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Inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame: The Players Who Give Back · The Good Side of Sports Podcast

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  That's all! She fucked you! One, two, three! One, two, three!
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  Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Good Side of Sports podcast,
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  where we highlight all the good being done by athletes and organizations.
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  I'm your host, Brian Hartong, and today we're at a place where anyone who's
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  played the game of football has dreamt of ending their career at,
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  and that's the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
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  And today I'm joined by Adrian Allison, Chief Relationship Officer of the Pro
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  Football Hall of Fame. A mouthful. Yeah, good job. Yeah.
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  Thank you. I appreciate it. I guess before we get going, I always like to find
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  out a little bit about you and your role here at the Hall of Fame.
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  Sure. So first of all, thanks for being here. I am.
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  I appreciate you asking to join, but more importantly, I appreciate what you
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  do and the goal that you have for your podcast, you know, spreading good news, salt and light.
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  There's a lot of podcasts out there with a lot of different things to say.
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  So I appreciate what you're doing in terms of your podcast. In terms of my role
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  here, I've had the privilege of working here.
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  Now I'm into year seven. So it'll be, let me get into the year seven.
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  I have had a couple of different roles here. I call myself a chief of stuff.
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  I've done everything from legal work to HR. Now I oversee my Hall of Famer Relations department.
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  I help with our Black College Football Hall of Fame relationship.
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  Get the chance to privilege to oversee Super Bowl activities,
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  enshrinement activities. So I do a lot of different things, but I'm also born
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  and raised here. And so I went.
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  To high school right behind this building. And so it's a privilege to be back
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  home, a privilege to be back in the community and to work at.
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  The pro footballer thing right yeah um i'm from stark county as well,
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  my whole life 45 years and this place always had a special
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  special place in my heart for sure and especially these weeks right here because
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  this is where things are starting to heat up yeah for sure yeah i can't imagine
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  all the activities you have going outside thank you for taking the time out
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  to get with us yeah we're excited yeah well you know what it's it's
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  it's what and you know it because you've been here.
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  You know, this community comes together, um, during a shrine weekend and everyone
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  steps up and there are hundreds of volunteers that come in and,
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  and support this event, make the, the hall of famers in the new class feel welcome.
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  The businesses step up, everybody steps up to make Canton, you know,
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  shine on the national stage. And, and it's, it's pretty cool. And it's coming.
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  How many, uh, average on average cast hall of famers come for this weekend or
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  the weekend Yeah. So right now we are, knock on wood, we are hoping to break a record of over 110.
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  And the context for that is really important because there are 185 that are a lot.
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  So if we get somewhere between 105 and 110, it's pretty impressive.
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  And we could talk about this a little later on, but that doesn't come by accident.
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  Um, there's very intentionality in that, um, where the hall of famers,
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  um, have come to recognize that this is a second home for them,
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  that, um, the people of Canton, um, really, really care about them and want to celebrate them.
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  And so, um, they, they, they embrace coming back. And so, um,
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  because they feel a connection with this place. Okay.
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  I know the Hall is definitely represents greatness on the field.
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  How, how do you, um, judge greatness off the field? Well, I mean, I think.
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  That's a hard question because the word greatness, right, in and of itself,
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  you know, how do you define greatness, right?
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  And even, you know, there are 300, there will be 387 guys that are enshrined in this hall, right?
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  So the theory is they are the greatest of the game. And yet there are debates
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  every year about who could and who should and who hasn't and who.
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  And that's the beauty of it.
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  And so I think at the end of the day, you know, greatness, whether it's on the
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  field or off the field, there's a standard, right? There's a standard of excellence.
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  And sometimes that standard of excellence shows up for the world to see.
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  And sometimes it's with your family, right?
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  In your own house, in your own community, right? And so, and so,
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  you know, being a great hall of famer off the field does not mean that you are,
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  doesn't necessarily mean that you have a foundation or you're,
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  you're, um, doing community service.
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  It could be that you're just being a really great husband, a really great dad,
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  a really great uncle and, um, making your spirit of the world a little bit better.
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  That's, that's great. Yeah.
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  Yeah. I mean, there's, like you said, the definition of greatness can be a million
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  to million different things. Yeah.
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  Yeah. And we pay attention and rightfully so. There are people,
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  and, 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, foundation work and
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  giving back and all of that.
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  And they are great as well. But the ones,
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  who are just being upstanding citizens and using their platform in whatever
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  manner to make a difference in the world, they're great, too.
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  That leads me to my next question.
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  Who comes to mind when you think about doing the most?
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  As far as like community service or foundation work and stuff like that,
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  do you have anyone that comes to mind? Yeah, you're trying to get me fired, man.
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  Yeah, so, you know, my job is a relationship with all these guys, right?
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  So I start dropping names. We've got a problem. But so let me answer it this way.
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  So there are 87 guys that we know of. And there's probably more,
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  but we know for a fact that 87 of our Hall of Famers have some type of 501c3 or foundation.
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  That is a significant number of people, guys, who have said,
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  I'm going to put in ink that I'm going to have a foundation to do something
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  good for either their local or broader community.
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  Can I give you examples? Yes, I'll give you some examples.
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  You take somebody like Anthony Munoz down in Cincinnati, has a great foundation
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  that's helped over 60,000 kids.
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  With their physical, mental, and emotional health, giving scholarships for college.
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  Somebody like Mike Singletary. Mike Singletary does prison ministries,
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  and he goes into prisons and encourages prisoners that they're going to be okay.
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  Despite the fact that they've had some challenges.
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  Mel Blunt started a...
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  A youth home, um, and, and, and full fledged, um, that at, before COVID,
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  it was a overnight, um, youth home where he had young boys come in and,
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  and they, they, they, and that was a, um, cowboy.
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  Um, and so they, they used the horses to help with, you know,
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  the kids sort of, uh, like, uh, like assisting animals or.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. So to help the horse therapy and all that stuff.
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  So, and, and, and they still are active engaged. They just don't do it overnight,
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  but they're still very much involved in the community.
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  I was here, um, Donnie Schell was here one time and he said, you know what?
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  I believe in, um, I grew up where food shortages were, was a problem.
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  And so he, he said, Adrian, I'm, I'm going to write a check to,
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  uh, your a local organization that helps provide food.
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  Charles Haley has a reading program. And every year he has a big golf tournament
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  and all the proceeds go back to the reading program that he does.
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  Adam Vinatieri does play sports shooting and it all goes to charity.
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  Adam's coming in this year. I mean, they're all.
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  It's just endless of guys who take their platform and take their means and say,
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  how can I make a difference in the world?
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  And we get the privilege here at the Hall of Fame to help elevate that for them
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  and put it out in the world for other people to know about. That's sort of the
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  premise behind my show is to bring that to light. Yes.
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  Because there are so many things being done out there that no one knows about.
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  That's correct. So that's,
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  my mission is to get it out there so so to help if an organization needs help
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  to put them in the forefront so they can get assistance absolutely
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  yeah it gives me a lot of uh information to pass on and stuff like that too
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  so um i know behind us we have
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  the walter paint man of the year which goes hand in hand with everything sure
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  talking about um do you do you guys have any involvement with that at all so
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  the way well first of all uh there's a wall behind us um,
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  that has all of the walter payton men of the year on it okay and from the time
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  the award started i think back in the 60s and there are 30 hall of famers um,
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  that are on that wall and so that tells you in and of itself that you know,
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  hall of famers a lot of hall of famers um use their platform not just to be
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  great football players but also to to receive an award such as.
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  You know that award i don't know if if you pay attention or not but the nfl honors.
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  Every year um there used to be a time where the the league mvp was the highlight,
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  that is now the highlight the man of the year award and so to have 30 guys get
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  that award it's it's pretty pretty incredible and we're excited and there'll
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  there'll probably be some guys on that list who aren't hall of famers yet,
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  um that eventually will be highlighting because they they got it in recent years
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  but you know it's a it's a it's a it is a that's an nfl word but what our goal
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  is is to highlight that um.
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  Hall of Famers and others are doing great things in the community.
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  So as far as the community goes here, does the Hall of Fame interact with any
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  like the schools or any initiatives that they have for the city?
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  You can't not hear like that. Well, yes.
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  And I chuckle a little bit because we have a whole department here that's called Youth and Education.
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  And their whole mission is to take the,
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  the values that the Hall of Fame stands for and then share that with youth around
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  not just in Stark County, but around the country.
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  So we have programs such as Heart of the Hall of Famers, and we do that both
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  virtually and in person, where we get a Hall of Famer and they come and talk to the kids about,
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  character and integrity and respect and honor.
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  Um we have um there are times where there's so many kids in this hall it's almost
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  overwhelming but we want them
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  to come in and see you know see the game for life theater see where um,
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  where where the sports heroes are also doing great things there was a there's
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  that in front of us there's this character design um,
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  and in the room that we're in um it was we we decided as a hall that.
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  Not for money, not for anything else, but we wanted to highlight character.
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  And we 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 have shown extraordinary
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  character. And so this whole room was a character exhibit.
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  We made pins that had the C on it for character.
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  We highlighted guys who have Pat Tillman.
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  You know, Pat Tillman is obviously, you know,
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  his story, you know, where you are a starting NFL safety and the world changes
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  and you say, I'm going to give that up and I'm going to go fight for my country. Right.
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  We want to highlight people like that. But Joe Delaney, Emlyn Tenille.
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  Others who have who have really done great things.
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  And so we bring in the youth to talk about that and to share these stories with
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  them. And we're really excited 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 that you're excited that
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  they're taking? I know back behind us, there's all these fields back here.
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  Is flag football something that has come into the forefront? It has.
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  As a matter of fact, this time last year, if you would have been here this time
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  last year, this whole place would be crawling with flag football.
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  We had a national flag football tournament here for the last two years.
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  They've moved, but one of the things that we did last year was help.
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  Ohio establish flag football as a sport, a sanctioned varsity sport.
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  We got the girls in particular to make sure that they knew that they could have
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  a varsity sport here in Ohio in flag football. So that's a varsity sport in Ohio. It is. Yes. Yes.
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  And so the hall, you know, I'm almost...
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  A 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 he worked
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  with the, the Bengals and he worked with the Ohio high school athletic association
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  to say, let's, let's bring in flag football as a, as a sport in Ohio.
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  And, and so it is, it is now. And as a matter of fact.
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  Um, my high school, the great Kenton McKinley high school, I know your wife's
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  over there for Maslin, but I'll, I'll just, I'll just keep it back to the, to the subject matter.
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  The great Kenton McKinley high school, um, uh, their girls flag football team,
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  uh, did very, very well, um, uh, in the national tournament that they didn't
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  win it, but they, uh, not the national and the state tournament.
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  They, they were, I think in the top, top four.
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  Um, so we're, we're just excited to be, do our smart part, right?
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  Because, because it's not about the hall of Fame, but what we do and always
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  try to do is use our platform to uplift something that's good, right?
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  And flag football is good. Yeah, I've seen videos of girls playing.
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  They can play. Well, it's interesting you say that because not only can the girls play, but,
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  I don't know if you watch the flag football versus the pro. Oh, yeah.
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  And I'm watching those flag football players, and them pros couldn't do anything with them.
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  And what it's showing is a different game, right? There's a different skill set.
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  You know, you don't want those pro players hitting again. But in terms of flag
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  football, there's a skill, there's an art, there's a strategy.
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  And it was pretty cool to watch Tom Brady get beat up by some guys from off
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  the street who are really experts at flag football.
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  So you do a lot with retired players and Hall of Famers that have been out of
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  the game for quite a while? Yeah.
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  So I mentioned there are 185 living Hall of Famers, and then there are a grand total of 387.
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  So let me pause there and just...
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  Explain the magnitude of that so there are i don't know 30 000,
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  people who play pro football um in the hundred years that it exists so one percent
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  one percent of the players who ever played a game have a bust in the room behind us um,
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  so it is a a fairly big deal and it's exclusive club.
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  And so I get the privilege of, um, the, of those 387, um, and then the 185 living
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  is on my team, um, is the team that interacts with them. Okay.
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  So, um, if, if they have passed away, we interact with their family, a,
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  widow, a son or a daughter, um, and, and let them know that they're still part
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  of the hall of fame family and then for the ones that are alive we reach out
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  what do they need is there anything that we can help them with whether it's some of their um uh,
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  their charity things or they just need um uh.
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  Our assistance with health care benefits or whatever it is uh that's what my
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  team does here on a daily basis and so but,
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  Even smaller than that is we just reach out just to say, hi.
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  Just to say, you know, especially for some of the guys who played a while ago. Right.
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  And there are guys who, you know, the world keeps moving and people forget or
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  people don't remember how great he was.
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  And so we remind them, you know, hey, we still are protecting your legacy here.
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  We're still telling your story here, even though, you know, there's new guys
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  that have come along. So we're really, really, really honored to be able to
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  do that just to be transparent.
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  Yeah. I mean, when you're saying the guys from way back that are still around,
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  they didn't have the multimillion dollar contract. That is correct.
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  Like that. So that's correct. So they, any kind of help with probably is very.
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  Well, not, not, not on all of that front.
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  Right. I mean, yes. And they, yeah, the game changed, but here's the facts.
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  The facts is that those guys built it, right?
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  So the guys aren't getting paid what they're getting paid now,
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  but for the guys who, who, who back in the day used to work two jobs,
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  you know, so they did a, they did football during football season.
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  And then they got a job in off season.
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  Well, now football is the only job, but back then that wasn't the way it was.
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  And so, you know, to be able to.
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  Um, share with them and hear their stories and, and preserve their legacies.
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  Um, as football has become, you know, America's sport.
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  Right. And, and it's, and, and, and the NFL is trying to make it the world sport
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  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,
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  did we finish with the world cup? Almost finished Yeah.
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  Yeah. And so, you know, but football is football is a passion.
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  But we want to make sure that these Hall of Famers that they they know that
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  their legacy will live for them.
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  How many how many. So when do the current class, when do they show up?
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  Well, they will be here August.
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  It's like August the 5th and the 6th. So they, they came here in March.
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  Um, we had a, um, there's a new class exhibit downstairs. Okay.
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  They helped open that. Um, and they, they, they, all the exhibits,
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  um, down there, they curated. So it's their exhibit.
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  They provided the stuff for it and then they help open it up.
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  And then we had a, um, a dinner in their honor in March.
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  And then they will be here, um, in August, uh, first, first week in August. and.
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  Away they go. And I can tell you this, they'll be they'll be so happy when it's
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  done because it's like a wedding. OK.
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  So if you think about planning a wedding or a major party, that whole week is just a lot.
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  There's a lot of stuff because you are the guest of honor. Right.
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  So most of them say, I love that and I can't wait till next year where I'm not
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  the guest of honor. But now I could sit back and just enjoy being a Hall of
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  Famer. But until that time, but they've but we've got a great class.
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  And you want to talk about character and honor and integrity.
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  Larry Fitzgerald. Oh, I mean, that young man, he is he he is exemplifies character.
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  Drew Brees exemplifies character. Luke Keekly, who most people call Clark Kent
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  that turned into Superman, is one of the nicest, colitist.
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  Caring young men I've ever met. And that is not an exaggeration.
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  And then right, you have Roger Craig, the great Roger Craig,
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  who is just ecstatic to be in the hall.
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  And then Adam, who I mentioned, has a charity where he has an event and all
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  the money goes to charity. So we've got a really great class of guys who exemplify that character.
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  Throughout the year, I know these three weeks coming up are crazy,
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  but what kind of events do you guys have outside of this retirement period?
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  Yeah. So one of the things that goes in line with what you're talking about,
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  is we have a new program that's been around for us, not new anymore.
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  This is our third year. It's called the residency program.
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  And so what we do, we've had over 80 Hall of Famers, some to Canton.
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  They spend three days in Canton and all they do while they're here is go out
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  in the community and we ask them, what are they passionate about?
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  And then if they say, well, I love first responders or I love interacting with
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  senior citizens or I want to work with kids or I want to go to a hospital.
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  And then we take them out in the community and they go and visit with those,
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  things that they have a passion about.
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  They speak to kids. As a matter of fact, for a full year, every week they spoke
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  to McKinley's football team. Um, but we, we've set it up where every Stark County
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  school has had a chance to hear from a Hall of Famer.
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  Um, they'll go up to children's hospital and interact with, um,
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  the kids there, uh, go to a senior home, do that, go to a boys club and do,
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  I mean, and it's significant because it's, that's what they want to do.
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  Right. And what they want to do is, is, is acknowledge that.
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  That, yes, I live somewhere else, but this is my second home and I want to invest
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  in my second home like I do in my first home.
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  And so the residency program has been just a phenomenal program for us here
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  at the Hall of Fame and for the StartCon community. So really,
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  really excited about that.
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  It does seem like there's a consistent theme where they are great on the field,
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  but then they don't forget, like, give back.
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  That's what I like the most about this whole thing is just the way they give back.
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  And it's not always the same way, like you said. Some people like first responders
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  or children in hospitals and stuff like that. And everyone has a passion that
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  they love and get behind and stuff like that. And that's what I love about this whole thing.
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  We were talking a little bit about education and stuff like that.
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  What message is there a message that the hall likes to get out into the community
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  or what they stand for or anything like that?
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  Yeah, well, I think there's a couple of layers to that. One is that the hall...
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  And I want to say this the right way. The Hall is when I go somewhere and I got my Hall stuff on,
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  anywhere in this country, people will see my Hall of Fame logo and know instant.
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  That's Canton, that's Stark County, that's the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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  What we want to do as the Hall is be great partners to the community that we represent.
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  And so over the last five years, we've given, and I'm not exaggerating,
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  millions of dollars back to the community to support events and charities and
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  other things that are community. That's just the hall.
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  And by the way, we're a 501c3 as well.
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  So we're a charity ourselves, but we believe that it's so important that with
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  all the pride that this community has about being the home of the whole,
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  that we also support our community and give back to them.
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  So we do that pretty consistently.
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  I think the other thing for us is, though, is that, you know,
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  we want to embed when people come here that they see. And if you walk around
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  this building, you'll see specific intentional.
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  Pointing towards the values, the values of football.
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  Right. So we want to we want people to see that it's about commitment.
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  It's about courage, about integrity, honor, respect.
• 26:05
  Those things are embedded into what the hall stands for.
• 26:10
  And we want people to walk away and go, huh.
• 26:14
  Great football players, but they're also delivering a message that's bigger
• 26:19
  than that. And that's what our goal is. Right.
• 26:22
  So when, uh, when we got here earlier, we went down through downtown and it's
• 26:28
  a big transformation since last time I was down. Sure. We have that Centennial.
• 26:31
  Centennial Plaza. Yeah. That was a, that was a pretty cool, uh, thing.
• 26:36
  What were those plaques with all the names on it? Yeah.
• 26:39
  So those plaques, um, so Centennial Plaza was, um, a vision.
• 26:45
  Uh, first of all, it used to just be the Kresge lot, right?
• 26:48
  Right. Because there was a grocery store or department store named Kresge that
• 26:53
  used to live there and it got tore down. And so we used it for activities and
• 26:57
  the, and, and then the question came, how can we build something for this community?
• 27:02
  And so, uh, the hall partnered with the community to, to do the Centennial Plaza
• 27:07
  and the Centennial, of course, is related to the 100th year of the NFL.
• 27:11
  And so we were celebrating the 100th year of the NFL, and we wanted to make
• 27:16
  sure that Canton had a place in that celebration.
• 27:20
  And so Centennial Plaza was born out of the idea of you can't celebrate the
• 27:26
  100 years of the NFL without celebrating its birthplace.
• 27:29
  And so the idea for Centennial Plaza was born.
• 27:33
  And so part of that was that every player who played in the NFL,
• 27:39
  played a game in the NFL over the first 100 years, would have their name in Centennial Plaza.
• 27:45
  And so all of those names down there are, if you played in one regular season
• 27:51
  game in the NFL, your name is down at Centennial Plaza.
• 27:55
  And it's just another way to honor the history of the game. And so Centennial
• 28:00
  Plaza has turned into a great...
• 28:04
  A gathering place for our community. It's a pride point for our community and
• 28:08
  the hall. You know, I love the hall spheres that are down there.
• 28:12
  And when you go down there, it reminds people again that the Pro Football Hall
• 28:18
  of Fame and Canton and Stark County, we are connected in a way that,
• 28:24
  and by the way, you know, the hall is here in Canton because of the community.
• 28:31
  The community is what brought the hall here.
• 28:34
  You know, campaigns. We had a founder's exhibit that was Stark County Proud is what we called it.
• 28:42
  But it was basically an exhibit that acknowledged the dollar donations that
• 28:47
  people in the community were given. Literally, we put up every donation on a
• 28:51
  wall and some were a dollar, some were $5, some were a lot.
• 28:55
  And we honored the Belden Company and the Timken Company and all those companies
• 28:59
  who came together to Kent Repository push to say, if you're going to have a
• 29:04
  Hall of Fame, it belongs here.
• 29:06
  And that push ultimately was successful. And that's why we're here.
• 29:10
  So we're really, really proud that we're in Stark Company.
• 29:14
  For me, the biggest thing that I got from this job and I get from this job is
• 29:21
  you get to see under the helmet, right?
• 29:23
  And so when I get a chance to talk to a Hall of Famer, which is often.
• 29:33
  And you talk to them not as, obviously yesterday, I know, this is not a name
• 29:38
  drop, but yesterday I was on a call with Warren Moon. Okay.
• 29:44
  So I watched Warren Moon play in football. Warren Moon is the only African-American
• 29:49
  quarterback in the Hall of Fame, right?
• 29:51
  But Warren Moon is very dear and special to me.
• 29:57
  But now I'm chopping it up with Warren Moon and I'm talking to Warren Moon about,
• 30:03
  you know, his kids and his celebrating the things that he's doing in his life.
• 30:08
  That's the fun part of the job, because what you realize is that,
• 30:12
  yeah, he was out throwing the football all over the place and earned here.
• 30:18
  But Warren Moon's a nice guy.
• 30:19
  He's a really cool dude who cares about his family, cares about the community. That's who they are.
• 30:26
  And for us to have the opportunity and privilege to do that,
• 30:29
  it's pretty cool. Yeah, your job is, that's my dream job.
• 30:33
  Yeah, I get that a lot, by the way. You're not the only one.
• 30:35
  Trust me, I get, I get, I want your job.
• 30:39
  So hopefully this job will get me.
• 30:43
  I've got it. Yeah, you've got it. I've got that job. Our mission,
• 30:47
  our mission is to honor the greatest of the game, right? Right.
• 30:50
  That's that's well, honor the greatest of the game to preserve its history, promote its value.
• 30:57
  Right. And celebrate excellence together. That is our mission.
• 31:00
  And so it's on the wall down there. So it's it's it's it's not either or is
• 31:06
  both and. Right. It's not.
• 31:09
  We either honor the greatest of the game by only celebrating their stats,
• 31:13
  but it's both honor the great greatest of the game and promote its values.
• 31:17
  And that's embedded into what we do here at the hall every day.
• 31:22
  And we're, we're, we're.
• 31:26
  We're privileged to have a platform that people will have the opportunity to
• 31:34
  see our mission play out, right?
• 31:36
  Because not everybody has the platform, but we do.
• 31:41
  And so when we go around the country and people see that logo,
• 31:45
  we want them to think two things.
• 31:47
  Greatest of the game, great vibes.
• 31:50
  There we go. Great. That's it. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
• 31:52
  Thank you for your time. Thank you.
• 31:54
  And that concludes our show. So tune in next time, where I'll bring you another
• 31:58
  amazing foundation supporting a great cause.
• 32:00
  And remember, show your good side out there, everyone.