Junior Seau’s daughter allowed to speak at Hall of Fame induction, per report

The Pro Football Hall of Fame has decided to allow the late Junior Seau’s family to speak at his induction ceremony in August, according to Alex Marvez of Fox Sports. The Hall of Fame previously said there was a policy in place that prevents all family members from speaking on behalf of deceased players, and that it was not related to the fact that Seau’s family and the NFL are at odds over the injuries sustained by Seau in the NFL and how that impacted his eventual suicide.

Seau’s daugher Sydney will be allowed to speak, per Marvez:

Sydney will be given the chance to participate in an on-stage interview conducted after the unveiling of Seau’s bust. The Hall also has invited Sydney and Seau’s three sons to unveil his bust on stage. Normally, the unveiling is only done by the presenter and enshrinee.

Turns out, that wasn’t true it all, and the family even claims that Sydney Seau was told previously that she would be allowed to speak at the ceremony. In a statement, the Seau family said that they do not support the current policy that “prevents family members from delivering live remarks on behalf of deceased inductees.”

Previously, a five-minute video, produced by NFL Films, was planned. That video would have featured the family, but it was not going to touch on Seau’s death or the degenerative neurological disease from which he suffered. Along with the initial report that they wouldn’t be allowed to speak was a quote from Sydney, in which she said that it’s “frustrating because the induction is for my father and for the other players.” She also suggested that she wanted to give the speech that Seau would have wanted to give.