Family Of Junior Seau Not Allowed To Speak At HOF
- Updated: July 25, 2015
(Photo via Twitter User
Although Junior Seau will be presented with the most prestigious award in football, the family of the deceased player will not be allowed on stage due to a Hall Of Fame policy.
This policy will deny the daughter of Junior Seau from presenting the award in honor of her father, even though she was listed as a presenter in an early press release dated July 15. Instead she will be permitted to only commenting on a video when her late father enters the Hall of Fame on Aug. 8.
The Hall Of Fame released the following statement regarding the policy:
“The policy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame since 2010 regarding individuals enshrined posthumously provides for an expanded presenting video (longer than the videos of living inductees) followed by the traditional unveiling of the bronzed bust and no additional comments made from the podium,” the statement said.
“This policy is not precedent setting and was implemented for the first time in 2011 when former Los Angeles Rams great Les Richter was inducted posthumously.”
Sydney Seau said the following on the issue, as reported by ESPN.com:
“It’s frustrating because the induction is for my father and for the other players, but then to not be able to speak, it’s painful,” Sydney Seau told The New York Times, which earlier reported the story Friday. “I just want to give the speech he would have given. It wasn’t going to be about this mess. My speech was solely about him.”
The problem comes from the way Junior Seau passed. The 43 year-old linebacker committed suicide, and after further investigation it was found that he suffered from “chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a neurodegenerative disease that has been found in the brains of dozens of deceased NFL players due to repeated head trauma.”
ESPN.com writes the following:
Joe Horrigan, spokesperson for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, told the Times that in the past, for deceased inductees, what presenters said repeated what was in the video, and so a few years ago the Hall eliminated speeches in these cases.
“There was an acceptance speech for deceased players but it got redundant,” Horrigan told the Times. “The honor is supposed to be for the individual.”
“We’re not the NFL, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” David Baker, the executive director of the Hall of Fame, told the Times. “Our mission is to honor the heroes of the game, and Junior is a hero of the game. We’re going to celebrate his life, not the death and other issues.”
Should they let his family speak? Let us know what you think!
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