Hall of Fame induction ceremony filled with Redskins pride
CANTON, Ohio — The Hall of Fame induction ceremony turned Hog wild Saturday.
Darrell Green and Art Monk walked across the stage waving their arms and urged thousands of Washington Redskins fans to give them one more salute. Emmitt Thomas, the former Chiefs player and Redskins coach, simply waved back.
And they applauded the three other inductees without Washington ties — Fred Dean, Andre Tippett and Gary Zimmerman — because they understood they would have been a good fit with the Redskins’ blue-collar players.
Most didn’t shed a tear.
Green, as usual, was the exception.
“Deacon Jones said I was gonna cry. You bet I’m gonna cry,” he said after his son, Jared, introduced him. “You bet you’re life I’m gonna cry. You bet your life I will. That’s my boy, that’s my boy right there.”
Clearly, this was Washington’s showcase.
From the red-and-yellow clad crowd to the pig’s snouts to the responses whenever the Dallas Cowboys were mentioned, the ceremony looked more like a team Hall of Fame induction than a league-wide enshrinement.
Fans cheered louder each time Thomas mentioned a Redskins player or coach. They chanted “Dar-rell, Dar-rell.”
espn.com
8/2/08
