CANTON, OHIO — There are six new football players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which meant six well-rehearsed speeches from the honored Saturday, and six more discourses from their presenters.
Only one quoted the Dalai Lama. Who knew Gary Zimmerman was such an eloquent speaker?
In joining John Elway as the only Broncos inducted into the Hall, Zimmerman relayed a story of how he became an offensive tackle in the first place.
“I chose Oregon because it was the only college that would accept me as a middle linebacker,” Zimmerman said. “While dressing for the first practice, I thought how strange it was that I was No. 75.”
He learned after practice the reason for his number. His coaches felt his future was not in tackling running backs and quarterbacks but in blocking for them.
“As Dalai Lama once said,” Zimmerman said, ” ‘Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.’ ”
Nobody really starts out wanting to play the offensive line, Zimmerman added in summation of his tale, it’s just where they wind up. He got some laughs and impromptu applause for that.
Zimmerman talked about the anxiety he felt in 1993 when he left the Minnesota Vikings after seven seasons to begin his five-year stay with the Broncos. The moment he walked into camp, Zimmerman felt the pressure of protecting the blind side of Elway, one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time.
“The night before the game you get little or no sleep,” Zimmerman said, “knowing that if you screw up you will forever be known as the guy who lost the franchise.”
Zimmerman chose Broncos owner Pat Bowlen to be his presenter. Normally an excellent public speaker who rarely reads from notes, Bowlen was admittedly nervous while introducing Zimmerman.
“When Gary first asked me to be a presenter, my first concern was I was going to have a difficult time explaining how good he really was,” Bowlen said. “Offensive linemen get very little attention. Gary wanted very little of it. There was no doubt in my mind he was the mainstay of our offensive line and a major reason why we were able to go and win our first Super Bowl in 1997.”
Bowlen relayed a story from that Super Bowl XXXII team party. The offensive linemen were gathered in a group, drinking a beer. Bowlen invited Zimmerman to bring his linemen out to a table, relax, dance. A giddy Bowlen then told Zimmerman how he couldn’t wait till next year.
At that moment, Zimmerman told Bowlen he was done. The shoulders were shot.
Zimmerman thanked his former teammates as a whole, singling out the guards he played next to, both Minnesota’s Randall McDaniel and the Broncos’ Mark “Stink” Schlereth.
He acknowledged Bowlen, Elway, coach Mike Shanahan, offensive line coach Alex Gibbs and trainer Steve “Greek” Antonopulos.
“There should be a stage full of guys standing up here receiving this honor with me,” Zimmerman said.
When wondering why his team now has only two Hall of Fame players, Bowlen has said he believes there is an East Coast bias among the voting sect. There are numbers, however, that suggest that among the old AFL teams, the bias is not for East Coast teams but Super Bowl champions.
The Oakland Raiders are tied for sixth with 13 Hall of Famers. The Kansas City Chiefs have eight. Both won early Super Bowls. The Broncos kept getting crushed in Super Bowls until they finally won back-to-back in 1997-98. And now two of their players from those years, Elway and Zimmerman, are in, and tight end Shannon Sharpe figures to at least be a finalist next year.
“The Broncos taught me how to win,” Zimmerman said.
An estimated Fawcett Stadium crowd of 17,000 was at least 80 percent Redskins fans as the headliners for the class of 2008 were former Washington receiver Art Monk and cornerback Darrell Green.
Also enshrined were Kansas City cornerback Emmitt Thomas, New England outside linebacker Andre Tippett and San Francisco defensive end Fred Dean.
Zimmerman was perhaps the most unheralded of the new Hall of Famers, but he also was the only one who had been named to two NFL all-Decade Teams (1980s and 90s).
And he was not without people who paid to see him one more time.
“I was a huge fan of his, because he was the absolute best at what he did and he was quiet about it,” said Dusty Yungeberg, a 26-year-old law student from Littleton who was wearing a blue and orange T-shirt that listed Zimmerman’s accomplishments. “Too many players in the NFL are too busy running their mouths. Zimmerman kept his mouth shut and did what he was supposed to. I loved that about him.”
For one night, however, Zimmerman had no choice. He had to talk. He might have been the only who made the Dalai Lama proud.
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
