An emotional John Elway came through one more time Sunday for a Denver-dominated record crowd of 21,900 who made the trip to see the first Bronco inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Elway was joined by Barry Sanders, Carl Eller and Bob Brown–all introduced by family members in a first for this ceremony. Jessica Elway became the first daughter to present a father. William Sanders called son Barry “the third-best running back who ever lived.” Regis Eller and Bob Brown Jr., both too young to remember when their dads came into the league 40 years ago, talked about them as fathers more than football players.
Elway stole center stage, as quarterbacks often do, managing even to win over Ohioans in the crowd who haven’t forgotten or forgiven the 98-yard “Drive” that kept the Cleveland Browns from the 1986 Super Bowl, the most famous of his record 47 fourth-quarter comebacks.
It was a difficult weekend for Elway, who had planned to be presented by his father, Jack, his “mentor and inspiration.” The former coach and Broncos scout died three years ago of a heart attack. Two years ago, Elway’s twin sister, Jana, died of cancer.
Elway also has been divorced but had his mother and three other children besides Jessica in attendance.
“My dad didn’t so much teach me how to play football but why to play it,” Elway said. “He taught me to compete, to never give up, to play every down like it was my last, to appreciate the game, to respect it.”
Elway won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1998 and ’99 after losing three in ’86, ’87 and ’89.
He called Denver “the greatest football town in America” and Pat Bowlen the greatest owner.
“Thanks for not losing confidence in me when as a rookie and I lined up behind the left guard,” Elway said.
Jessica Elway, who will play basketball at her dad’s alma mater, Stanford, said: “People ask me what’s the coolest part of being John Elway’s daughter. It’s that we were too young to remember the first three Super Bowls.”
Elway thanked current Broncos coach Mike Shanahan for convincing him he wasn’t “running on empty.” He thanked former Broncos coach Dan Reeves, who was in the crowd after Elway patched up a strained relationship. He thanked another former coach, Wade Phillips, for calling him “the Lou Gehrig of quarterbacks.”
The usually quiet Sanders remained true to his unpredictable running style by giving the longest speech of the day, 19 minutes, nervously laughing throughout.
“I was nervous, but I was excited,” the Detroit Lions great said. “I was having fun.”
Earlier he explained he had chosen his dad as presenter because “he wouldn’t have it any other way.” Sanders said he was “scared to death of my dad [when I was] growing up.” When Sanders got married, his dad wasn’t invited to the small ceremony. Then Sanders praised the man notorious for pushing his son throughout his career.
Sanders said as a high school sophomore he refused to run up and field punts in a close game for fear of dropping the ball and costing his team the game.
“He said, `Son, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. In life, you’re going to make mistakes,'” Sanders said. “He’s truly the reason I am here.”
William Sanders always said his own hero, Jim Brown, was the best running back ever. It turns out Walter Payton, who had the rushing record when Sanders unexpectedly retired, isn’t second in William’s mind. William left that runner-up spot to himself, although his last year of football was 1955 in high school. His much humbler son wondered whether he could start on an all-Hall of Fame team.
More Top Picks Best Heated Eye Masks For Dry Eyes
“He’d be the captain and the star,” said his first coach with the Detroit Lions, Wayne Fontes, a high school star himself on the same Canton field where Sunday’s speeches took place. “This is the greatest running back ever to touch a football. Just watch the film.”
Former Bear Gale Sayers, one of Sanders’ idols, said: “I cried when he retired. I still wish he hadn’t quit. He could have put that record out at 19,000 yards. I was probably reminiscing about my own career. God gave me a talent and took it away. God gave him a talent and didn’t take it away.”
Sayers and Sanders both came from Wichita, Kan., but Sayers’ career was cut short at only 68 games. Sanders played 153 and became the third-youngest player inducted into the Hall at 36, following Sayers at 34 and Jim Brown at 35.
“There are a lot of great running backs in the Hall of Fame,” Sayers said. “But Barry is the only one who could make a 5-yard loss look like a 10-yard gain.”
Among fellow Hall of Famers attending the weekend festivities, Elway and Sanders were no more legendary than Eller or Brown, who missed the proliferation of highlight and talk shows that have helped immortalize Elway and Sanders. There were more stories circulating about offensive tackle “Boomer” Brown than anyone else, including the day he reported to his third team, the Oakland Raiders, and awed future Hall of Fame linemen Art Shell, Gene Upshaw and Jim Otto by knocking down a wooden goal post with his feared forearm.
“I sawed it in half the night before,” Brown said, calling the Raiders “the greatest group of mixed nuts assembled anywhere.”
Brown thanked his mother and father “for the great gene pool,” and he gave special thanks to his former Philadelphia Eagles line coach and former Bears coach, Dick Stanfel.
Eller played with Alan Page and Jim Marshall on the Minnesota Vikings’ “Purple People Eater” defensive line and was among the minority of defensive ends not intimidated by Brown. Upshaw said he remembered Eller once “chilling” Brown with a shot that melted the 6-foot-4-inch, 290-pound muscle man before Brown could deliver a blow.
Like Brown, Eller waited so long for Hall election he said he had “kind of given up on it.” Once a drug abuser, Eller was praised by his son for operating a drug-treatment center and for still living in an underprivileged section of Minneapolis, where he tries to give back to the community.
Eller is the all-time leader in sacks for the Vikings but played before sacks were a recognized statistic. Like Page before him, Eller used his induction platform to push for education and urged African-American males to participate more fully in society.
“Barack Obama is a fine young man, but he’s not unique,” Eller said, referring to the Illinois candidate for U.S. Senate. “There are hundreds if not thousands of Barack Obamas out there.”
Sharing the platform with other Hall of Famers and the new inductees was Marie Tillman, wife of former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, who quit football two seasons ago in his prime and was killed in action in Afghanistan in April.
She was joined by four recent recipients of the Purple Heart–Army Sgt. Tom Gillis, Pfc. Alan Lewis and Marine Lance Cpls. Christopher Johnson and Kevin Rumley, all guests of the NFL after being invited by Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones.
“I was visiting Walter Reed Hospital with [ex-Vikings coach] Bud Grant, and when I saw these young kids who had lost limbs for me, the only thing I could think to say was to invite them to the Hall of Fame,” Jones said.