Coral Springs to Canton, Steve Hutchinson blocks his way into Pro Football Hall of Fame | Opinion

Greg Cote
·2 min read
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Steve Hutchinson played offensive guard at Corals Springs High School but the University of Michigan recruited and signed him as a defensive tackle — only to switch him back to guard early in his redshirt freshman year.

Smart move. Worked out OK.

Hutchinson was an immediate starter at guard and helped pave the way to the Wolverines’ ‘97 national championship.

He would go on to the make the NFL’s 2000s All-Decade team in a 12-year career with Seattle, Minnesota and briefly Tennessee, helping elevate the position of guard from one of thankless obscurity to one meriting attention and respect.

Saturday, the Fort Lauderdale-born Hutchinson will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

“As soon as you get that knock, it seems like the movies,” Hutchinson said of that moment he knew was in. It happened February 1, 2020, but enshrinement for the Class of ‘20 was delayed until this summer by the pandemic. “You get that knock and every memory you had as a kid and from high school and college — in that instant you look back through that wormhole and realize how far you’ve come and how much you’ve done.”

In 2005 Hutchinson helped lead Shaun Alexander to a Seahawks-record 1,880 rushing yards, NFL-record 28 touchdowns and the league MVP award.

In 2008 he led Adrian Peterson’s Vikings-record 1,760-yard season.

“Guard is a position that’s hard to watch on TV because it gets lost from the camera angles. And an offensive lineman doesn’t really have stats for himself,” he said. “So any time you can get a rushing record or a TD record like that, it’s big for us, too.”

Actually, this particular guard does have some state for himself:

Seven Pro Bowls, five times first team All-Pro, 169 starts in 169 career games including 123 in a row. Oh, and this: In his entire career he was called for only 19 accepted penalties including only 11 holding flags — less than one per season.

Hutchinson, 43, who now lives in Nashville, always had a simple philosophy:

“If you’re going to do it, you might as well be the best.”

Done.