Hall of Fame bars Seau’s daughter from comments

The Pro Football Hall of Fame plans to induct Junior Seau in August but they have no plans of letting anyone in Seau’s family speak at the ceremony.

Junior Seau committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest at age 43.

The 2011 induction used such a format when former Los Angeles Rams star Les Richter was inducted posthumously.

“It’s frustrating because the induction is for my father and for the other players, but then to not be able to speak, it’s painful”, Sydney Seau told the Times.

The family, who said they noticed signs of depression after Seau left the NFL, will be in Ohio for the ceremony honoring their lost loved one.

“Had they kept going, it said, through video presentations shown on large video screens and broadcasted to the national television audience.'”.

The Hall of Fame, however, said that in honoring the late Seau it is following a policy initiated in 2010. Joe Horrigan, spokesperson for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, told the Times that in the past, for deceased inductees, what presenters said repeated what was in the video, and so a few years ago the Hall eliminated speeches in these cases. To his family still grappling with his death, though, the tribute seems underwhelming for one of the sport’s best linebackers and a highly regarded figure in Southern California where Seau grew up and played most of his career.

Inductees who are alive generally give a speech during their inductions. “My speech was exclusively about him”. The league also organizes the Hall of Fame Game, the kick-off of the preseason, the day after the induction ceremony and moved its rookie symposium to Canton in part so every incoming player could visit the Hall. The reason given by Horrigan that the speech by a family member of a dead player often repeats what is on the video, and the ceremony is already very long, is flimsy. While hardly the only prominent former player to take his life and be diagnosed with CTE, he was the most celebrated. Nor will the video mention the lawsuit that Seau’s family has filed against the N.F.L. He finished with 1,522 tackles, 56.5 sacks and 18 interceptions. He is in the Chargers’ Hall of Fame, easily the greatest defensive player that franchise has known in 55 seasons.

OCTOBER 18: Junior Seau #55 of the New England Patriots looks on from the bench in the second half against the Tennessee Titans on October 18, 2009 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. If not, the Pro Football Hall of Fame will be making an unimaginable mistake for its biggest weekend.