,101, while Brown, in his first year on the ballot, made 1,094.
Jackson, a do-everything linebacker with a great burst off the line, finished his 15- season career for New Orleans and San Francisco with 128 sacks. A six-time Pro Bowler, Jackson sparked the first turnaround by the Saints from Aints to contender, in the late 1980s. He helped the Saints to their first division title and playoff berth.
Now, a day before the Saints appear in their first Super Bowl against the Indianapolis Colts, Jackson is Canton-bound.
Jackson, however, was introduced as Randy instead of Rickey - a bad omen for the Saints?
Randle was that rare defensive tackle who was a premier pass rusher. An undrafted free agent out of Texas A&I, Randle had 137 1/2 sacks for Minnesota and Seattle, tied for sixth overall, and led the league with 15 1/2 in 1997. He played in seven Pro Bowls.
Grimm, a member of the Washington Redskins’ famed Hogs offensive line, won three Super Bowls. A guard, he made four Pro Bowls and was selected to the all-decade team of the 1980s.
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Time to play: Who Dats and Hoosiers in Super Bowl
By Harry Wilner
February 6, 2010
MIAMI, FL — Hoosiers and Who Dats.
And, oh yes, the two best teams in the NFL also happen to be on hand for Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Peyton Manning and his AFC champion Indianapolis Colts are 5-point favorites to spoil the ending of the New Orleans football renaissance for Drew Brees and the Saints. The odd twist to this story is that the boy who grew up in the Big Easy rooting for his dad as he quarterbacked the awful Saints may end up breaking its heart.
“You hear the term Hoosier Hospitality, and I really didn’t know what that meant, coming from New Orleans, where you hear Southern Hospitality,” says Manning, the league’s only four-time MVP who guided the Colts to the NFL title three years ago, in the same stadium. “I really feel it is kind of the same thing. It is good people.
“What has been exciting for me since I have lived there, it’s always been a sports town, but it’s really turned into a football town. That is the kind of place you want to play football.”
New Orleans always has been a football town, even when the Saints were the Aints—back in the days Archie Manning led the team and fans wore paper bags on their heads. But that four-decade love affair morphed into something soulful when the Saints inspired a city in ruin in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“It’s important for not only the people in New Orleans, but I think the people around the country because you do understand how much it means to that community and what they’ve been through,” Brees says. “Our success as a team over the last four years, but especially this year, has been tremendous just in regards to giving so many of the members of that community hope and lifting their spirits.
“There is still a lot of work to be done there in regards to the rebuilding and the recovery post-Katrina. There are still a lot of people in some pretty dire straits. For us to be able to have the success we’re having, it just does so much for that community as far as bringing everyone together. There’s a bond that we have with our fans—between our organization and our fans—that’s truly special.”
The Saints (15-3) led the league in scoring with 510 points. If Colts All-Pro defensive end Dwight Freeney and his 13 1/2 sacks can’t go on his damaged right ankle, Brees, Reggie Bush, Marques Colston and company might light up the Miami night with touchdowns.
So could the Colts (16-2) with their deep receiving corps and the incomparable Manning. Surpassing the 75 points in the 1995 Super Bowl (San Francisco 49, San Diego 26) is not out of the question. Doing it by halftime isn’t totally absurd.
When the Colts won their only championship representing Indy, Tony Dungy was the coach. Now it’s his hand-chosen successor, Jim Caldwell, and only two rookie coaches have ever won the Super Bowl. One of them, Don McCafferty, did it for the Baltimore Colts in 1971, the first title game after the AFL-NFL merger.
Dungy’s championship came in a historic matchup with Lovie Smith, the first two black head coaches in a Super Bowl. Caldwell’s presence as the fourth black man to guide his team to the big game has been a virtual non-issue.
“I think because of the fact that it’s becoming less of a story shows you that obviously there is some progress being made,” Caldwell says. “But I really do believe there are still a lot of things I think in terms of different thresholds and milestones to be crossed in that particular area.”
The Saints and Colts approached the unbeaten threshold in December. New Orleans was 13-0, fell at home to Dallas, then rested many regulars in losing the last two games. Indianapolis was 14-0 and perhaps headed for a 15th victory when Manning and other starters were removed in the third quarter against the Jets. New York rallied to win, and the backups lost at Buffalo in the season finale.
Didn’t matter much, did it? They both got here, albeit in different manners. The Colts handled the Ravens and Jets pretty easily. The Saints, following a romp past Arizona, needed several mistakes by Minnesota—including Brett Favre throwing an interception in the final seconds—before finally erasing that Super Bowl void in an overtime victory.
So will it be Mardi Gras in Miami or Peyton’s place?
“I feel like both teams have gotten to this point because of the success of the teams,” Manning says. “Certainly if you look at our regular season and playoff schedule it has been a team season. Different guys have stepped up along the way, making critical plays at critical times.
“That is how I feel this game is going to turn out. It will be somebody stepping up along the way, in a critical situation, making a play and you never know just who it might be.”
Could be a Who Dat. Or a Hoosier.
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