DENVER — With his election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Randy Gradishar now needs more time to sign his autograph.
Instead of “Randy Gradishar” with perhaps his former No. 53 attached, the former inside linebacker for those great Bronco Orange Crush defenses is to now write his name followed by “HOF 2024.”
Call it a labor of love. It’s a right of passage only Hall of Famers are authorized to use.
“I’ll be truthful, I’ve done one,’’ Gradishar said Friday as he met various media at Phil Long Ford dealership in Denver. Gradishar has been an ambassador for Phil Long dealerships for 26 years. “So I’m still waiting for some people to come around and say, ‘Randy will you sign for my autograph and put HOF 2024.’ That’s a whole new signature for me right now and just very excited to finally get in and have the opportunities to represent the Denver Broncos.”
Two weeks shy of his 72nd birthday, Gradishar has been busy since his Hall of Fame election became public knowledge last week during the NFL Honors program. He and his fellow 2024 HOF classmates – Dwight Freeney, Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Julius Peppers, Patrick Willis and the wife of ailing Steve McMichael – were introduced to the Super Bowl LVIII crowd at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium following the first quarter.
Gradishar has also been measured for his Hall of Fame ring, Hall of Fame Gold Jacket (No. 373, size 48 long) and his Hall of Fame bust.
“The bust for me, I’ve never experienced that,’’ Gradishar said. “They have this gentleman and he has all these measurables and he’s putting it around your head, your ears and the width of your head and all that. And eventually I say, how do you do the bust because I have gray hair right now? How do you get it from the 70s and 80s when I was playing football? He said, we’ll take care of that, we’ll get some photos and have that answer for you.”
Much has been made about how long Gradishar had to wait before he received the call to football immortality. He was elected 40 years after he played his last game, in 1983, and 35 years since he was eligible for HOF election. To the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s credit, about a dozen years ago it started making a concerted effort starting to reconsider some of the game’s greats. Of the 12 Hall of Famers who had longer waits than Gradishar, 11 have been elected since 2012 and seven were brought in during the expanded Senior Class of 2020.
That election was perhaps Gradishar’s biggest disappointment. He was a modern-era finalist in 2003 and 2008, then moved to the senior pool which is vast with worthy candidates.
“In some respects I never planned on this,’’ said Gradishar, a man of faith who never expressed bitterness about his non-elections. “When I was playing for the Denver Broncos my goal wasn’t, some day I’m going to the Hall of Fame. I never thought about that.
“My first step was retiring. I played 10 years and I probably could have played two more years physically but I wanted for my personal reasons to go out what I thought was the top of my game.”
And maybe that was one reason why he took him a little longer to get elected into the HOF. The linebackers from his era who were elected into the Hall of Fame in short order – the Steelers’ Jack Ham and Jack Lambert, Ted Hendricks and Harry Carson – all had longer careers than Gradishar’s 10 seasons.
Still, Gradishar made those 10 seasons count with seven Pro Bowls, four All Pro selections and in 1978 the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. He finished third in the balloting for top defensive player during that Orange Crush season of 1977, behind the Cowboys’ Harvey Martin and teammate Lyle Alzado. Another Bronco, nose tackle Rubin Carter, finished fifth in the Defensive Player of the Year voting that year. It was an extraordinary defense, allowing just 10.6 points per game in leading the Broncos to a 12-2 regular-season record – the last of the 14-game seasons – and berth in the Super Bowl.
At long last, the Orange Crush has one of its members in the Hall of Fame. Gradishar will receive his Gold Jacket on Aug. 2 in Canton, Ohio. The HOF parade, his formal induction and speech will occur the next day.
“Along the way I learned about patience,’’ Gradishar said. “I’m just as human as everybody else. Later, I would look at my statistics and think my statistics are almost as good or better than the guys that are already in. What’s going on? So here we are after 35 years, it was a lot of patience.”
One thing about immortal awards, though, is once you're in, you're in forever. For the rest of his days, Gradishar will wake up every morning knowing he's a Hall of Famer. And forever after that.
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