The Pro Football Hall of Fameconfirmed Wednesday that former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau's eligibility for the Hall of Fame will not change following his tragic death. Seau will be eligible for the first time in 2015.
"We haven't accelerated anybody's eligibility due to death," Hall of Fame vice president of communications Joe Horrigan told U-T San Diego. "We had this circumstance when (former Chiefs linebacker) Derrick Thomas died. People were saying, 'We should just waive the requirement,' and so on and so forth. But we stayed with the five-year requirement that we do have, simply because we don't want to start changing rules. It's a procedure but not (on) an individual basis."
Longtime Hall of Fame voter John McClain wrote Wednesday that he's always "taken for granted" Seau would be a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee.
Numbers don't do justice to Seau's impact on the field, but the honors he received as a player say enough. Seau made the Pro Bowl 12 times and was a first-team All Pro six times. He played in the second-most games in NFL history of any linebacker.
Seau is sure to be inducted in 2015 when his time is up. In the meantime, those closest to him will honor his legacy in other ways.
