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On August 2, the names of Eric Allen, Jared Allen (no relation), Sterling Sharpe and Antonio Gates were announced as the 2025 inductees into the Professional Football Hall of Fame. The class of four — the smallest since 2005 — marks the 19th time a class of three or four enshrinees has been inducted into the hallowed Hall since the first four-person class was selected back in 1970. The four new inductees increase the total membership of the Hall to 382.
Eric Allen, who played seven of his 14 NFL seasons at defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles, is one of the best to play in the position. Several Hall members have been quoted saying, “Eric Allen covered you like flypaper.” He was known as a pure cover-corner long before the term entered the modern-day lexicon of pro football. The six-time Pro Bowler was named to the team’s 75th Anniversary team in 2007 and its Hall of Fame in 2011.
Jared Allen, the 6’6”, 270-pound defensive end, played 12 years in the trenches of the National Football League, leading the league in sacks twice, in 2007 and 2011. He played for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2008 to 2013, being named the team’s Most Valuable Player in 2007. The five-time Pro Bowl selection (named 1st team all-pro 4 times, 2007-2009, 2011) recorded 136 sacks and tied the NFL career record for safeties with four.
Antonio Gates, the 6’4”, 255-pound tight end, began his 16-year career playing in 15 games during his rookie season after going undrafted out of Kent State by the San Diego Chargers in 2003. By the end of his career of 236 games played, he put up all-time numbers for a tight end, which are the measuring stick for all who follow him: 955 receptions, 11,841 receiving yards, 116 touchdowns, eight seasons with eight-plus receiving touchdowns, and 21 career multi-touchdown games, the most all-time by a tight end, all while playing in a Chargers uniform. He was a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s.
Sterling Sharpe, a 6’ 2”, 207-pound wide receiver out of the University of South Carolina, played only seven years in the NFL before a devastating neck injury ended his career. The first-round pick — 7th overall in 1988 — played his entire career for the Green Bay Packers and was considered one of the most gifted wide receivers ever to play his position.
Sharpe led the league in single-season receptions with 90 in only his second year (1989) and would duplicate the feat in 1992 and 1993. He surpassed the 1,000-yard receiving mark five times and scored the most touchdowns in 1992 and 1994 with 13 and 18, respectively. He was selected to five Pro Bowls, named first team All-Pro three times (1989, 1992,1993), and was selected to the NFL All-Decade Team of the 1990s. Sharpe and his brother Shannon thus became the first brothers to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Three father-son tandems are enshrined: Tim and Wellington Mara, Art Rooney Sr. and Dan Rooney, and Ed and Steve Sabol.
On another related pro football matter, Bobby Wagner, a future Hall of Fame NFL player, has announced that he has bought a minority interest in the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. Wagner, currently a member of the Washington Commanders, is the first active NFL player to hold ownership in a WNBA Franchise. He played 10 seasons for the Seattle Seahawks and is an essential community figure who is ‘giving back.’
There’s more good news for the WNBA. Steve Pagliuca has purchased the Connecticut Sun Franchise for a price tag of $325 million. The overwhelming speculation is that Pagliuca will bring the Sun team to Boston.
The state of Connecticut is fighting back with a 300-plus million-dollar deal to move the team to the insurance capital of the world. Hartford’s mayor, Arunan Arulampalam, says that he has a competing bid for the team and points out, “We have a long history of women’s basketball fandom here in the state and in this city. It makes so much sense for them to play right here in Hartford.”
Talking about the move, team president, Jennifer Rizzotti, an alum of the 1995 UConn Huskies championship team, said, “I can’t speak to where the team’s going to go, but if Boston was an option, it’s hard to argue that they’re not a city that’s viable for a WNBA franchise.” Stay tuned.
