With the official Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony complete Saturday night - the one in Canton, Ohio, not Chattanooga - the NFL Network crew began discussing the one inductee who was here in the Scenic City instead of there: Terrell Owens.
The panel of past inductees Terrell Davis, Michael Irvin, LaDainian Tomlinson and Kurt Warner plus new members Ray Lewis and Randy Moss, all dressed in pale gold Hall of Fame blazers, debated if future generations of players might be tempted to follow Owens. The former star wide receiver was so miffed at not being selected for the Hall of Fame until his third year of eligibility, he staged his own ceremony at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena.
The former UTC Moc we came to later know as T.O. certainly had a solid beef. He should have been in on the first ballot. Failing that, there was no excuse for him not to make it the next year. And let's be honest, it is a stats-driven honor, and Owens owns some of the most glittering stats in NFL history, including the second-most receiving yards (15,934) and the third-most touchdown catches (153).
After all, except for T.O., when someone fails to get enough votes to enter the hall, the reason almost always given for his omission is that his stats aren't Hall of Fame caliber. With Owens, it was apparently something else - something murky and subjective and pretty indefensible overall.
But the 2018 Hall of Fame class's longest and greatest injustice wasn't Owens having to wait until his third year of eligibility to join his sport's all-time greats. Instead, it was Jerry Kramer having to wait 50 years after he retired from the Green Bay Packers to make it to Canton. A five-time All-Pro, the only offensive guard named to the NFL's First 5o Years team, the deliverer of arguably the most famous block in NFL history by leading Bart Starr into the end zone to win the Ice Bowl over the Dallas Cowboys and the co-author of "Instant Replay" (one of the best sports books ever written), Kramer should have been in the Hall of Fame in 1974, his first year of eligibility.
Yet unlike Owens, when he was finally approved in February by the Hall of Fame's Seniors Committee, he didn't complain or organize an alternative ceremony in Boise, Idaho, where he now lives. Instead, in an eight-minute acceptance speech that might have been the best of the night, the 82-year-old was the sort of humorous, humble, self-deprecating, decent human being that those of his generation so often are.
He told of the early years in Green Bay, before the legendary Vince Lombardi took over as coach, and the day the Chicago Bears beat them 56-0.
"They had a horse that ran around the field after every TD," Kramer recalled. "We (darn) near killed that animal."
There was the time he was having a terrible practice, and Lombardi got in his face and screamed: "Mister, the concentration period for a college student's about five minutes, high school's about three minutes, kindergarten is 30 seconds! And you don't have that? Where's that put you?"
There was the time he thought he had negotiated himself a $250 signing bonus only to find himself $250 short on his first paycheck.
"It turned out that it wasn't a bonus, but an advance," he said, also noting his first pro contract paid him $8,000 for the year.
But it's what he said toward the end of that short, sweet speech that should resonate with future Hall of Famers and everyday Americans alike in both sports and life in general
Repeating a Lombardi speech, Kramer said, "After the game is over, the stadium lights are out, the parking lot's empty, you're back in the quiet of your room, championship ring is on the dresser, the only thing left at this time is for you to lead a life of quality and excellence and make this world a little bit better place because you were in it.
"You can if you will," he added, returning to a line his high school coach had once told him. "You can if you will."
To that, someone might add that T.O. can one day embrace his place in the Hall of Fame, if only he will.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.