Latest / The Good Side of Sports Podcast / Inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame: More Than Just Legends

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Inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame: More Than Just Legends · The Good Side of Sports Podcast

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Baby,
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Hello and welcome to another episode of
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the Good Side of Sports podcast, where we highlight all the good being done by
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athletes and organizations. I'm your host, Brian Hartong,
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and today we're at a place where anyone who's played the game of football
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has dreamt of ending their career at, and that's the Pro Football Hall of Fame
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in Canton, Ohio. And today I'm joined by Adrian Allison,
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Chief Relationship Officer of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And a
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mouthful. Yeah, good job. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate
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it. Um, I guess before we get going, I always like to find out a
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little bit about you and your role here at the Hall of Fame. Sure.
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So first of all, thanks for being here. Um, I am,
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uh, I appreciated you asking to join, but more importantly,
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I appreciate what you do, um, and the goal that you have for your podcast.
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You know, spreading good news, salt and light.
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Um, there's a lot of podcasts out there with a lot of different things to
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say. Um, so I appreciate what you're doing, uh, in terms of your
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podcast. Um, in terms of my role here,
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I've, I've had the privilege of working here. Now I'm
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into year 7, so it'll be,
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uh, I'm gonna get into the year 7. Um, I have
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had a couple of different roles here. I call myself the chief of stuff.
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Um, I've done everything from legal work to HR.
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Um, now I oversee my Hall of Famer relations department.
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Uh, I help with, um, our Black College Football Hall of Fame relationship.
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Um, get the chance to privilege to oversee, um,
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Super Bowl activities, uh, enshrinement activities. So I
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do a lot of different things, but I'm also born
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and raised here. Okay. And, uh, so I was, uh,
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went to high school right behind this building. And so it's
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a privilege to be back home, a privilege to be back in the community and
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to work at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Right. Yeah.
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I'm from Stark County as well, my whole life,
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45 years. And this place always had a special,
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special place in my heart for sure. And especially these weeks
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right here, because this is where things are starting to heat up. Yeah, for sure.
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Yeah. I can't imagine all the activities you have going on. So thank you.
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For taking the time out to get with us. Yeah, we're excited. Yeah,
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well, you know what, it's, it's, it's what— and you know it because
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you've been here, you know, this community comes together,
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um, during Enshrinement Weekend and everyone steps up.
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And there are hundreds of volunteers that come in and,
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and support this event, make the, the Hall of Famers and the new
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class feel welcome. The businesses step up, everybody steps
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up to make Canton you know, shine on a national stage.
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And, and it's, it's pretty cool and it's coming.
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How many, uh, average— on average, past Hall of Famers come
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for this weekend or the weekend coming? Yeah, so right now we
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are knocking wood, we are, we are hoping to break a record,
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um, of over 110. Wow. Um,
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and, and the context for that is really important because there
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are 185 that are alive. Okay. So if we get about 100,
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you know, somewhere between 105 and 110 It's pretty
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impressive. And we could talk about this a little later on, but that doesn't come
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by accident. There's very intentionality in that
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where the Hall of Famers have come to
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recognize that this is a second home for them, that the
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people of Canton really, really care about them
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and want to celebrate them. And so They, they,
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they embrace coming back. And so because they feel
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a connection with this place. Okay. I know the Hall definitely represents
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greatness on the field. How do you judge greatness
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off the field? Well, I mean, I think that's
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a hard question because the word greatness,
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right, in and of itself, you know, how do you define greatness?
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Right. And, and even, you know, there are 300— there will
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be 387 guys that are enshrined in this hall, right?
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Um, so the theory is they are the greatest of the game,
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and yet there are debates every year about who could
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and who should and who hasn't and who— and that's the beauty of it.
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And, and so I think at the end of the day, you know,
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greatness, whether it's on the field and off the field, there's a standard,
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right? There's a standard of excellence. And, um,
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and sometimes that standard of excellence shows up for
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the world to see. And sometimes it's with your family,
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right? In your own house, in your own community, right?
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And so, you know, being a great Hall of Famer off the field
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does not mean that you are— doesn't necessarily mean
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that you have a foundation or you're doing
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community service. It could be that you're just being a really great husband,
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a really great dad, a really great uncle, and,
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um, making your spiritual world a little bit better.
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That's great. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's— like
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you said, the definition of greatness can mean a million different things. Yeah,
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yeah. And we pay attention, and, and rightfully so. There are people— and,
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you know, I have a ton of examples and we could talk about— there,
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there are Hall of Famers who are really doing you know,
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foundation work and, and giving back and, and all of that.
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And they are great as well. But the ones,
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um, who are just being upstanding
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citizens and using their platform in whatever manner
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to make a difference in the world, they're great too. That's— that leads me to
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my next question. Who, who do you— comes to mind when you think about
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doing the most as far as like community service or
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foundation work and stuff like that? Do you have any— anyone that comes to mind?
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Yeah, you're trying to get me fired, man. Um, because— or maybe
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a bunch of people. Yeah, so, so, you know, my job
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is, is a relationship with all these guys, right? So I start dropping
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names, we got a problem. But, but, so let me— so let me answer it
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this way. So there are 87, okay, guys that we know of,
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and there's probably more, but we know for a fact that 87 of our Hall
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of Famers have some type of 501 or foundation. Okay.
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That is a significant number of people who, uh, guys who,
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who have said, I'm going to put in ink that
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I'm going to have a foundation to do something good for, for either
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their local or broader community. Um,
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can I give you examples? Yes, I'll give you some examples. Um,
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uh, you take somebody like Anthony Munoz down in Cincinnati.
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Uh, has a great foundation that's helped over 60,000 kids,
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uh, uh, with their physical, mental, and, and emotional,
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uh, health, um, giving scholarships for college. Um,
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somebody like Mike Singletary. Mike Singletary, um, does prison
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ministry ministries, and he goes into prisons and, and encourages,
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uh, prisoners that, that they're going to be okay despite the
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fact that they've had some challenges. Uh, Mel Blunt. Mel Blunt started
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a a youth home,
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um, and, and a full-fledged, um,
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that at before COVID it was an overnight,
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um, youth home where he had young boys come in and,
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and they, they, they, and that was a, um,
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cowboy. Okay. Um, and so they used the horses to help
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with, you know, the kids sort of, uh, like, uh, like assisting
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animals or— yeah, yeah, like, yeah, some to help the horse therapy and
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all of that stuff. So And, and they still are active, engaged.
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They just don't do it overnight, but they're still very much involved in the
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community. I was here, um, Donnie Shell was here one time and he
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said, you know what, I, I believe in, um, I, I grew up where food
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shortages were, was a problem. And so
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he, he said, Adrian, I'm, I'm going to write a check to, uh,
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your local organization that helps provide food. Okay.
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Um, Charles Haley has a reading program.
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Um, and every year he has a big golf tournament and all the proceeds go
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back, um, to, um, the reading, the reading
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program that he does. Um,
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Adam Vinatieri does clay sport shooting
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and it all goes to charity. Um, Adam's coming in this, this,
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this year. I mean, they're, they're all— it's just, it's just
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endless of guys who, who, who take
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their platform, um, and take their their means
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and say, how can I make a difference in the world? And,
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and we get the privilege here at the Hall of Fame to help elevate that
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for them and put it out in the world for other people to know about.
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That's sort of the premise behind my show, is to bring that to light.
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Yes. Because there's so many things being done out there that no one knows about.
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That's correct. Yeah. So that's my mission, is to get it out there
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so, so to help if organizations needs help
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to put them in the forefront so they can get assistance. Absolutely. Yeah,
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it gives me a lot of, uh, information to pass on and
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stuff like that too. So, um, I know behind us we have the Walter Payne
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Man of the Year, which goes hand in hand with everything we're talking about.
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Um, do you, do you guys have any involvement with that at all?
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So the way— well, first of all, uh, there's a wall behind
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us, um, that has all of the Walter Payton
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Men of the Year on it. Okay. And from the time the award started,
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I think back in the '60s, and there are 30 Hall of Famers,
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um, that are on that wall. And so that tells you in and
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of itself that, you know, Hall of Famers, a lot
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of Hall of Famers, um, use their platform not just to
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be great football players but also to, to receive an award such as the
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You know, that award, I don't know if, if you pay attention or
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not, but the NFL Honors Show, okay, um, every year,
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um, there used to be a time where the, the league MVP
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was the highlight. That is now the highlight,
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the Man of the Year Award. And so to have 30 guys get
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that award is, is pretty, pretty incredible, and we're excited.
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And there'll, there'll probably be some guys on that list who aren't Hall of Famers
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yet Okay, um, that eventually we'll be highlighting because
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they, they got it in recent years. But, you know, it's a, it's a,
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it's a, it is a, that's an NFL word. But what
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our goal is, is to highlight that, um,
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Hall of Famers and others are doing great things, um, in the community.
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Um, so as, as far as the community goes here, does the Hall of Fame
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interact with any, like, the schools or any initiatives that they have
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for the city of Canton, anything like that? Well, Yes, and, and I,
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I chuckle a little bit because we have a whole department,
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um, here that's called Youth and Education, um,
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and their whole mission is to take the,
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um, the, the values that the Hall of Fame
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stands for and then share that with, uh,
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youth around not just in Stark County but around the country.
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So we have programs such as Heart of a Hall
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of Famer And that we do that both virtually and in person
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where we get a Hall of Famer and they come and talk to the kids
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about, you know, character and integrity and respect and honor.
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We have— there are times where
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there's so many kids in this hall, it's almost overwhelming. But we
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want them to come in and see, you know,
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see the Game for Life Theater, see where where,
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where, where the sports heroes are also doing great
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things. There was a— there's that in front of us, there's this character sign,
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um, and in the room that we're in, um, it was— we,
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we decided as a hall that not
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for money, not for anything else, but we wanted to highlight character and we
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wanted to have an exhibit that highlighted the great character,
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not just of Hall of Famers, but of football players who,
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who have, have shown extraordinary character. And so this whole room
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was a character exhibit. We made pins that had the C
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on it, uh, for character. We highlighted,
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um, guys who have, uh, Pat Tillman.
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You know, Pat Tillman is, um, obviously,
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you know, yeah, his story, you know, where you,
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where you are a, a starting NFL safety and
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the world changes and you say, I'm going to give that up and I'm going
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to go fight for my country, right? We want to highlight people like that,
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but Joe Delaney, Emlyn Tennille, um,
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others who have, who have really done great things. And so
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we bring in the youth to talk about that, um, and to share these stories
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with them. And we're, we're really excited, um,
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to be able to use our platform to share the values of the game.
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So Where do you see it? Does the hall have a direction
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that, that you're excited that they're taking? I know back behind us there's
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all these fields back here. Is, is flag football something that,
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that's come into the forefront? It has.
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As a matter of fact, this time last year,
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if you would be here, if you would have been here this time last year,
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this whole place would be crawling with flag football. We have— we had
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a flag— national flag football tournament. Here, uh, for the last
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2 years. Um, they've moved, but one of the things that we did last year
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was help, um, uh, Ohio establish
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flag football as a sport. Okay. Um, a sanctioned varsity
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sport. Um, we got the girls in particular to make sure that they knew
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that they, they could have a varsity sport, uh, here in Ohio in flag football.
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So that's a varsity sport in Ohio? It is. Oh wow. Yes, yes. And,
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and so the hall Um, you know, I'm almost a
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little embarrassed to say it because our president would not want credit for it.
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And yet the fact of the matter is, is he worked with the Browns and
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he worked with the, the Bengals and he worked with the, um, Ohio High
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School Athletic Association to say, let's, let's bring in flag
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football as a, as a sport in Ohio. And, and so it
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is, it is now. And as a matter of fact, My high school,
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the great Kenton McKinley High School— I know your wife's
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over there from Maslin, but I'll, I'll just, I'll just
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keep it back to the, to the subject matter— the great Kenton McKinley High School,
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um, uh, their girls flag football team, uh,
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did very, very well, um, uh, in the national tournament.
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That I don't— they didn't win it, but they, uh, not national, in the
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state tournament, they, they were, I think, in the top top 4.
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Um, so we're, we're just excited to be— do our small
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part, right? Because, because it's not about the Hall of Fame, but what we do
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and always try to do is use our platform to
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uplift something that's good, right? And flag football is good. Yeah,
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it's— I've seen videos of the girls playing.
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They, they can, they can play well. Well, it's interesting you say that because not
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only can the girls play, but I don't know if you watch the
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flag football versus the pros. Oh yeah. And I'm
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watching those flag football players and them pros couldn't do anything with
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them. And what it shows you is a different game, right? There's a different skill
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set. You know, you don't want those pro players hitting you. But in
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terms of flag football, there's a skill, there's an art, there's a strategy.
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And it was pretty cool to watch, watch Tom Brady get
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beat up by, by some guys from off the street who were really experts at
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flag football. Um, do you— so you do a lot with retired
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players and retired Hall of Famers that have been out of the game
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for quite a while? Yeah. So, so, so, so I mentioned
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there are 185 living Hall of Famers and then there are a grand total
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of 387. So let me pause
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there and just explain
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the magnitude of that. So there are I
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don't know, 30,000 people
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who play pro football, um, in the 100 years
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that it exists. So 1%, 1% of
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the players who ever played the game have a bust in the room behind us.
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Um, so it is a, a fairly big deal,
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and it's a very exclusive club. And so I get the
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privilege of Um, the— of those 387,
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um, and then the 185 living is on my team,
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um, is the team that interacts with them.
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Okay. So, um, if, if they have passed
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away, we interact with their family members, a widow, a son or a daughter,
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um, and, and let them know that they're still part of the Hall of Fame
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family. And then for the ones that are alive We reach
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out, what do they need? Is there anything that we can help them with,
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whether it's some of their charity things or
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they just need our assistance
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with healthcare benefits or whatever it is? That's what my
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team does here on a daily basis. And so, but even
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smaller than that is we just reach out just
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to say, high, just to say, you know, especially for
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some of the guys who played a while ago, right? Right. And there are,
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there are guys who, you know, you know, the world keeps moving
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and people forget, or people don't remember how great he
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was. And, and so we, we remind them, you know,
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hey, we still are protecting your legacy here. We're still telling your story
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here, even though, you know, there's new guys that have come along.
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So Uh, we're really, really, really honored to be able
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to do that, just to be transparent. Yeah, I mean, when you're saying the guys
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from way back that are still around, they, they didn't have the multi-million
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dollar contract. That is correct. Like that. So that's correct.
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So they— any kind of help would probably— it's very— well,
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not, not on all of that front, right? I mean, yes, and they— yeah,
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the, the game changed. But here's the facts. The facts is that those
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guys built it, right? So the guys aren't getting paid what they're
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getting paid now, but for the guys who, who,
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who back in the day used to work 2 jobs, right? You know, so they
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did a— they did football during football season, and then they got a job
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in the offseason. Well, now football is the only job, right?
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But back then, that was the way it was. And so,
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you know, to be able to share
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with them and hear their stories and preserve their legacies
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as football has become, you know, America's sport.
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Right. And it's— and the NFL is trying to make it the world
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sport because how many international games do we have now?
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That's very intentional. Right. And we just got finished with the— did
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we finish with the World Cup? Almost finished with the World Cup. Yeah. Yeah.
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And so, you know, but football is— football is a passion.
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Um, but we want to make sure that these Hall of Famers, um,
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that they, they know that their legacy will live forever. Um, how many,
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how many— so when did the current class, when do they show
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up? Well, uh, they will be here August—
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it's like August the 5th and the 6th. Okay. So they,
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they came here in March. Um, we had
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a Um, there's a new class exhibit downstairs.
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Okay. They help open that. Okay. Um, and they,
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they, they— all the exhibits, um, down there,
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they curated. So it's their exhibit. They provided
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the stuff for it, and then they help open it up. And then we had
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a, um, a dinner in their honor in March, and then they will be here,
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um, in August, uh, first, first week in August, and away
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they go. And I can tell you this, they'll be, they'll be so
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happy when it's done because it's like a wedding.
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Okay. So if you, if you think about planning a wedding
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or a major party, uh, that whole week is just a
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lot. It's a lot of stuff because you are the guest of honor, right?
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Um, so most of them say, I love that and
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I can't wait till next year where I'm not the guest of honor, but now
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I could sit back and just enjoy being a Hall of Famer. But until
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that time, um, but they've— but we've got a great class, um,
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and you want to talk about character and honor and integrity,
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um, Larry Fitzgerald. Oh yeah, I mean,
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that young man, he is— he,
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he exemplifies character. Uh,
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Drew Brees exemplifies, uh, character.
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Luke Keekley who most people call Clark
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Kent that turned into Superman, is one of the nicest,
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politest, caring young men I've ever
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met. Okay. Um, and that is not an exaggeration. Um, and then right
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you have Roger Craig, the great Roger Craig, who, who is just
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ecstatic to be in the hall. And, and, and then Adam, who I mentioned,
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has a, has a charity where he, he he has
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an event and it just— all the money goes to charity. So we've got a
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really great class of guys who exemplify that character throughout
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the year. I know, I know these 3 weeks coming up are crazy, but what
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kind of events do you guys have outside of this enshrinement
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period? Yeah, so one of the things that goes in line with what you're talking
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about is we have a new program that's been
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around— it's not new anymore, this is our 3rd year. It's called the Residency
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program. Okay. And so what we do, we've had
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over 80 Hall of Famers come to
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Canton. They spend 3 days in Canton,
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and, and all they do while they're here is go out in
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the community. And we ask them what
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are they passionate about. Um, and then if they say, well,
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I love first responders, or I love Um,
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interacting with senior citizens, or I want to work with kids, or I
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want to go to a hospital. And then we take them out in the community
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and they go and visit with the— or with those things
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that they have a passion about. Okay. Um, uh, they,
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they speak to kids. Um, they— matter of fact, um, they, uh,
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for a full year, every week they spoke to McKinley's
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football team. Um, but we, we've set it up where every Stark
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County school has had a chance to hear from a Hall of Famer. Um,
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they'll go up to Children's Hospital and interact with,
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um, the kids there, uh, go to a senior home, do that, go to
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a boys club and do— I mean, and it's significant
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because it's— that's what they want to do, right? And what they want to do
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is, is acknowledge that, that yes, I, I live somewhere else,
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but this is my second home, and I want to invest in my second home
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like I do in my first home. And so, uh, the residency program
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has been just a phenomenal program,
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uh, for us here in the— at the Hall of Fame and for the
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Stark County community. So really, really excited about that. Yeah, it does seem
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like there's a consistent theme where they, they are great on the
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field, but then they don't forget, like, they give back. That's,
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that's what I like the most about this whole thing, is just the way they
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give back. And, and it doesn't— it's not always the same way. Like you said,
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some people like first responders or children
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in hospitals and stuff like that. And everyone has a passion that they,
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that they love and get behind and stuff like that. And that's what I love
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about this whole thing. Um, we were talking a little bit about education and stuff
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like that. Does there— what message— is there a message that the hall likes to
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get out into the community, or what they stand for,
24:49
or anything like that? Yeah, well, so there's— I
24:53
think there's a couple layers to that. One is, is that the hall I
25:00
want to say this the right way. The Hall is—
25:04
look at this. When I go somewhere and I got my
25:08
Hall stuff on anywhere in this country,
25:11
right, people will see my Hall of Fame logo in
25:15
no instant, right? That's Canton,
25:19
that's Stark County, that's the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
25:22
What we want to do as a hall is be great partners to the community
25:26
that we represent. And so, um, over the last 5
25:30
years, we've given— and I'm not exaggerating—
25:34
millions of dollars back to the community to support events and charities
25:38
and other things that our community— that's just the hall. And by the way,
25:41
we're a 501 as well. So, so, so we're a
25:45
charity ourselves, but we believe that it's so important
25:50
that with all the pride that this community has about being
25:54
the home of the Hall, that we also support our community and give,
25:58
give back to them. So we do that, um, pretty insistent— pretty
26:02
consistently. Okay. I think the other thing for us is though,
26:05
is that, you know, we want to embed when people
26:09
come here that they see— and if you walk around this building, you'll see specific
26:13
intentional, um, um, pointing towards the
26:17
values, the values of football, right? So we want to—
26:21
we want people to see that it's about commitment, it's about
26:25
courage, it's about integrity, honor, respect. Those things
26:28
are embedded into what the Hall stands for.
26:32
And, and we want people to walk away and go,
26:35
huh, great football players, but they're also
26:40
delivering a message that's bigger than that. And that's what our
26:43
goal is, right? So when, uh, when we got here earlier,
26:47
we went down through downtown, and, and it's a big
26:51
transformation since last time I was down. Sure. We had the Centennial— Centennial
26:55
Plaza. Yes, that was a, that was a pretty cool, uh, thing.
26:59
What were those plaques with all the names on it? Yeah, so those plaques,
27:02
um, so Centennial Plaza was, um, a vision
27:07
Uh, first of all, it used to just be the Kresge lot,
27:10
right? Right. Because there was a grocery store or department
27:14
store named Kresge that used to live there, and it got tore down.
27:18
And so we used it for activities. And, and then the question became, how can
27:22
we build something for this community? And so, uh,
27:25
the Hall partnered with the community to, to do the Centennial
27:29
Plaza. And the Centennial, of course, is related to the 100th year of
27:33
the NFL. And so we were celebrating the 100th year of the NFL,
27:37
and we wanted to make sure that Canton had a place in
27:41
that celebration. And so Centennial Plaza was born out of
27:44
the idea of, um, you can't celebrate the 100
27:48
years of the NFL without celebrating its birthplace. And so
27:52
the, the idea for Centennial Plaza was born.
27:55
And so part of that was that every player who
27:59
played in the NFL played a game in the NFL over
28:03
the first 100 years would have their name, okay, in Centennial Plaza.
28:07
And so those— all of those names down there are—
28:11
are— if you played in one regular season game in the NFL, your name
28:16
is down at Centennial Plaza. Okay. And it's just another way to honor,
28:19
you know, the, the history of the game. And so Centennial
28:23
Plaza has turned into a, a great, um,
28:27
a gathering place for our community. It's a pride point for our community. And the
28:31
hall, you know, I love this, the, the hall spheres that are down there.
28:35
Um, and when you go down there, it, it reminds people again
28:39
that, that the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Canton
28:42
and Stark County, we are connected in a way that, um— and,
28:46
and by the way, you know, the, the hall is here
28:50
in Canton because of the community. The community is
28:54
what brought the hall here. Um, you know,
28:57
campaigns— we had a, a Founders exhibit that was,
29:01
um, Stark County Proud is what we called it, but it was basically
29:05
an exhibit that, that acknowledged the dollar donations
29:09
that people in the community were given. Literally, we put up every donation
29:13
on a wall, and some of them were dollars, some was $5, some were a
29:17
lot more. And we, we honored the Belden Company and the Timken
29:20
Company and all those companies who came together to Canton Repository, who pushed
29:25
to say, if you're going to have a Hall of Fame, it belongs here.
29:29
And that push ultimately was successful, and that's why we're here. So we're
29:33
really, really proud, um, that we're in Stark County. Yeah.
29:36
For, for me, the biggest thing that I
29:40
got from this job, and I get from this job, is you get to
29:44
see under the helmet, right? And so when I when I
29:47
get a chance to talk to a Hall of Famer, um, which is
29:51
often, and you, and you, and you
29:56
talk to them not as— I was yesterday, I don't know,
30:00
this is not a name drop, but yesterday I was on a call with Warren
30:03
Moon. Okay. Okay. To— so
30:07
I watched Warren Moon play football. Warren Moon is the only African-American
30:11
quarterback in the whole Hall of Fame. Okay. Right? Warren Moon is,
30:16
uh, very dear and special to me.
30:19
But now I'm chopping it up with Warren Moon, right? And,
30:23
and I'm talking to Warren Moon about, you know, his kids and,
30:27
and, and it's celebrating the things that he's doing in his life.
30:31
That's the fun part of the job, because what you realize is that,
30:35
yeah, he was out throwing the football all over the place and,
30:39
and earned here But Warren Moon's a nice guy. Yeah,
30:42
he's a really cool dude, um, who cares about his family, cares about
30:46
the community. That's who they are. And, and for us to have the opportunity
30:50
and privilege to, to do that, it's pretty cool. Yeah, that— your job is— that's
30:55
my dream. Yeah, I get that a lot, by the way. You're not the only
30:58
one, trust me. I get, I get, I get, I want your job, right?
31:02
So I'll try. Hopefully my— this job will get me.
31:05
You got it. Yeah, you've got, you've got the job for sure.
31:08
Our mission is to honor the greatest of the game.
31:12
That's, well, honor the greatest of the game, to preserve
31:16
its history, promote its values,
31:20
and celebrate excellence together. That is our mission. And so
31:24
it's on the wall down there. So it's not either
31:27
or, it's both and. It's not we
31:31
either honor the greatest of the game by only celebrating their stats,
31:35
But it's both honor the great, greatest of the game, and promote its
31:40
values. And that's embedded into what we do here at the
31:44
Hall every day. And we're privileged
31:51
to have a platform that people will have
31:56
the opportunity to see our mission play out, right? Because not every Not
32:02
everybody has a platform, but we do. And so when we go around the country
32:06
and people see that logo, we want them to think 2
32:10
things: greatest of the game, great values. There we go.
32:13
Great. That's it. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time.
32:15
Yeah. Thank you. Uh, and that concludes our show. So tune in next time where
32:19
I'll bring you another amazing foundation supporting a great cause.
32:23
And remember, show your good side out there,