In Black America; The 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. The Profitball Hall of Fame, 2011, Class of in Chinese, consists of Richard Dent. The second name on our list is Marshall Falk. The third name is Chris Hanberger. The fifth name on our list is Ed Sable. The sixth name on this list is Dion Sanders.

And we'll have a Class of 7, the seventh name on this list is Shannon Sharp. I'll repeat that list of the names of individuals and trying to be enshrined in the Profitball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2011, Richard Dent, Marshall Falk, Chris Hanberger, Les Richter, Ed Sable, Dion Sanders, and Shannon Sharp. Congratulations to them all. Steve Perry, President and Executive Director of the Profitball Hall of Fame. On February 5, 2011 in Dallas, Texas, at the Super Bowl 45 Media Center, the Profitball Hall of Fame 2011 Class of the Shrine Knees were announced, with two players enshrining their first year on the ballot. Seven legends of the game were selected to the hall, and they will be formally enshrined doing enshrined in ceremony, held in Canton, Ohio on August 6, 2011. The Class include defensive band Richard Dent, the 27th Chicago Baratube inducted, running

back Marshall Falk, linebacker, Chris Hanberger, and Les Richter, NFL Film founder Ed Sable, cornerback Dion, prime time Sanders, and tiny enshrining Sharp. The Profitball Hall of Fame's honor roll now stands at 267 members after the election of the Class of 2011. I'm John L. Hanson Jr., and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, the 2011 Class of the Profitball Hall of Fame, with Dion Sanders, Marshall Falk and Shannon Sharp, in Black America. I was more nervous about playing against Snoop, and I had reason. But no, I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm not grateful, I am, but this is a lesson to kids, more so than anything. What you feel about me has nothing to do with how I feel about me, or what I feel about me, has nothing to, I can't let your opinion of me influence the way I view myself.

And I've always believed, next to the Bible, my favorite book was the little engine that could. I read that story so many times, I know it by heart, I know it by heart, and a couple trains passed at engine man, I mean, for a second, until, you know, he starts saying to himself, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, and that's what I modeled my career after. I mean, it sounds arrogant, it sounds brash, it sounds cocky, but it was real, because I saw my mama. Dion Sanders. The emotions again ran high at the announcement of the 2011 Class of the Profitball Hall of Fame. The new class joined in a league group of Profitball greats. Children sent the Profitball Hall of Fame was established in 1963. Both Marshall, Falk, and Dion Sanders made the hall in their first year of eligibility after being retired for five seasons.

For other players on a film maker, we joined them on August 6th in Canton, Ohio for the official induction. They are defensive and rich at dent, dent waited nine years for his enshrinement into the hall. He was the MVP for a Super Bowl 20, linebacker of the late less Richter, linebacker Chris Hamburger, tight-in Shannon Sharp, shot was the starting tight-in and Denver's back-to-back Super Bowl titles, Super Bowl 32 and 33, and the Raven Super Bowl 35 victory, and the man who changed away fans watched football edge Sable. In 1989, Sanders entered the NFL as the first round pick of the Atlanta Falcons, fifth overall. Primetime was selected to eight pro-bos and was first team all pro-nine times. He won two Super Bowls, one with the 49ers and one with the Cowboys. In 1994, he became the first player to have two 90-yard interception returns for touchdowns in the same season.

Also he is the only player to have played in a Super Bowl and World Series. The father is an excerpt of his Hall of Fame selection. I'm excited, I'm elated. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? It's unbelievable. I mean, it's hard to describe the feeling and I'm one who never put emphasis on what someone thought about me, but to be held up in high regards and standing by your peers and different sports writers around the country. I'm honored, man, I really am. You talk about it just last week as we were doing the show, you talked about, you never listened to what everybody said. You always look past them and saw your mother rich, high-smart shit. Yeah. Question, and I shall ask you, do you think your mom's thinking how she... She's in the back. She's on her way. She's on her way. She's at the field with me, all the kids and the family, my 10-year-old's playing right now. I'm getting updates on the game right now.

I'll repeat myself. I saw a young woman pushing the cart in a hospital that I was embarrassed by, truly embarrassed that my mother wasn't a nurse or a doctor and I used to lie to my friends until they saw her getting the hospital being a custodian and they'd leave them or your hospital in Fort Lawrence, Florida. And I remember the age of seven. I told her, one day, I said, mom, you look at him, I'm going to be rich, I'm going to make a lot of money. You never going to have to work another day of your life. So that was my promise. So when many naysayden, I look right past them, when many doubting me, I look right past them. When I was ridiculing Mark and people pointed out what I couldn't do, I look right past them because I saw my mama pushing the cart. And I said, I don't care what you say about me because I will retire my mama for the rest

of her life and I'm here to tell you she ain't works as 89. She's 89. This means the world to her, it means the world to my wife, my son, on the way here. He's like daddy, I was praying, they could not do my daddy, daddy, it was nice. You gave it to him on first, second, third and fourth down. But I'm excited, man, I really am, but you guys, man, you know, you can't pick the class you're going to, just like you can't pick the team you play for in the NFL. But this is because I love you, not on the field, but I love you all. You know, I know you, I love you, I mean you, come on, man, I was sitting up there, what did Rod do? What did Rod do this game? I got to top that, you know, I mean you just, you had that amount of impact and practicing and playing with him is to play make up guys like Jerry Rice and the many teams and playing

against you guys. I'm excited. I really am. No problem. You normally don't get nervous. Never. Were you nervous last night? No. This morning. No, I wasn't. I was more nervous about playing against Snoop and I had reason. No. I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm not grateful, I am, but this is a lesson to kids more so than anything. What you feel about me has nothing to do with how I feel about me or what I feel about me. Has nothing to, I can't let your opinion of me influence the way I view myself and I've always believed next to the Bible, my favorite book was the little engine that could. I read that story so many times, I know it by heart. I know it by heart and a couple of trains passed that engine, man, I mean, for sook it until you know, he started saying to himself, I think I can.

I think I can. I think I can. And that's what I modeled my career after. I mean, it sounds arrogant, it sounds brash, it sounds cocky, but it was real because I saw my mama and saw my mama. I think when all you guys start talking about it and I start sending it on Twitter, I start really, I'm serious. I really start thinking about, man, this is real, then Marsha and I talked a little bit and you know, Michael would mention a word or two and it became a reality, big Nate Newton like last year, when you go out like Nate, come on, man, don't talk like that. We got to have a party, we got to do this, you got to invite all the friends. But I mean, when I got up this morning, I was praying that we had great weather so we could play the youth game. I'm serious. And then I start thinking when I was showering like, man, I got like four games a day with the kids, I'm coaching and that's something else that's going on today. That's pretty special. You know, I try to downplay it and put it aside, but in the back of my mind, I thought,

okay, okay, this could be real, this could be real and it is real and the drive over here, okay, really real special, I see my boys crying. It was so special, I saw Marshall Parker shed a show crowd. I mean, that's, man, I love these guys, I really do. Time, I see you, you know, I saw you last week and I see you around these kids and these are kids that don't come from a place that has everything and Bishop talks to you and I, he talks us about exposure, the first thing you need to do is expose them to something. Now you being in the hall of fame, you get to go back and talk to these kids and you'll say, hey, I started right where you guys are, how will you share with them this moment, starting right where you are and now you are in the hall of fame. First of all, I always tell kids that you're called, your calls have to be, your calls

must be larger than you because we have a propensity in life to quit on ourselves. But I'm not quitting on my mom, I'm not quitting on my sister, I'm not quitting on my wife and kids because they're depending upon me, I couldn't quit on my teammates because they were depending upon me, I couldn't quit on my job because they're depending upon me and I tell them, this is the end result, yes, but this is not the focus. The focus is, I don't care, whatever you find yourself to do, do it with everything you have and have that passion, I don't worry about what they're going to say about that passion and that fire because that's the way you, I grew up, come on, when we play pick up football, when you school, you dance, but you get mad at me because I dance, you know, I like it and I played and I love that passion and I want kids to keep exuding that passion and that love and that joy, I always say, do what you love and love what you do. John Prime Time Sanders, former quarterback, kick and punt returner, and a member of the NFL Hall of Fame 2011 class.

On the evil Super Bowl 45, the 44 members of the pro football Hall of Fame Selection Committee met in Dallas, Texas for seven hours and 25 minutes, a record for the committee. Seven legendary NFL grace were elected and will be forming and trying into the hall on Saturday, August 6, 2011 in Canton, Ohio. One of those legendary grace was Shannon Sharp. In 1990, Sharp entered the NFL at the seventh round pick of the Denver Broncos out of tiny Savannah State. It didn't take long for that decision to pay used dividends. By the time he retired 14 seasons later in 2001, he was the NFL's all-time leader in catches, yards and touchdowns by a tight end. Got one three Super Bowl rings in a four-year span, two with Denver and one with Baltimore. The eight-time pro-bola caught 805 passes for 10,060 yards and 63 touchdowns. The violence and excerpt of his Hall of Fame Selection.

I couldn't sleep. All the working out I did got up this morning, worked out again for another half, took four showers, told my sister I was going to take a nap, told my friends I was going to take a nap, not to call, but I couldn't sleep. All I could think about is, is it going to happen today? Is it going to happen today? And if it doesn't happen today, my grandmother's going to be 89 years old, May 12th. And when I first came up two years ago with Rod, my grandmother had a leg amputated. In the process of having her leg amputated, she had a heart attack. I was like, the only thing that I've ever wanted was to make my grandmother proud. Those 12-hour shifts that she worked at the nursing home that she resides in this very day. I said, she's never going to, she's not going to hear me thank her to be able to give the

speech to say, Granny, thanks for everything you did. I am the man that people see today because of you. And I don't know what I did to deserve this. I don't know what I did to be a pro-boy player, to be an all pro, to have friends like Rod, one of my best friends who called and when I didn't get in with him, he just said, I don't know what happened, but your day is coming. Man, it just, it means so much to you when you have a guy like Rod, who's one of my best friends, Ray Lewis, who's one of my best friends, Keith Burns, just calling to say, hey, keep your head up. That doesn't change. You're not getting into Hall of Fame this time. It doesn't change our friendship, it doesn't change the way we thought, the way we think of you. And man, rich. I can't even, if I had a thousand tongues, I couldn't say how happy, how proud I am of this

moment. Not for me. The 14 years I played with for me. This is for Dan Reeves, that gave me an opportunity to play the game of football in the actual football league when no one else believed him, Mike Shanahan, who made me a better tight end than I was before. This is for all the players, this is for them. This is not for me. The 14 years. You talked to your brother? I did. What was he saying? He said. He said, bro, we did it. And it's happy, honestly, it's happy as I am right now, and Lord knows I'm happy. I would trade places with him in a minute. That's my best friend. He and my sister are there, my best friends in the entire world. And when he heard his neck, when he called me, he said, bro, I'm never going to play the game again. I cried. I cried so hard because the player that I am that you see before you today that's going

into the Hall of Fame with Marshall Park, Deon Sanders, Ed Sable, because of my brother. I wanted to be, I was in high school, I was a horrible football player, but I wanted to be like him. And somehow I thought if I wore his numbers, I could, but I was terrible at football. And somehow I mean the pro football Hall of Fame when I was a terrible football player in high school. Let me get some questions in from the members of the media. I want to get a question in for you, Hall of Famer, Shannon Shark. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds good. Well, if you want to have Elphabets behind your name, I wasn't going to have MD or Ph.D. H.O. Elphab pretty good. All right, Jeff Lightwater, the Rocky Mountain News, where are you, Jeff? It seems real, it really, I mean, and I'm driving over here and everybody's calling me and texting me.

And I'm saying to my, I'm going to the Hall of Fame. I mean, Joe Montana threw me a pass, I mean, I play, you know, I play with Marshall one year in the pro board. I play with these guys and I'm going in the Hall of Fame with them. This is a skinny kid from Glenville, Georgia, 3500 people, two traffic lights going to the Hall of Fame. This is, this is a man. And I don't trust me, I don't get lost for words very often, but this has gotten me baffled. I've never seen you speechless in the whole time I've known you. This is what happens when you're going to put on that gold jacket and the guy was asking me, say, what do you think about the gold? What do you think about a gold jacket? I said, normally, I like my gold in bouillons or coins, but I make an exception for a jacket. The only thing that I thought about when I trained, I never wanted to eat cold oatmeal again and I never wanted to get wet when it rained again.

I lived in the house with a tin roof and I know what that felt like. I was willing to do with other guys and I always thought, I said, if I don't go train today, there's some guy that wants my job. Maybe he's in high school, maybe he's in college. Now I wasn't born with the greatest talent, but the one thing that I could do probably better than anybody. I was more disciplined, I brought my own food to work and I was more dedicated. No one was going to outwork me, no one. And I really didn't think about that I had a chance to really become a Hall of Famer until I won the third Superbowl in Baltimore and people started talking about it. Up until that time, you know... Too big to dream. It was too big to even dream about it. I was pretty much scared to think about it. I was putting a catchy behind Aussies. You can't get to the Hall of Famer before a catchy. So... Well, one of the things I love about hosting this ceremony is not just the tremendous honor it is, but it's also on occasion I get to play.

This is your life. It's one of those moments. Is the call to there for Shannon Sharp? Is the caller here? Sterling Sharp, what do you got to say here, bro? It's very, very few times I think I've ever been speechless and this is one of them. It's a great day for him. I think it's an even better day for me because and when he would date, I would get mad and cry when he didn't want to take me with him to be with a girlfriend. I wanted to be with him. We competing so hard, I could not understand why I could not beat him in basketball, why I couldn't run faster than he could. I couldn't throw the football as far as he could. I would go down every night, I would pray I said, God, just let me be bigger than him. Let me be faster than him. Let me be stronger than him. If not just one day, I just want to beat him. And I was his backup in high school. He was a senior, I was a freshman. We get a lead,

the coach put me in the game. And I think everybody knew it because he rushed for 200 and I come in the game and end up with minus 10. So I think they were taking it out on me because they couldn't get to him. Everything that Sterling Sharp was, Shannon Sharp, thrive to be. He's my, he's my big brother, he's my father, he's my best friend. There's nothing that we wouldn't do for each other. And I said it before, I'm the 44 members that voted and said, Shannon Sharp, you're worthy of going into this Hall of Fame. I would trade places to be able to go to Canton and give up the speech and have him going to that building. Shannon Sharp formed for Denver and Baltimore tied in and a member of the 2011 class Pro Football Hall of Fame. Marshall Falker's The Guard is one of the best dual threat

running backs in the history of the National Football League. He was the second overall pick of the Indianapolis coach in the 1994 NFL draft and rookie of the year that season. He is the first play in league history to amass 2000 yards from Scrimmage and four straight seasons and accumulate 6,000 receiving yards in a career. Also, he holds an honor that's the only back to running for at least 70 touchdowns and catch at least 30 TDs. His seven two-point conversions are an NFL record. Falk won a Super Bowl with the 1999 St. Louis Rams and will be the first New Orleans inducted into the Hall. The foul is an excerpt of his selection. This belief, you know, when you think about you grow up as a kid and the dream is to just watch your football game. Then you get a chance to play a football game and now the best thing that could happen to you while playing in his game when you're done. I mean, there's guys in his Hall of Fame and I look so far up to. I never

thought I'd be in that room with them. So it's special. Marshall, when you look at it and you think about it, I say, at the end of your career, you were satisfied. You look back. That was a good career but then this five-year period comes and you start thinking, wow, was it good enough? How nervous were you today? I actually started to think about like games that I may be missed and I was like, you know, maybe I should have played. Like all the opportunities, you know, like I could have got two more yards before I went out of bounds, but you can't change it. And although when I do look back and I think about what I did, I feel like I played as hard as I could. The guys that I played with, they know they knew every game that I was going to leave it on the field. And if anything was done wrong by me, I was going to man up to it. You know, Marshall, you look at your career and so versatile. I mean, if you had to pick out one thing of your career, what was your best

attribute as a player on the field? Well, the thing that was hardest for me to work at and become accustomed to because in college, it's the knock. It's the knock on every back that comes out of college and that's past protection. You know, I could catch the ball out of the back so I could read coverage. I could read the run inside and out, but past blocking, it took something internal because at 210, 250 pounds, I'm giving away 30, 40 pounds to a guy that's 250 pounds and I got to stop him to protect my quarterback or at least attempt to stop him. And as I became better at that, my receiving abilities became better because now they didn't know what to do when I was in the back field. Okay, because he can pass block when he's when he's offset, he's not just running around that I felt like that made me more effective. That's why, you know, from year four on, you probably saw my past receptions go up because teams really didn't know what to do. It used to be, when I earlier in my career, I was offset, let's blitz him, he's going out.

So I had to change that perception in, you know, it took a lot of hard work, a lot of one-on-ones with linebackers just to get it down and get it right. And it's not like one-on-ones when you went out there catching pass, pass routes. It's for real one-on-ones. Marshall, you, you, I, we kept talking about transformational players. You're one of them. I don't know, you know, the all the things you could do. But you're also as rich as alluded to and I always noticed how smart you were, how frustrating was it that you weren't able to play quarterback? Because it seemed like a guy that wanted to be in the huddle and say, hey, look, this guy's not nearly as good or smart as me. I can do everything. Just get this guy out of here. We'd be better off. It's funny. It's funny you say that because my junior year in high school and I always felt like I could play quarterback and my high school coach put me at quarterback and it just wasn't fun. Hand in the ball off, throwing the ball to somebody else. I wanted to beat that other person. So at times I would abort the play and the team wasn't at successful. So I said, you know what, this was a good lesson for

me. I started to move around. I seen years I played quarterback receiver and stuff like that. How about that? He thinks quarterback's too boring. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's smart. I just felt like I wanted to ball in my hands and to do something with it. So you get to the NFL and it's like, you learn all you learn and actually before that, Sean Payton, my second year in sophomore year in college, really challenged me to learn more than just the fronts and certain things about coverages. I mean, my tests, everybody else tests would include the front seven. I had to know the coverage is who was going to drop down and into the box if who had support going to Indianapolis and as a rookie. I remember there's one guy and I see him all the time now. We both work in the media and that was Tony Sarah Goose. And Goose kind of showed me the way in the league. Tony Sarah Goose, Jeff Arise, Eugene Daniels, some, I'm talking about some old school guys taught me some valuable things. They made sure that I appreciated the position that

I was in. Marshall Falk, former coach and Rams running back. And remember, the 2011 NFL Hall of Fame class. If you have questions, comments or suggestions after your future in Black America programs, email us at lowercase J Hanson at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until you have the opportunity again for Technical Producer David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hanson Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. This has been a production of KUT Radio.