Sterling Sharpe: Pro Football Hall of Fame (finally) gets it right
Gamecock and Green Bay Packer legend Sterling Sharpe set to receive his gold jacket
Poetry in motion is a perhaps overused phrase to describe the seeming ease with which supreme athletes grace their chosen fields and courts. The best among them possess a grace and fluidity that belies their remarkable strength. Walter Payton comes to mind, or Gale Sayers. Jerry Rice was one of those too. They could dance around would-be tacklers, or run over them if need be, then accelerate in a breathtaking streak toward the open field. The best of them are rare as comets, with movements as pretty as a blue heron in flight.
Anyone who was fortunate enough to witness Sterling Sharpe play in Garnet and Black, or Green and Gold, knows what they saw was special. In a game of brief, violent skirmishes, Sharpe displayed an elegant symphony of supreme balance, raw power and speed more common to jaguars than mere humans.
If ever there was poetry in motion, it was Sterling Sharpe.
For nearly four decades, Sharpe’s exploits at the University of South Carolina have been the stuff of legend. He was a two-time All-America and USC’s all-time leading receiver when he left the program. Sharpe set program records for receiving yards, receiving touchdowns and 100-yard games. For those exploits, the University retired his number 2 jersey while he was still active with the team, just before the Gamecocks’ Gator Bowl matchup in 1987.
He was a first-round selection by the Green Bay Packers in the 1988 NFL draft, where he would eventually join with a young Mississippi gunslinger named Favre.
Gamecock Central’s Kevin Miller gave an impressive rundown of Sharpe’s extraordinary professional career in his column of February 6th. With the exception perhaps of 49er royalty Jerry Rice, Sharpe was the most prolific receiver in the NFL during his seven season career. Sharpe accumulated five Pro Bowl appearances and five 1,000-yard seasons during that span, leading the NFL in catches three times, touchdowns twice, and yardage once. In two of those seasons, 1992 and 1993, he set the all-time NFL record for receptions in a season.
Sharpe won the NFL’s “Triple Crown” in 1992, leading the league in receptions (108), yards (1,461), and touchdowns (13). He is one of only five receivers in the Super Bowl era to achieve that feat.
Toward the end of another superlative season in 1994, Sharpe collided with former Gamecock teammate Brad Edwards of the Atlanta Falcons in what appeared to be relatively benign contact. In obvious pain, Sharpe left the field and soon underwent surgery to repair loose vertebrae in his cervical spine. He never returned to football.
A long, uncertain path toward Canton
A brilliant career cut short in its prime, Sharpe found himself out of professional football at the age of 29. Before the injury he was on a glide path to the Hall of Fame. Even more Pro Bowl seasons were sure to follow. He was a rising legend in the game. Notable too, had he remained healthy Sharpe would have added Super Bowl Champion to his resume as a member of the Packers’ 1996 championship team.
As it was, Sharpe was passed over for HOF consideration for the better part of three decades. For years, the Pro Football Hall of Fame was reserved for players who exhibited remarkable durability in addition to world class play on the field. A ten-year career was often thought a minimum for consideration. There were exceptions of course, most notably Gale Sayers, who like Sharpe, played seven professional seasons. Sayers, however, was by far the exception to the rule.
That began to change over the last decade, when several outstanding players whose careers had been cut short by injury were inducted. Among them was Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis, who, like Sharpe, played just seven seasons.
The door had begun to crack.
Indeed, Sharpe was a semifinalist for induction in the Seniors category the last two years before breaking through in this year’s class.
With his induction this August in Canton, Ohio, Sharpe will join his brother, legendary Broncos and Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe, as the only brother duo in the Hall of Fame. During his emotional 2021 HOF induction speech, Shannon said he was the only member of the Hall who was the second-best player in his own family.
Sharpe’s journey to Canton has not been as straight forward as many predicted prior to that fateful game in December, 1994. Like life itself, there have been surprises, roadblocks, and disappointments along the way. But when he slips on that long-awaited gold blazer this August, the experience will be poetic indeed.
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Thanks for the memories!