The Rise Up, See Red podcast

At the Pro Football Hall of Fame with Howard Balzer

This latest show comes from Canton, Ohio. Howard Balzer was there for the 2024 Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony. In this show, he tells us about his time there, as former Cardinal Dwight Freeney was one of the inductees. Freeney gave a little shoutout to a couple of players and former head coach Bruce Arians.

Enjoy this one as Howard tells us about his experience there this year with the new Hall of Fame class.

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 04 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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This is Howard Balzer, and welcome to this Cardinals camp update for the Rise Up Sea Red podcast, the best hour of Cardinals talk on the web. Well, this is a podcast that is really more of a Hall of Fame update. But it, of course, does have a Cardinals connection because of the enshrined on Saturday of Ed's rusher Dwight Frini, who had a significant contribution to the Cardinals back in 2015. But before I get to that, I'll just say, wow, once more. This was the 35th summer that I spent these days in Canton for the Hall of Fame celebration. The first one was in 1980, and here we are 44 years later. And it's a weekend that I just never want to miss. There was a little hole in there when I stopped going for a while, but then began again in 2007 when I started working for SiriusXM NFL Radio. And they asked me one day in about March or April, would you be interested in going to the Hall of Fame to do a radio show for us? I couldn't have said yes fast enough. And when I, I'll never forget when I got to Canton that year, I said, how did I ever start stop coming to this? Everything about it is so much about the passion and love that so many have for this game, seeing more than 100 Hall of Famers return. And being involved in the SiriusXM NFL Radio coverage in which I do two shows for the network. And we spend a couple of days interviewing Hall of Famers. And I have to pinch myself at times to say, hey, these are Hall of Famers. Don't ever take it for granted. Not to name drop, but here's the players that Vic Carucci and I spoke to in the run up to a show that was broadcast on Thursday and then one on Saturday before the instrument and got stretched for about an hour and 45 minutes extra because of the rain delay. We spoke to every one of the incoming Hall of Famers. And then of others, we spoke to Isaac Bruce, Dan Fouts, Dick Fermil, Mike Singletary, Jim Bocovid, Steve Atwater, Leroy Butler, James Lofton, Drew Pearson, André Reed, Warren Sapp, Bill Polian, Anthony Munoz, and Derral Rivas. And also Derek Brooks, who usually spends an hour with Vic and I on that Saturday show. But on this day, it was over three because he wasn't going to leave the press box and walk in the rain to get to where all the Hall of Famers congregate. And that Warren Sapp interview Vic and I did, we played when Derek was with us and he just couldn't stop laughing. Listening to that interview is worth the price of admission alone. And I'll begin my, I guess I can call it a stream of consciousness with all the sights and sounds of these few days. I'll begin it with Dwight Frini because of his connection to the Cardinals in that 2015 season when the Cardinals were on their way to a great year. They finished that season 13 and 3. They had some injuries in an early October game against the Lions to linebackers Alex Ocalfour and Kenny Demons. And all of a sudden they needed a reinforcement. And Bruce Arians, the head coach obviously reached out to his old friend Dwight Frini, who were together in Frini's last season in Indianapolis in 2012, when Arians was the offensive coordinator and then interim head coach. And Frini came into the Cardinals. And there's a story on this on the site and had eight sacks in 11 games, made $600,000 in incentives for the eight sacks that he has. And he also had a sack on the playoffs, which he didn't get an incentive for, but still had quite a year. And it was during that season, he said, "Hey, I can still play this game." He was considering retirement when he hadn't gotten a call until mid-October. And during his speech on Saturday, he gave a shout out to a lot of the players that he played with, especially those after his 11 seasons with the Colts. He mentioned Bobby Wagner of the Seahawks and other players, but with the Cardinals, he called out Larry Fitzgerald, Kaleas Campbell, and of course Arians. Campbell, notably, had the fumble recovery on a sack by Frini in the waning seconds of a December win over the Vikings. And so he called those out. And when he talked about Arians in his speech, he said, "Thanks for calling and getting me off the golf course." And referred to all his lost balls that he'd been having while he was playing golf. And he says, "Hey, you and I, we kept it real." And the camera went on Arians, who was in the audience in Canton. So great, great notes from Frini, who, by the way, talked about being an artist. And the football field was my canvas. And he said, "But anytime I would start thinking about maybe playing again, I realized I can't catch my three-year-old running around the house with the remote." So those were, those were some great moments there. Patrick Willis from the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of the Chargers, was the head coach in San Francisco, and Willis was there. And they're in training camp, obviously. And he was waffling back and forth about whether to go to Canton until he watched the knock-on-the-door feature that NFL Network does each year after the Hall of Famers are told that they're in the Hall of Fame. And he watched that show. And at that point, he said, "My maybe turned to a yes." And arranged for a private plane to fly to Canton on Saturday and go right back. And then he offered seats on that plane to many of Willis's teammates with the 49ers. A great touch there with the enshryment of Patrick Willis. Julius Peppers, a shout-out to Michael Jordan, who was in the audience. And Peppers mentioned how he went to the University of North Carolina, largely because he idolized Jordan growing up. He was a basketball player. He said his first love was basketball. That's Julius Peppers I'm talking about. And he did, in fact, play basketball for the Tar Heels and play football. And then he decided just to concentrate on football when he was told, "Hey, you could be a first-round pick in the NFL." NBA, not so much. And Peppers admitted that and talked with Vic and I when he said, "Yeah, I probably maybe could have played in the NBA, but I certainly wouldn't have had a hall of fame career." It was also interesting that when we asked Peppers about his speech and preparing for it, he said, "Yeah, I'll be glad when it's over. You know, I'm not that good of a talker." Well, he proved otherwise during that speech was one of the really good ones of the Saturday enshryment. Got to mention the gold jacket, dinner on Friday night. And yes, somebody get to Steve McMichael in a moment. And Jim Porter, the Hall of Fame president, has made some subtle changes to the things that go on at the Hall of Fame. In the past, when they had the knock on the door, it was done by David Baker, the president of the Hall of Fame. Baker left several years ago and Jim Porter took over. And one of his first decisions was, "I want to make this all about the Hall of Famers." And so the knock on the door now is at the player's house when they're told of their enshryment. And it's done by another Hall of Famer standing there in his gold jacket. And they extended this a little bit with the enshryment ceremony, which in the past would have the player's presenter put the gold jacket on them at the dinner on Friday night. Well, they changed that to also have a Hall of Famer do that. Dion Sanders for Devin Hester, Michael Irvin for Andre Johnson, Bruce Smith for Dwight Frini, Mike Singletary for Patrick Willis, Mean Joe Green for Julius Peppers, and Steve Atwater for Randy Graddishar. So a great change by the Hall of Fame. They also called the families up onto the stage because Porter understands how important families are to these players. So that was a cool thing to see and so many great things that you see during all this. And then what we were talking to Derek Brooks, Vic and I during the show on Saturday, I couldn't help but notice he was wearing a gold polo. We all know about the gold jackets, but he was wearing a gold polo and asked them about it. I said, yeah, these are really cool. I'm kind of liking this. Didn't put two and two together at the time until all the Hall of Famer's came on the stage. And we're all wearing those gold polos. Subtle but important because here that all these guys sitting on the stage in a ceremony that begins normally at noon Eastern time. And yeah, it can get hot. It can get humid in Canton. And now they're much more comfortable sitting there in a short sleeve shirt polo, but all looking the same. I want to digress for a moment because I talked about that heat and humidity. I always chuckle. I've been in Phoenix area now for four years, four years next month. And I always laugh at everybody who acts surprised every summer at the weather, at the temperatures, how hot it is. Unbelievable, it is said. I'm saying really? Unbelievable? Like you're not used to this by now? Well, let me tell you this. I got off the plane in Cleveland on Wednesday upon arrival. Walked outside to get the shuttle to the rental car. And as soon as I walked outside, I said, oh my god, this is disgusting. So I said, I got to see what the temperature is. So I checked it out, and it was only 86 degrees. But the humidity was like 60%. And I said, let me tell you something. I said to myself, this is a whole lot worse and feels a lot worse than 105 110 degrees in Arizona and the Phoenix area. So everybody, don't be moaning. Be happy that you don't have to deal with all of that humidity. I know I'm going off in a lot of different directions here, but I got to get to Steve McMichael. This was quite the thing that the Hall of Fame did by flying the bust and McMichael's gold jacket to his home outside Chicago in a town named Homer Glenn. So the entrement essentially could take place there. They got on a private plane at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. That included the bust, the gold jacket, his wife Misty and daughter Macy, who were at the dinner on Friday night, along with Hall of Famers, Mike Singletary, Jimbo Covert, and Richard Dent. And for those who are watching, the ceremony could see they were all there surrounded by other bears, teammates, and other friends as McMichael Bedridden with ALS was laying there with his gold jacket on him and ready to do the unveiling of the bust, which was taped. It was interesting because while the cameras switched and the TV shows switched to that taping, you can see Jimbo Covert, Mike Singletary, Richard Dent already back in Canton sitting on the stage and his wife Misty was back also. So they unveiled that bust with the flowing hair and it just captured the personality of the guy they called Mango, and it just makes you sad to look at what he is now. But everyone says that he knew what was going on. Misty had to turn his head a little bit to the side so he could see the bust and she said, "Four words. That's you baby forever." And what meaningful words those were. So a lot of great moments, just an amazing weekend and it was also cool when Andre Johnson, the first Houston Texans player enshrined in the Hall of Fame, noted that of course the Texans were in the game Thursday and he noted that Jim Porter, the Hall of Fame president asked him, he said, "Hey Andre, if we put the Texans in the game on Thursday, do you think the fans will come out?" And Andre said, "They will. They will show up and show out." And they certainly did. A nice contingent of Houston people there for his enshrined and he ended his speech by saying, "I can't lie. I'm happy as hell. I've reached the pinnacle." Devin Hester was about as emotional as anyone I've ever seen when he went on the stage Friday night to get his gold jacket coming to tears. Sometimes guys cried during their speech but he wasn't sobbing but you can see he had a tear in his eye. The first special teams player other than a punter or kicker who's ever been enshrined in Canton. Oh and by the way they always reference the 378 people that are now in the pro football Hall of Fame. That number was talked about several times during the weekend. It's 330 players, the rest coaches and contributors. So 330 players and we all know what a special group that is. I mentioned the rain. I got to mention this because I always have memories on my first Hall of Fame visit in 1980 and the Packers were playing the Chargers in the Hall of Fame game and Dan Fouts was the quarterback for the Chargers. They had that great team and a coach by Don Coriel and the Chargers got the ball to start the game, marched down the field, lickety split but then the drive bogged down. They attempted a field goal and missed. Well the game went on and no one was scoring and then all of a sudden you could see to the left which would be the West. You could see you could just see this storm coming in and boy did it rain and thunder and lightning and that game was ended with a little under six minutes to go a scoreless tie in the pro football Hall of Fame game. Well we saw it again on Thursday night when the rains came and ended the Bears and the Texans in the third quarter so this one was kind of filled with rain also but they got through it and when the skies cleared by the time the ceremony was ending on Saturday the sun was out and it was another glorious day in Canton. One other quick note on back to Dwight Frini and Julius Peppers who were both selected in the first in the same draft in 2002. Peppers was second overall. Frini was 11th and Bill Polian told a story about how they were deciding before the draft whether to take Frini kind of an undersized Ed Druscher or a big defensive tackle named Charles Grant who had played at Georgia and Polian said a few days before the draft he was on a treadmill with Tony Dungy and he said Tony we got to make this decision. Do we go for power with the tackle or speed with Dwight Frini and Dungy didn't hesitate and said go with the speed and that's what they did. Charles Grant ended up being picked 25th overall in that round by the Saints had a pretty good eight-year career with New Orleans but certainly nothing close to a Hall of Fame career and who those who might recall that draft. Panthers are picking second after David Carr or I'm sorry Derek Carr or what no it was David Carr. David Carr goes to the Texans who were picking first as an expansion team and then the Lions were picking third and most everyone thought that the Panthers were going to pick quarterback Joey Harrington. Well they didn't they selected Julius Peppers and there we go with another what if. What if the Panthers had taken Joey Harrington who knows who knows what would have happened we never know the answers to those what if questions but here's Julius Peppers entering the Hall in the Hall of Fame after a 17 year phenomenal career and Joey Harrington played a little bit here and there but certainly never lived up to being the third pick in the NFL draft and the last note I'll leave you with as everyone always asks about the Hall of Fame process and the difficulty of it we as selectors go through it every year and I and a lot of times after the names are announced everyone said well how could you overlook this guy you don't respect that guy he didn't get in from the list of 15 finalists and I always say that it's underrated it shouldn't be but it's a heck it's a heck of an accomplishment just to make the final 15 and consider this you have 15 finalists five get elected you have 10 left over and most will then be a finalist the following year unless someone enters the seniors category then you only have five other spots left and who's going to enter those five a lot of times those are first-time eligible players and that is what keeps guys who have been waiting out many times this year there's only first one first-time eligible that went in Julius Peppers and Tony oh Gates did not everyone thought that he would but he didn't we'll see what happens next year but here's a quick little peek at some of the first-time eligible in 2025 Eli Manning that one if he becomes a finalist is going to be probably an incredibly long presentation with those who say well as team one two Super Bowls and others that say well that shouldn't be the only thing that decides if you're a Hall of Famer after that you have linebacker Luke Keekley linebacker Terrell sugs who played some time with the Cardinals running back Marshawn Lynch tackle Joe Staley guard Marshall Yonda safety Earl Thomas and the kicker who helped the Patriots win two Super Bowls Adam Vinity area what a group of first-time eligible which is only going to make the process next year and well it's really coming up this year as we have the cut downs and then we'll vote sometime in January it's only going to make it as difficult certainly but maybe more difficult than it's been in a long time hope you enjoyed this stream of consciousness we'll get back to these as I head back home and get back on the Cardinals bandwagon it sure sure look like everybody that man this was an injury free team when I left town and all of a sudden hell broke loose after I left with the injuries and of course with the top of the list B.J. Ojolare but we'll be back with all our Cardinals reports when I return along with all the great coverage from Jess Root so that wraps up this Cardinals camp and pro football Hall of Fame update from State Farm Stadium this is Howard Ballzer for the Rise Up Sea Red podcast we'll be back again soon. Want a website with unmatched power speed and control? 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