Thread: Dent will learn Hall of Fame fate Saturday ev

Originally Posted by BearStuff

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!.. time for a August Canton party now!!!

Bears' Dent in Hall

Super Bowl XX MVP finally gets nod

Richard Dent before the NFC Championship game at Soldier Field. (Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune / January 23, 2011)





DALLAS — Inevitably, the Pro Football Hall of Fame electors did Saturday what so many NFL offensive linemen facing the Bears in the 1980s were forced to do.

They made way for Richard Dent.

"I didn't have a lot of recognition for my career, things like defensive player of the year, but this is the ultimate recognition,'' Dent told the Tribune on the phone from Las Vegas before he planned to fly to Dallas for Super Bowl XLV.

Dent, 50, finally got the news he had waited years for when the Hall announced the former Bears pass rusher would be one of seven men inducted into its 2011 class. The group includes running back Marshall Faulk, linebackers Chris Hanburger and Les Richter, NFL Films creator Ed Sabol, cornerback Deion Sanders and tight end Shannon Sharpe.

A 44-member panel of selectors met for 7 1/2 hours to whittle through a list of 15 finalists, which included Dent for the seventh time in the last eight years. When his daughter, Mary, informed Dent after his day on the golf course that she had received the long-awaited call, they shared tears of joy.

"I'm very appreciative and very happy — it was a long time coming," Dent said.

He knows something about waiting. The Bears didn't select Dent out of Tennessee State until the eighth round of the 1983 NFL draft. Reflecting on his circuitous path to Canton, Dent thanked his college coaches, ex-Tennessee State teammate Steve Moore and former Bears offensive tackle Jimbo Covert because, "practicing against him every day made the games seem easy.''

"When you start a career, you never think about the Hall of Fame,'' Dent said. "Watching a guy like Walter Payton for many years, he would always say, 'Don't do what I say, do what I do.' If you can do your thing the way he did his, there is a possibility you could be in the Hall of Fame. I'm so thankful to look at a guy like him, and many other guys I played with."

In Dent's 15 years, including two stints with the Bears, he had 137 1/2 sacks in 150 starts (10 1/2 more in 10 playoff starts) and was third on the all-time sack list when he retired. He had eight seasons of double-digit sacks — only Bruce Smith and Reggie White had more. Dent referred to Lawrence Taylor as an inspiration Saturday night and in the 11 years their careers overlapped, Taylor had 125 sacks and Dent had 124 1/2. He also forced 33 fumbles and had eight interceptions.

"I couldn't be happier for Richard,'' Mike Ditka, his coach on the Bears, said Saturday night in Dallas. "It's the 25th anniversary of our Super Bowl when he was the MVP, so that's even more special. I mean, he made everybody on that defense better."

As the 27th former Bear to enter the Hall — no NFL team has more — Dent joins Payton, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary as other inductees from the '85 team.

"He could play at a level that I don't care who you were, you couldn't block Richard Dent,'' former Raiders coach and NFL broadcaster John Madden said.

People typically give former Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan and his "46 defense'' deserving credit for developing Dent yet, interestingly, 72 percent of his sacks came under a coordinator other than Ryan.

"I used him in coverage a lot and most defensive ends just rush the passer," Ryan said. "But he paid the price so we could run the defense we wanted to run He could have had a lot more sacks if I hadn't had him in coverage.''

It turns out 137 1/2 were enough. The next time you salute the man nicknamed "The Colonel,'' it will be as a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

"Given how long I've been waiting,'' Dent said, "this means an awful lot.''