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After the longest off-season in professional sport, the NFL is almost set to return.
The official start of the season isn’t until the first weekend of September, but the festivities begin this week with the Hall of Fame weekend from Canton, Ohio.
The weekend will commence with the annual Hall of Fame game on Friday (AEST). This year, the Baltimore Ravens and the Chicago Bears will face off.
The following seven players and one contributor to the game will be enshrined inside the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on Sunday.
This year’s inductions have been overshadowed by former player and inductee, wide receiver Terrell Owens, who has declined to attend this year’s event. Instead, he will have his own party at the University of Tennessee where he attended college.
Let’s look at this year’s list of colourful characters.
Note: For this article, I have chosen to focus solely on these players respective footballing careers.
Wide Receiver – Terrell Owens
Widely known as T.O. he was never far from controversy in his stellar NFL career. During his 16 seasons in the league from 1996-2012, he made 153 receiving touchdowns, ranking third in NFL history and his 15,934 career receiving yards ranks him second of all-time.
Owens was selected to six Pro Bowl games during a career which saw him as one of the most dangerous players the game had witnessed. He also received plenty of attention for his flamboyant touchdown celebrations over the years.
Wide Receiver – Randy Moss
Randy Gene Moss was born in Rand, West Virginia in 1977. He attended Marshall College and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998.
Moss was named NFL Rookie of the Year as well as being the NFL’s receiving touchdown leader. He also won the touchdown title on four other occasions.
He is a member of the Vikings Ring of Honour, as well as a six-time Pro Bowl player.
He holds the NFL single-season touchdown reception record of 23 in 2007 and is second on the NFL all-time regular season touchdown reception list with 156.
Middle Linebacker – Ray Lewis
Lewis was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 1996, where he spent his entire 17-year playing career until he retired in 2012.
During this time, he was selected to an astounding 13 Pro Bowl games.
He won two Super Bowls with the Ravens and was named Super Bowl MVP in 2000 and is arguably the greatest player to don a Ravens jersey.
Linebacker – Brian Urlacher
Another one team player, Urlacher was a dominant force in his 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears. He was one of the most productive defensive players on the field and one of the nicest guys off it. He was named NFL Rookie of the Year in 2000, Defensive Player of the year in 2005 and was selected to eight Pro Bowls.
During his career, Urlacher’s jersey sales had rivalled those of other NFL superstars in his era, like Brett Favre and Michael Vick.
(Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
Linebacker – Robert Brazile
Brazile was better known as Dr Doom. He was drafted sixth overall by the Houston Oilers in the 1975 draft. He spent ten seasons in Houston where he was named to seven straight Pro Bowl games after winning the Defensive player of the year in his first season. He was credited with 1,281 tackles in his career, the second highest in Tennessee Titans/ Houston Oilers history.
Safety – Brian Dawkins
Dawkins spent 16 years in the NFL. The First 13 seasons with his beloved Philadelphia Eagles, where he is a Football Operations Manager these days. Helping them to a Super Bowl victory earlier this year.
He finished his playing career with the Denver Broncos after the 2011 season.
His 1,131 total tackles and 26 sacks saw him selected to nine Pro Bowl games and selection in the NFL’s 2000s team of the decade.
He is one of only nine players to have his jersey number retired by the Philadelphia Eagles. The number 20, will forever hang inside Lincoln Financial Field.
Guard – Jerry Kramer
Kramer played 130 games for the Green Bay Packers between 1958-68, winning five NFL Championships, including the first two Super Bowls. He was an Author of several books including one about the late, great Vince Lombardi.
This is the 11th year Kramer was a finalist before being voted into the Hall of Fame.
Contributor – Bobby Beathard
Bobby Beathard was a General Manager for nearly 40 years across several franchises. He won four Super Bowl titles in his time, two with the Miami Dolphins and two with the Washington Redskins.
This year he will be enshrined in Canton, Ohio along with the aforementioned players. Beathard is an American treasure and will always be remembered for his incredible contribution to the game of Football.
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