CANTON— Long ago, Randy Gradishar passed the eyeball test of Ohio people who don't have Hall of Fame votes.
He came to Canton on Saturday like a poet unappreciated by critics until after he was gone.
At 73, Gradishar greeted the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement crowd saying life has been more than good. He seems to have plenty of it left.
The linebacker who was the heart of the Denver Broncos ' "Orange Crush" defense spent much of his speech on quotes from the Bible on a stage in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
He said one passage is his life mantra: "Work diligently for the Lord rather than for people … earthly status is very temporary."
He looked in the crowd to find two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, his 1970s Ohio State teammate.
"I was a senior and Archie was a sophomore when Archie invited me to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in Columbus," Gradishar said.
At that meeting, he said, he was introduced to "the four truths of life," beginning with Genesis and extending to the resurrection.
Looking toward Griffin, Gradishar said, "It was there, at age 22, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior."
Gradishar stayed on that theme as he thanked church friends in from Denver, thanked his family, and thanked the football people in his life starting with high school.
Gradishar has been Hall of Fame-eligible since 1989, the last time Cleveland reached an AFC championship game, six years before "the move."
He left no doubt with Ohio State fans that he was a Hall of Fame talent. After a high school career at rural Champion High School north of Warren, he arrived in Columbus in 1970.
As a 1973 Buckeye senior, he was the best player on a 10-0-1 team that missed a national championship only because the offense couldn't get going in a 10-10 tie at Michigan.
He was a 10-year iron man in Denver, a rock on a 1977 Broncos team that reached the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. He was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1978.
He was fairly young, 31, when he retired after the 1983 season, then he was forgotten for Hall of Fame purposes, at one point dismissed, as legend has it, by an influential Hall of Fame voter from New York.
His Hall of Fame presenter and fellow former Broncos linebacker Tom Jackson more of less told the skeptics where they were wrong.
"He was relentless," Jackson said. "That led to 18, 19, sometimes 20 tackles every time he took the field. The closer to the goal line it got, the better he got.
"I never saw a better tackler.
"As a man, it has always been family, faith and hard work."
Gradishar grew up 45 miles from Canton working in his family's grocery store.
"Watching my dad at his grocery store taught me valuable lessons," he said. "I watched how he took pride in treating his customers with kindness and respect.
"One day - it was Feb. 2, 1980, he didn't open the grocery store. He died of an aneurism. I was 28 years old and he was 60.
"Dad was deeply loved and respected. I lost my mom and my dad. I didn't lose the principles mom and dad taught me."
There wasn't a trace of animosity as to waiting 35 years to make the Hall of Fame.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Randy Gradishar pro football hall of fame enshrinement speech
