'Overwhelmed... with humility': Selfless star Richard Seymour deflects Hall of Fame moment

CANTON — The sky was overcast, but this was Richard Seymour’s day in the sun. A bronze bust was by his side and football royalty surrounded him on the stage at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Of course he was going to make this moment about everybody else. That’s what the guy did his whole career.

The three-time Super Bowl champion, who played out of position on the line at times and ate up blockers to make sure New England’s defense truly hummed, was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

More:Tom Brady was Bill Belichick's best player. Was Richard Seymour Belichick's best defender?

“I’m overwhelmed today with humility,” said the 6-foot-6, 317-pound Seymour, a seven-time Pro Bowler. “Not because what his moment says about me. But what this moment says about we, and about what we can do together. I’m overwhelmed today with gratitude because I didn’t get here alone. None of us did. None of us could have.”

Seymour spent much of his 9-minute, 30-second speech talking about family, pointing out, “Football may be what I do. But family is who I am.”

He teared up talking about his wife, Tanya, his high school sweetheart who was there for the first and last snaps of his 12-year professional career.

He gushed about the couple’s four kids: RJ, Kayla, Kennedy and London.

“You’re my greatest joy,” He said. “I believe in your gifts. Of everything I’ve accomplished, there is no greater honor than being your dad.”

Seymour said 31 years ago this month, his mother, Deborah, drove him to his first football tryout. He didn’t want to get out of the car.

His mother, sitting in the stands Saturday, made him go.

“If I told you three decades later I’d be wearing a gold jacket, you’d have no reason to believe me,” Seymour said to his mom. “But you believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.”

More:Why did the Cleveland Browns prefer 'Big Money' to Hall of Famer Richard Seymour?

New England drafted Seymour sixth overall in 2001 out of the University of Georgia. He played the first eight years of his career with the Patriots, the final four with the Raiders.

Seymour believed his own family’s values were at the heart of what the Patriots preached. He lauded the ownership of Robert Kraft and the coaching of Bill Belicheck.

“We had a young quarterback, but we made it work,” he said with a smile, a nod to Tom Brady.

More:Richard Seymour first Bill Belichick draft pick elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame

Seymour was a young guy who learned from defensive veterans such as Willie McGinest, Rodney Harrison, Ty Law and Mike Vrabel. He carried their bags and got their doughnuts. They taught him to be a pro.

“Together, we were in constant pursuit of that edge,” Seymour said. “We called ourselves the edgers. That edge was our culture. We felt a sense of responsible to each other, a sense of obligation. None of us wanted to be the person to let the team down, to let our brothers down. That defined us.

“We never cared who got the accolades as long as we got the W.”

Reach Josh at josh.weir@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @jweirREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Richard Seymour's Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech