SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – As of one recent count, Edward DeBartolo Jr. had rewritten his Hall of Fame speech some 14 times.
After such a long wait to be enshrined in Canton, Ohio, alongside the most accomplished NFL contributors, it’s no surprise he wants his every word to be just right.
“I’m a basket case, a nervous wreck. Wasn’t this bad before Super Bowls!” he wrote in an email from his sprawling Montana ranch, which offers 3,000 acres and a peaceful place to perfect his words for Saturday’s ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his home state of Ohio.
He walks his dogs in the wee hours of the morning and was joined by his two executive assistants in the lead-up to a long-awaited trip to Canton, where his daughter, Lisa, will present him. She was an “easy choice.” Deciding between all of his former players would have been painstakingly difficult, but if late Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh were still alive he would have been the one to do it, of course.
“God rest his soul, if Bill would have been alive, I probably would have asked Bill to do it,” DeBartolo said. “As a coach, he came in and brought great credentials. More than that, he just brought a whole new way of doing things.”