Hall class has variety of stars
CANTON, Ohio — From bone-rattling tacklers Steve Atwater, Cliff Harris and Troy Polamalu to hard-charging runner Edgerrin James to the pass-catching brilliance of Isaac Bruce and Harold Carmichael, the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2020 had something for everyone.
Add in blocking dynamos Jim Covert and Steve Hutchinson, Steel Curtain stalwart safety Donnie Shell and such as leaders as former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and coaches Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson.
They all entered football immortality Saturday night, a year late due to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet just as rewarding.
“If you told me after I graduated from the University of Michigan that I’d be excited standing in Ohio in the middle of August,” Hutchinson joked, “… to me, there’s no place better than Canton, Ohio.”
Certainly all 12 men enshrined on this night felt that way.
“I am humbled and honored to wear this gold jacket,” Atwater said before looking around at the other Hall of Famers on the stage. “What a group we have up here.”
Hutchinson was a five-time All-Pro and member of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team. Along with strong work as a pass protector, he opened holes for rushers who averaged just less than 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns a season. He finished his career with the Tennessee Titans.
Polamalu had a 12-season career filled with spectacular performances, leadership and winning with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 16th overall draft pick in 2003 from Southern California, he played in three Super Bowls, winning two, and made the NFL’s 2000s Team of the Decade.
“I love football. It was my entire life as long as I can remember,” said Polamalu, who missed festivities earlier in the week after testing positive for COVID-19 before being medically cleared to attend Saturday. The crowd of 18,383 cheered long and loud for him, delaying his speech.
He then talked about the “willingness to push beyond what the brain says is possible for the body. Football challenged me mentally, physically and spiritually. I had to succeed to quench this desire.”
Atwater, who won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos, might have been the most physical defensive back of his era, just as Shell and the Dallas Cowboys’ Harris might have been in theirs.
Shell was a linebacker at South Carolina State who went undrafted, was shifted to safety in Pittsburgh and became a tackling machine. With veterans on strike in his rookie year of 1974, Shell made such an impression that coach Chuck Noll inserted him as a starting safety. He spent 14 seasons as a fixture for the Steelers.
With hundreds of Terrible Towels waving, Shell recognized Steeler Nation and then said of being an undrafted free agent from South Carolina State, “When facts get in the way of your goal, you must go against the grain to achieve your goal.” It was a big night for Pittsburgh: Shell, Polamalu and Cowher were enshrined as Steelers, and Covert played college football at Pitt, where he blocked for Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino.
“What a weekend for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Cowher said. “It is unbelievable to me to go in the Hall of Fame with two guys you drafted: Troy Polamalu and Alan Faneca. Also with Donnie Shell and the late, great Bill Nunn.”
Faneca and Nunn are among the class of 2021 members set for induction Sunday night, a group that also includes Tom Flores, Calvin Johnson, Peyton Manning, Drew Pearson and Charles Woodson.
Tagliabue often was passed over for the hall, but his resumé as a commissioner is impressive. He was faced with such obstacles as the outbreak of the Gulf War to 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina during his stewardship from 1989 to 2006. His skills at overcoming those tests, keeping labor peace, guiding the NFL through expansion, significantly increasing revenues and helping pass the Rooney Rule led to him being part of the special centennial class delayed by a year in being inducted.
“This is like a dream come true,” Tagliabue said. “The centennial class spans pro football history.”