CANTON, OHIO — Sterling Sharpe gave an emotional speech, took off his gold jacket and gave it to his brother, Shannon Sharpe, before the two held in a long brotherly embraced on the stage Saturday at Tom Benson Stadium.
“God has smiled on me,” Sterling Sharpe opened during his speech. “This is my life. There are many like it. But this one is mine. There (are) a lot of reasons why these great players are able to sit and wear this gold jacket that I have. Some of them it’s blood. Some of them it’s sweat. Jared (Allen) said fear.”
Sterling joined his brother, Shannon, on football’s immortal stage. The Sharpe brothers, who were raised in Glennville, Georgia, became the first brothers enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
“I stand before your today as the 382nd member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of love,” Sharpe said. “You have to learn to follow before you can lead.”
He noted that his high school coach William Hall at Glennville High didn’t teach him how to catch or throw. He taught him how to pray.
To Sharpe, he could follow Hall and learn how to lead from his lessons.
He went on to acknowledge his pro position coaches in Buddy Geis, Sherman Lewis and Jon Gruden with the Packers.
“Don’t study defenses,” Sharpe said Gruden told him. “Study other receivers. I was tutored by Jon for two years.”
He noted that he tried to copy Michael Irvin and Tim Brown.
He went on to pay tribute to his mother, sister and other family members.
He noted that Shannon, when he was enshrined in 2011, paid homage to their grandparents, Barney and Mary Porter, who raised them in rural Georgia.
“Everything I did athletically, everything, I did was for an audience of one,” Sharpe said. “I didn’t care what was written, said, thought, prayed about. … Everything I did was for an audience of one. You see, when you grow in rural South Georgia, it’s hard to find heroes.
“I didn’t want this person (Shannon) to find … to look outside our own dinner table to find a role model.”
Sharpe noted that his time was running out and skipped to the end of his script.
“As one half of the first brothers selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” Sharpe said. “You have to come up here and stand next to me my man.”
Shannon got up and walked up to center stage next to Sterling’s unveiled bust as the crowd applauded.
Sterling discussed how he had to be strong for his younger brother and that’s who he played football for. Shannon had given Sterling his first Super Bowl ring.
“The most precious gift I’ve ever received is the Super Bowl ring that I wear,” Sterling said. “I don’t have blood sweat and tears with my teammates like many of these gentlemen do. I wear this ring because of love.
“You gave me this not knowing you were going to get another one. I prayed to God, let him get another one. He blessed you with two.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Sterling wrapped up by saying he wanted Shannon to be the only Hall of Famer with two gold Jackets.
He disrobed and gave his brother his jacket.
Sterling Sharpe is fine with the seven years he played in the NFL before a neck injury cut short his career.
“You can talk all about what I could have done,” Sharpe said. “Compare me to Jerry (Rice), Andre (Johnson) and Tim (Brown) and Calvin (Johnson), knock yourself out. I got what I wanted. This. Being here. This (isn’t) for me. I got what I wanted. This is for family and friends … This isn’t about me. It’s for family and friends.”
Sharpe was just happy that he got to play football. His grandfather, who passed away when he was 13, didn’t allow the boys to play football.
“What happens to just wanting to play?” Sharpe said. “Not 10 years. Not 20 years. Not I want to be a Hall of Famer. I want to be All-Pro. I want to lead the league. How about just playing? How about if you would allow me to get there. I just wanted to play.”
Sharpe would have likely been enshrined earlier if he played longer. In 2011, when Shannon was enshrined, he noted that he was the second-best player in the family.
The selectors have recognized great players, who’ve had their careers shortened by injury before. Sterling joins the great Gale “The Kansas Comet” Sayers, who played seven seasons. In recent years, Terrell Davis, the former University of Georgia standout, and Tony Boselli were enshrined in 2017 and 2022, respectively. Both played seven seasons also.
“I love when people say if your career would have been (longer), so maybe if my career would have been (longer) and I had a crystal ball and you say I would have 500 more catches and 45 more touchdowns I’d go in the Hall of Fame 10 years earlier?” Sharpe said. “I love how my career ended. I love how my Hall of Fame journey begin. No one ever talked about what I did. Even now, they talked about what I didn’t do. You didn’t play long enough. But I’m sorry, that is really not what I asked for. All I wanted to do was play.”
In the next to last game of the 1994 season, disaster struck in a game against the Atlanta Falcons at Milwaukee County Stadium. Sharpe was blocking on a run play, but his head went backward on a hit from Falcons defensive back Brad Edwards. Sharpe was on the ground motionless for almost four minutes before eventually walking to the sideline by himself. He played in the regular season finale against the Bucs to help the Packers finish 9-7 and reach the postseason.
But he aggravated his neck injury, which required fusion surgery on his C1 and C2 vertebrae. Because he’d be vulnerable to injury because of the lack of range of motion, he retired.
The Packers, with quarterback Brett Favre — who had been traded by the Falcons — would go on to win the Super Bowl after the 1996 season. Sharpe had helped develop Favre and build the foundation for that Super Bowl team.
The dynamic and powerful Sharpe finished with 595 career catches for 8,312 yards and 65 touchdowns.
Sharpe was in this class with cornerback Eric Allen, defensive end Jared Allen and tight end Antonio Gates.
“My grandparents didn’t understand or would not have understood what this is,” Sharpe said. “My sister, probably would not have … my brother didn’t understand what this was when I started playing football. That was for me. This is for them.”
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