Raiders coaching legend Flores will take Hall of Fame stage
It takes a lot to keep a good coach down, especially when it’s Raiders great Tom Flores and he’s days away from his long-awaited induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Flores this week flew to Canton, Ohio, even after recent back surgery in which surgeons fused three bones.
Doctors also removed a cyst that “was entangling itself in one of the vertebrae causing extreme pain,” Flores said.
Oh, by the way, he’s 84.
But this is the induction weekend, something he’s been waiting for not only since February, when he received the votes needed to join the football Hall’s Class of 2021, but also during all those years he was nominated only to not survive all the cuts.
“No way I’m missing that,” said the Fresno-born Flores, whose family settled in Sanger and from there launched his march to high school, college and pro football stardom. “I’ll have one of my sons with me at all times. I’ll be there.”
Festivities got underway Thursday with the Hall of Fame game between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
Flores was among those introduced during a pregame salute to the inductees, but he otherwise planned to take it easy during preinduction activities ahead of the big day Sunday.
“I told them I don’t have the same stamina and I’m still recovering from surgery that took a lot out of me,” he said. “I had a year of hell prior to the surgery. I will walk with the cane or walker or if I need a wheelchair to get on stage, I’ll do that.
“I’ll be on the stage with the
gold jacket and I'll be up there and make my acceptance speech and the rest of the time I'm going to be drinking a Coors Light.”
It was Coors Light, after all, that launched a national campaign to get Flores into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, filming commercials that spotlighted his career and built momentum for his final push into Canton.
The 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class will be presented Sunday. The Covid-delayed Class of 2020 ceremony will go first on Saturday.
Class of 2021 inductees also include former Raiders star Charles Woodson, Peyton Manning, Alan Faneca, Calvin Johnson, Bill Nunn, Drew Pearson and John Lynch.
Flores last week received the traditional gold jacket awarded to inductees. He also was measured for his Hall of Fame ring and posed for his bronze bust. Speech preparations Flores, in working on his speech, said he will try to mention everyone that influenced his journey to pro football's summit.
He was aided by a speechwriter from the Hall.
“I put together my thoughts and she wrote a speech for me with those thoughts and we talked and she wrote another one,” he said. “Now we got the last one down to the time limit and if you add any kind of embellishment to it you're adding paragraphs and adding a minute or so and you can't do that.
“You can't say everything you want to say in six minutes or eight minutes. You can't. It's impossible, but I gotta do it and I'll do it.”
Flores said he plans to touch on his upbringing in the central San Joaquin Valley, where his father moved at the age of 12.
He said he will always be thankful for his Valley roots.
“The farm that we lived on when I was a kid,” he said. “I remember that.”
From assistant to the man in charge
Flores, when he began as an assistant following his playing days, wasn't quite ready to dream of the two Super Bowls wins he eventually would achieve as an NFL head coach.
Initially, he just hoped to survive. Even the body blows he absorbed as a college and AFL quarterback didn't fully prepare him for the rigors of his eventual Hall of Fame career.
He got his first taste when he was the Buffalo Bills' quarterbacks coach in 1971. He joined the Raiders in 1972, working as the receivers coach until 1978.
It didn't take long to realize it was a lot of work.
“I had to think hard about that after my first year with the Raiders,” Flores said. “It was a lot of work and I was away from home a lot. I was saying, `Will I ever elevate from this position?' I wasn't happy with the way things are going and I decided, `Well if I want to stay in this business I want to do better than being an assistant coach.'”
Al Davis named Flores the head coach in 1979 and he led his teams to Super Bowl wins after the 1980 and 1983 seasons.
Flores' 97 victories as an NFL head coach include an 83-53 run with the Raiders from 1979 to 1987.
Among those expected to be in Canton to support Flores are former quarterback Jim Plunkett and other players he coached.
Flores said he will always be thankful to the Raiders for giving him a shot.
“Fifty-five years working for the Raiders,” he said. “I always said I'll take one more chance. That was 61 years ago. Holy Christ. I guess it worked out. They've been a lifetime of enjoyment. A professional lifetime of enjoyment and experiences and success that I wouldn't have otherwise.”
What time is Pro Football Hall of Fame induction, how to watch
The Class of 2021 will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame inside Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021.
Television coverage is provided by ESPN and the NFL Network beginning at 4 p.m. PDT.