Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 2013: Warren Sapp, Bill Parcells, 5 others enshrined

It took six long years of waiting, but Cris Carter has finally been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, recognized as one of the greatest wide receivers in the game. On Saturday, he gave his induction speech, and was incredibly emotional throughout.

Carter had tears in his eyes when he took the podium, and he started out by thanking the selection committee. He said the selection process is “unbelievable,” and appreciates that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, that there is no “slam dunk,” referencing the fact that it took him multiple years to get in.

Curley Culp is the second of two players this year to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame via the senior committee, after Dave Robinson. Culp took the stage in Canton, Ohio, on Saturday to give his speech.

Culp started with a simple, “This is quite something,” and went on to thank the Hall of Fame committee, saying it has made his and his family’s dreams a reality, and that he long-hoped this day would come.

Dave Robinson’s Hall Of Fame enshrinement was a long time coming, but the 72-year-old linebacker finally has a bust in Canton to call his own.

Robinson began his speech, of course, by wishing his niece and granddaughter a happy birthday, because why pass up the opportunity? He then said that this day is the “biggest day of the 21st century for the Robinson family.” The first group he thanked was the Hall of Fame committee, specifically the senior committee, for going back and saying, “Wait a minute, we missed Dave Robinson.”

Some have speculated that Bill Parcells did not make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility because of questions surrounding his character. But now preparing to enter Canton following his second year on the ballot, it appears that at the end of the day, what a man accomplishs on the field that matters the most.

In 22 seasons as a head coach with four different teams, Parcells accomplished quite a lot.

In his rookie season, the Bucs gave up 335 points. They allowed fewer than 300 points in each of the next eight years, and finished in the top eight in scoring defense every time. Warren Sapp was at the very center of that success, his unprecedented skill as an extremely athletic defensive tackle allowing the Buccaneers defense to have freedom unlike most defenses had ever had before.

The 2002 defense that allowed the fewest point and yards in the league that year is considered one of the greatest units of all time. That season, Sapp recorded 47 tackles, 7.5 sacks and two interceptions, which helped propel him to one of his seven Pro Bowl selections and one of his four First-Team All-Pro selections over his career.

Though it may be a long time coming, Dave Robinson’s spot in Canton is as equally deserved as any of his Hall of Fame classmates. Robinson, who played 12 seasons between 1963 and ‘74, was one of the league’s most dominant linebackers in an era defined by great defensive players.

After a torn Achilles tendon ended his season in 1970, Robinson quickly bounced back to his dominant form the following season. The Packers hired a new coach that year, Dan Devine, with whom Robinson never got along. The friction eventually led to an exodus to Kansas City, where Robinson played the final two years of his career.

For five years the Pro Football Hall of Fame Committee did what no secondary ever could: slow down Cris Carter. From 2008 through 2012, the legendary wideout was denied access to football’s most exclusive and prestigious club. Like he did on NFL fields for 16 seasons, however, Carter eventually got where he wanted to go.

Carter, now 47, racked up 13,899 yards and 130 touchdowns during his career, and has his name littered throughout the NFL record books. He recorded 1,000 yards receiving in eight consecutive seasons and broke the 100-yard mark in 42 games. He led the league in touchdowns three times, his highest total coming with 17 in 1995, a year he also broke the 1,300-yard mark.

Quantifying an offensive lineman’s contribution to a team is not an easy thing to do. While you can pour through a seemingly infinite array of statistics for offensive skill positions and defensive players, games-played and games-started remain the only official stats the NFL tracks for offensive lineman.

To say Ogden’s decade-plus stint as the anchor on the Ravens’ offensive line is wholly numberless isn’t completely true, however. The number 176, for example, represents the games Ogden started for Baltimore. Then there are 9 and 11, the number of times he was selected as an All-Pro and voted into the Pro Bowl, respectively. Ogden missed out on the Pro Bowl in his rookie season, but must have decided he liked Hawaii after earning a spot in his second year -- he wouldn’t miss another trip for the rest of his career.

He was so difficult for Tingelhoff to manage that he drew double-teams, and the Chiefs shut down a rushing attack that had put up 222 yards in the conference championship game.

Culp played seven years with the Chiefs before being traded to the Houston Oilers during the 1974 season. Still only 28 years old, Culp made the Pro Bowl in each of the next four years. Pro Football Reference named Culp as a second team All-1970s Team defensive tackle, behind only Hall of Famers Alan Page and Joe Greene. The Chiefs enshrined Culp into their franchise Hall of Fame in 2008, 40 years after the Broncos traded him to Kansas City because they had no use for him.

How solid Allen was as a player can be summed up pretty well by this fact: Allen was named to the NFL All-Decade Team twice. That is to say, he made it for the 1990s and the 2000s.

After all, only 63 players have made it as first-ballot Hall of Famers since 1970, and none have made it in the past four years. But both Ogden and Allen made it into the Hall this year, and Allen was arguably more dominant than Ogden by a wide margin. Not only that, Allen also did it for a longer period of time.

ESPN2 and the NFL Network wil both have live coverage of the event when it gets underway at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN2 will have the bulk of their top football crew on hand to handle the event, too, with Trey Wingo, Tom Jackson and Sal Paolantonio handling TV duties. Chris Berman will also be there, but as the event’s emcee and not be on the ESPN set.

NFL Network is providing blanket coverage of the entire weekend, including features on the inductees and a special recognizing the Hall of Fame’s 50th anniversary. Rich Eisen will lead the NFL Network’s weekend coverage while hosting the network’s coverage of the induction itself.

NFL Network will be in typical all-out fashion this weekend for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony. The league-owned network will kick off a few days of shows, including live coverage from Canton, Ohio, starting in the middle of next week. It certainly helps that one of the network’s own voices -- Warren Sapp -- will be honored.

Thursday, Aug. 1 at 10 p.m. ET, the network holds a roundtable show called Class for the Ages. Sapp, Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin and Warren Moon will debate players they believe should be in the Hall of Fame, talk about the late Deacon Jones, and discuss what it means to be Hall of Famer.