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Hall of Fame profile: Chargers-Dolphins-Patriots linebacker Junior Seau

 

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015 gets inducted on Saturday. Shutdown Corner will profile the eight new Hall of Famers, looking at each of their careers and their impact on the game.

Junior Seau
San Diego Chargers 1990-2002
Miami Dolphins 2003-05

New England Patriots 2006-09
Linebacker

Greatest moment

Seau dragged the Chargers to their one and only Super Bowl appearance with one good arm.

Seau had a pinched nerve in his neck for most of the 1994 season, which meant he was basically playing without his left arm. And in the AFC championship game at Pittsburgh at the end of that season, he had a phenomenal 16-tackle game. It was the quintessential Seau performance, with him flying around everywhere on the field and disrupting the Steelers all day. He was great. The Chargers won their only AFC championship in the final minute when linebacker Dennis Gibson batted down a fourth-down pass deep in San Diego territory.

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Seau's toughness was one of his best attributes, though it's tough to talk about that now that we know the physical toll of playing in the NFL might have contributed his suicide on May 2, 2012.

Impact on the game

I wish I was just telling the first part of Seau's story and that was it. Seau was one of the best linebackers in NFL history. He was an six-time All-Pro and 12-time Pro Bowler. He had 56.5 career sacks and 18 interceptions. He played for 20 seasons, an unbelievable feat for a linebacker. Deep into his career, he was a key contributor to the 2007 Patriots, the only 16-0 team in NFL history.

(AP)
(AP)

More than that, even if you didn't care at all about the Chargers (or Dolphins or Patriots), you loved watching Seau play. His passion was overwhelming. It seems impossible to love football and not have been a fan of Seau.

But there's the other tragic part of Seau's story, and it obviously impacts the game. When Seau committed suicide in 2012 it sent shock waves through the football community. Doctors found chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when they studied his brain. Seau immediately became the most famous player in the NFL's concussion crisis. The Seau family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NFL. Stories of Seau's struggles after retirement are difficult to read. It's sad to think that he's gone.

Thankfully the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which isn't allowing Seau's daughter Sydney to give a formal speech at his enshrinement ceremony because of a recent policy, has offered Sydney additional opportunities to be a part of the ceremony. Among other things, Sydney Seau will be interviewed on stage and she and Seau's three sons will unveil his bust. The controversy threatened to overshadow Seau's enshrinement moment.

Case against his bust in Canton

There really isn't one. No linebacker in the history of the NFL was better for longer than Seau.

“[I] loved Junior and his family,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said about two months before Seau was voted into the Hall of Fame, via Boston.com. “[I] was out here for the funeral and it was very emotional. Nobody loved the game more than Junior did. Nobody would be more deserving to be in the Hall of Fame than Junior Seau." 

Case for his bust in Canton

Only seven players Peyton Manning, Bruce Matthews, Merlin Olsen, Tony Gonzalez, Reggie White, Jerry Rice and Ray Lewis have made more Pro Bowls than Seau's 12. All of those players are either in the Hall of Fame or will be once they're eligible. Of the 26 players who have more first-team All-Pro selections than Seau, only Manning and Lewis aren't in the Hall of Fame, and they will be. If you were picking an NFL all-time team, you could do worse than to pick Seau as one of your linebackers.

Notable quote

"This is a huge honor for our family. Definitely with heavy hearts accepting this, because it should be him. But he is here with us. Emotionally it's tough. We're missing a huge part. We're staying strong and this is a blessing. We're humbled to be part of this [Hall of Fame] family." - Junior Seau's son Tyler, when Seau was voted into the Hall of Fame this past January.

Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015 profiles

July 31: Ron Wolf
Aug. 1: Mick Tingelhoff
Aug. 2: Will Shields
Aug. 3: Junior Seau
Aug. 4: Tim Brown
Aug. 5: Charles Haley
Aug. 6: Jerome Bettis
Aug. 7: Bill Polian

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!