Old Hog Grimm says selection 'a great day in my life'

TEMPE, Ariz: Russ Grimm wasn't sure when, if ever, he'd make to the pro football Hall of Fame, but he said his selection on Saturday made it "a great day in my life".

The Arizona Cardinals assistant head coach and offensive line coach was honored for his 11 seasons as guard on the Washington Redskins' famed Hogs offensive line. He appeared in four Super Bowls.

Grimm said he doesn't believe it's sunk in yet that he has finally made it to the Hall of Fame after falling short as a finalist for several years. After all those near misses, he stopped worrying about something he knew he couldn't control.

"I don't think it's set in yet," Grimm said at the Cardinals' headquarters. "To be in the Hall of Fame, to be enshrined in Canton, I don't think that part has hit me yet."

Grimm said he had stopped counting on making it in.

"You start thinking, 'Well, I'm getting up there, I'm only going to be eligible for another couple of years, then I'm going to go over to the seniors'. Sometimes I just sit there and not even worry about it. I was just thinking 'well, it will happen post-mortem'."

He may have been joking but the comment showed how it feels for players who don't have the big-name notoriety of those who make it on the first ballot and don't have to sweat out the subsequent years of voting.

"I'm elated about it, to be honest," Grimm said. "Not so much where it's a weight off my back where I've been worried about it, I'm just thrilled to be associated with the type of football players that were not only on that list today but are in the Hall of Fame already."

He said he had asked his offensive line coach with the Redskins, Joe Bugel, to present him at the ceremony in Canton, Ohio, which will briefly take him away from his duties with the Cardinals.

Grimm gave all the credit to Bugel and his Redskins teammates.

"The success I had as a player, or the career I had as a player, is often based on the guys you play beside, the guys you play with," he said. "Playing on the offensive line, you're only as good as your weakest guy up front. I was blessed to play with a lot of guys for a long time."

AP

(China Daily 02/08/2010 page23)