2010 Pro Football Hall Of Fame Inductions: Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice Highlight A Class Of Legends

Emmitt Smith's speech tonight was a coronation, the type of sweeping, weeping, grinning and winning performance that exemplifies Hall of Fame ceremonies at Canton.  

Smith was driven to tears addressing Darryl Johnston, acknowledging the level of sacrifice Johnston went through as Smith's fullback. While it wasn't explicitly mentioned, it was clear that Smith was referring to, among other things, the neck injury that ended Johnston's career.

Smith also broke into tears as he addressed his family as a proud father and husband, and relating a story that hadn't been widely told about his father. As Smith explained, his father was also an accomplished running back in high school, but had never gotten the chance to go to college after his mother fell ill. Smith's career, then, was a chance for him to live out both his own dreams and his father's. It was an incredibly touching moment that few in attendance could have seen coming.

All in all, Smith's speech was the perfect finish to a remarkable day of Hall of Fame inductions. He had the crowd cheering on several occasions, offered the perfect level of encouragement to anybody listening, young or old, and honored everybody that helped him along the way. And for as much grief as Smith has received recently for his skills as a commentator, it must be said: Emmitt killed his speech tonight. That he did it without even bringing notes to the podium was probably the most pleasant surprise of the evening.

Floyd Little delivered a thundering sermon for his Hall of Fame induction speech tonight. Little eschewed talking about football for the vast majority of his speech, opting instead to honor everything about his life that came off the field. He mentioned his family members by name, whether there with him at Canton or departed.

He also sent clear, religion-drenched messages to students, athletes, and young men to improve themselves in the classroom and with their family.

In essence, Little's speech was a Football Hall of Fame induction speech that didn't actually have anything to do with football. It was about life.

A few quick notes from Jerry Rice's Hall of Fame speech:

- Rice made special note of his departed father, who was not an affectionate man. Rice got his start catching things by grabbing bricks thrown from his father during construction work. This should not be construed as an endorsement of throwing bricks at one's sons.

- Rice admitted a special level of insecurity "The reason I never got caught from behind is because I was running scared." And it's not really just a figure of speech; it's clearly something Rice believes at heart, as evidenced by his statement shortly thereafter: "I was always in search of that perfect game... and I never got it."

- Rice's speech was also a record-setter, beating Emmitt Smith's by mere minutes to be the first to hail Dancing With The Stars. 

Russ Grimm's speech was short and direct, befitting Grimm's blue-collar style as a player and coach. He thanked his family, his hometown, his teams and his fans. But there were two especially great moments in Grimm's speech that are worth noting.

First, Grimm began his football career as a linebacker and was adamantly opposed to moving to the line; as Grimm recalled saying, "I'll never play with my hand on the ground." Fortunately, Grimm received some sage advice from offensive line coach Joe Moore: "There's no greater feeling than moving a man from Point A to Point B, against his will."

Also, Grimm--ever the Hog--announced during his speech that he was embroidering the names of his fellow Hogs on the inside of his Hall of Fame jacket as a constant reminder of the guys who helped him achieve his now-immortalized success. It was a classy gesture from a consummate Hall of Famer.

Here are notes from Dick LeBeau's induction speech on Saturday evening.

- He said that on the night he was voted in, he didn't want to answer the phone because he was afraid of missing a call from the Hall of Fame. "I can't talk," he said. "I'm waiting for the Hall of Fame to call." Dick LeBeau does not have call waiting!

- He mentioned his visit to the White House. Obama held up a 44 Steelers jersey, since he was the 44th President and the Steelers won the 44th Super Bowl. He used this to segue into, uh, this:

"I'm going to do something a little sneaky here. You got 4 and 4. Add them and you got 8. Subtract 2 and you got 6. That's how many Super Bowls the Steelers have won."

Fun with numbers!

- Cackling aside, it was nice to see key Steelers there, such as Mike Tomlin, Troy Polamalu, and Hines Ward. It was also fitting that, despite his induction as a player, he spent more time talking about his 38-year coaching career. This man deserves to be a Hall of Famer.

Some quick notes from the first half-hour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement ceremony, as seen on NFL Network:

- Emmitt Smith isn't known for his public speaking ability. And yet, Rich Eisen remarked that Smith isn't going to use any notes for his speech. This could either be really bad or really great.

- A few minutes of the broadcast were dedicated to NFL personalities who passed away since the last ceremony, and I was struck by how many of the photos used were from the last fifteen or twenty years. There were perhaps twenty names and photos displayed, and it seemed like nearly half of them were from players who were in uniforms not long ago. It's a terribly sad thing.

- They didn't play background music for any of the names announced saved for John Randle, Jerry Rice, and Emmitt Smith.

- Given that the two biggest stars of the night are Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith, there are plenty of rival Cowboys and 49ers fans in attendance. So there are boos mixed in with cheers. There were more cheers than boos for commissioner Roger Goodell.

As offensive lines go, few are as iconic as the Washington Redskins' "Hogs" of the '80s and early '90s. And few offensive linemen are as emblematic of their lines as Hall of Fame inductee Russ Grimm was of his Hawgs.

Grimm was a product of the loaded Pitt Panthers of the Johnny Majors era, playing alongside the likes of Heisman finalist Hugh Green, Outland winner (and ESPN personality) Mark May, and Pro Football Hall of Famers Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, and fellow 2010 inductee Rickey Jackson. Grimm would be the last selected in the draft among those players, though, going in the third round to the Washington Redskins in the spring of 1981.

Grimm quickly worked his way into a starting role with the Redskins, starting 13 games during his rookie season of 1981. He wouldn't relinquish his spot in the line until 1991, and by the end of that season, the Redskins had won their third Super Bowl in the last decade. At that point, though, the decade of wear and tear had taken its toll, and Grimm retired shortly thereafter.

The 10 years Grimm spent starting, however, were a running game junkie's dream come true. With fellow Hogs Joe Jacoby, Jeff Bostic, George Starke, and Mark May, Grimm helped blast holes open for bruising rushers like John Riggins and George Rogers. The Hogs' nasty play in the trenches earned legions of lifelong fans, and to this day, Redskins games are still populated by grown men in old lady clothes and pig snouts, calling themselves the Hogettes.

Grimm has been coaching in the NFL since retirement, mentoring offensive linemen in Washington, Pittsburgh, and currently Arizona. Despite being rumored for top jobs in Chicago and Pittsburgh, Grimm is still waiting for his first head coaching gig.

For more on Russ Grimm and his fellow Hogs, check out our Redskins blog, the appropriately named Hogs Haven.

Not many Javelinas from Texas A&M-Kingsville make it to the NFL. But John Randle did. And he proved that those that do—Randle, Gene Upshaw, Darrell Green—tend to do quite well at the next level.

Randle went undrafted in 1990, thought to be too small, at 6'2" and 247 pounds, to play defensive tackle effectively. But in joining the Vikings, who had a slew of smallish defensive linemen, Randle found a team that believed in his unique skills. He would use those skills to revolutionize the defensive tackle position.

Randle's first NFL sack was the only one of his rookie season, as he took down Randall Cunningham in a Monday night game. He would go on to harass quarterbacks, both statuesque and mobile, for the rest of the decade, tallying double digits in sacks for eight straight years, from 1992 to 1999. Randle became a nemesis of Brett Favre, and the Packers quarterback called Randle the toughest defensive player he ever faced.

Playing off this rivalry, Nike made a commercial in which Randle made a Favre jersey, put it on a chicken, and chased the chicken around. (PETA, being PETA, complained.)

Randle's production diminished when he joined the Seahawks in 2001, but he retired after the 2004 season with 137.5 sacks, the fifth-most in NFL history. And his legend as a gregarious terror who was fond of elaborate face paint may make him one of the better-known defenders of his era, and his bona fides definitely bolster the case that the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2010 is the best ever.

Jerry Rice is the greatest receiver the NFL has ever seen, and few will take issue with this statement. He coupled physical ability and intelligence with an exceptional work ethic. The result is a Hall of Fame case that is as open-and-shut as it could possibly be.

The man holds so many NFL records that they necessitate their own lengthy Wikipedia article. Among the most notable:

• All-purpose touchdowns (208; the closest to this mark is 175, held by fellow Hall inductee Emmitt Smith)
• Yards from scrimmage (23,540; again, the closest is Smith's 21,579)
  
• Receptions (1,549; closest is Marvin Harrison's 1,102)
• Receiving touchdowns (197; closest is Randy Moss' 148)

Rice broke scores of records and absolutely shattered many of them. To be sure, he owes much of this to his partnerships with Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young, but he was at least as responsible for their numbers as they were for his. With the San Francisco 49ers, Rice won three Super Bowls, and was named the MVP of Super Bowl XXIII after racking up 215 receiving yards against the Cincinnati Bengals.

One of Rice's most impressive performances came during Super Bowl XXIX, in which he recorded 149 receiving yards for the 49ers despite playing with a separated shoulder for most of the game.

Rice ensured that his career after the 49ers wasn't simply an afterthought. As a 39-year-old, he signed with the Oakland Raiders in 2001, joining future Hall of Famer Tim Brown, and immediately racked up 1,139 receiving yards. The following year, he helped quarterback Rich Gannon lead the Raiders to Super Bowl XXXVII, a full 14 years after his first Super Bowl appearance. Though the Raiders fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rice scored his eighth Super Bowl touchdown, which still stands today as one of his many Super Bowl records.

Lest we get too centered on his resume, though, let's remember how he achieved all his numbers and accolades to begin with.

He wasn't the fastest wide receiver who ever played, but he may have been the most disciplined route-runner. He knew how to follow his routes, but his on-field relationships with his quarterbacks allowed him, when necessary, to improvise effectively. He played with great quarterbacks, and he squeezed every drop out of this advantage.

Jerry Rice is the best wide receiver in NFL history, and if we were to draw up a list of best players, period, Rice would merit consideration.

He's also a pretty good dancer.

For further reading, be sure to check out our 49ers blog, Niners Nation, and our Raiders blog, Silver and Black Pride.

The knocks on Emmitt Smith were that his frame wouldn't allow him to take the punishment of a long NFL career and that his lack of speed would limit him against fast NFL defense. It is safe to say that criticism looks a little silly now.

Smith will be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame tonight as the NFL's all-time leading rusher, having earned those 18,355 yards on an NFL-record 4,409 carries, almost 600 more than the next player on that list, Walter Payton. It's a record he earned with toughness and resilience: He had just one carry of over 70 yards in his career and averaged more than five yards per carry just once, in 1993, but had 11 straight seasons of over 1,000 yards from 1991 to 2001. (For comparison, both Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson have seasons with more than five yards per attempt.)

His legacy as the ultimate workhorse back is a product of his dependability. From his rookie season in 1990 to his last season in Dallas in 2002, Smith played in 201 of the Cowboys' 208 regular season games, never gaining fewer than 937 yards on the ground in a season. Even in his twilight in Arizona, Smith produced: Though he started just five games in 2003 due to injury, he turned in a workmanlike 937 rushing yards—the same number he gained as a rookie—for the Cardinals in 2004.

But Smith also has one of the more impressive (or insane) moments of toughness in NFL history on his resume.

After separating a shoulder against the Giants in the first half of the final game of the 1993 regular season, Smith missed just two plays, ultimately rushing for 168 yards and gaining another 61 as a receiver. The 42 touches he got on that cold day in the Meadowlands would be a career high.

Smith was also the centerpiece of the Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the early 1990s. He won three Super Bowls with the team, and was named MVP of Super Bowl XXVIII, rushing for 132 yards and two touchdowns. That capped a magnificent 1993 for Smith: He led the league in rushing and was named both NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP, becoming the first running back to accrue all three honors in a single year.

Smith's post-football career has been less uniformly stellar. Though he won his season of Dancing With The Stars and earned a bit of non-football fame for it, his misadventures as an announcer are well-documented. And anecdotes like once giving teammates copies of his autobiography as a Christmas present don't help. But many will also remember Smith as the person who has been a tremendous friend to Darryl Perry, his lead blocker in college at the University of Florida, as Perry, once pronounced dead, makes his way back to health.

Those knocks on Emmitt Smith were more or less right: He never did get faster, or bigger, or stronger. But he was as tough as football players came, with a penchant for breaking tackles and churning out yards, and his resilience and durability made his career one of the most decorated in NFL history.

Our Cowboys blog, Blogging the Boys, has more on what Smith did in Big D.

Could this be the best class in the history of the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

It's tempting to look at Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith, the game's leading all-time receiver and rusher, respectively, and say that it's true without a doubt. But it's the amount of statistical freight Rice, Smith and their classmates carry that really awes.

Between Rice (208 touchdowns), Smith (175), Broncos great Floyd Little (54), Dick LeBeau (four defensive scores), and John Randle (one fumble return) the class of 2010 scored 442 touchdowns. That's an enormous number, and it might go unchallenged, though the three closest players on the career touchdown list to Rice and Smith—LaDainian Tomlinson, Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens—have 449 touchdowns between them, and could all retire in the same year and end up in the same class.

A hypothetical future class that could rival this one likely won't have four players at separate positions as accomplished as Rice, Smith, Russ Grimm and Randle, though. Grimm played in four Super Bowls, winning three, while anchoring the "Hogs" that opened so many holes for Redskins running backs in the 1980s. Randle is perhaps the greatest defensive tackle in NFL history; his 137.5 career sacks leads all tackles. Combined, the six members of the class—Rice, Smith, LeBeau, Randle, Little, and Rickey Jackson—have 12 Super Bowl rings, and ten as players. (LeBeau's two have come as a coach.) An average of two rings per inductee is going to be hard to top.

So is the class' two Dancing With The Stars titles, but it's doubtful that either Rice or Smith will be touting that in their speeches.

The only class that seems clearly superior to 2010's is the seventeen-member charter class of 1963, which boasts Sammy Baugh, Red Grange, George Halas, and Don Hutson among its members. Talented duos crop up every so often in Hall classes, as with Dan Marino and Steve Young in 2005, and Barry Sanders and John Elway in 2004, and eye-popping trios exist, like 1985's threesome of Joe Namath, O.J. Simpson, and Roger Staubach and the coach-heavy 1993 class that included Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, and Walter Payton.

At the very least, the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2010 is in the argument about the best Hall class of all time. And in Rice and Smith, the two most productive players of all time, the twosome at the top will definitely surpass every other class' comparable duo statistically.