Pro Football Hall of Fame Highlights: Ray Lewis’ Bonkers Speech, Randy Moss’ Tie, and Terrell Owens’ Anti-HoF Speech
On Saturday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame held its induction ceremony, and this year’s class includes linebackers Brian Urlacher and Ray Lewis, and wide receivers Randy Moss and Terrell Owens.
Here are three highlights:
1. As expected, Terrell was a no-show. He gave his acceptance speech from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, where he went to college. He’s mad at the Hall for NOT inducting him the past two years.
In his speech, he said, quote, “The sports writers are not in alignment with the mission and core values of the Hall of Fame. I am a man of courage. Courageous enough to choose Chattanooga over Canton.”
But he actually ended his speech strong and UNSELFISHLY, by having people stand if they’ve ever felt bullied, isolated, and misunderstood . . . and he said that his speech was for THEM.
(Here’s video. The “Chattanooga over Canton” part is in the last minute.)
2. Everyone expected Ray Lewis to spend his whole speech talking about God, NOT about murdering two people almost 20 years ago. And that’s exactly what he did . . . although his bonkers speech included everything but the kitchen sink.
He spoke for 33 minutes . . . shouting and sweating as he wandered around the stage. He touched on a TON of topics, including his torn triceps, the Super Bowl blackout, the religious undertones of his pregame dance, kissing his kids on the mouth, sex trafficking, prayer in schools, and A LOT more about himself.
He’s apparently overcome a lot . . . not even including the murders. (Here’s video.)
3. RANDY MOSS made a statement with his tie, which featured the names of 12 African Americans who were killed by police. He didn’t address it during his speech, but he talked about it in an interview with the NFL Network.
He said, quote, “I wanted to let these families know they’re not alone. I’m not here voicing, but by having these names on my tie, in a big platform like the Pro Football Hall of Fame, there’s a lot of stuff going on in our country and I just wanted these family members to know they’re not alone.”