Hall of Fame

CANTON, Ohio – There is crying in football. Only it comes in degrees. Witness Saturday, as six NFL greats were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Cowboys offensive tackle Rayfield Wright wept openly as he told a rapt audience of his mother's love. Troy Aikman, stoic throughout his dozen seasons as Cowboys quarterback, battled back tears several times during his 20-minute acceptance speech.

"All the guys talk about who is going to break up," said broadcaster John Madden, honored for his decade of coaching the Oakland Raiders. "I started to break up when Al Davis [the Raiders owner who introduced him] was talking. If they have a contest or any bet, I knew I was going to lose."

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

Rayfield Wright's wait of 27 years ended with his 2006 induction.

New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson and quarterback Warren Moon, who played for five professional teams, delivered emotional tales of life experiences.

But the afternoon's most poignant moment came between speeches after the bust honoring the late Reggie White was unveiled. The defensive tackle's son, Jeremy, and widow, Sara, wept long and hard as they shared an extended embrace. White, an ordained minister who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, died of heart failure the day after Christmas in 2004. He was 43.

"Today would have been the best day of Reggie's life besides watching the birth of his two children," Sara White told an induction audience that sat through a four-hour ceremony on a sun-baked day at Fawcett Field, adjacent to the Hall of Fame.

Wright and Aikman were the eighth and ninth Cowboys inducted into the Hall. Their paths, however, were very different.

Wright, who retired in 1979, waited 27 years for election. Aikman, who retired after the 2000 season, is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

"I'm privileged to be in such a stellar class," Wright said.

Wright joined the Cowboys as a tight end but was converted to right tackle by coach Tom Landry to block for quarterback Roger Staubach.

"I was never one to question the authority of my elders," Wright said.

Wright's mission as an offensive lineman with the Cowboys followed two commandments, said Stan Lomax, his coach at Fort Valley State in Georgia, in introducing his former player.

"One, 'Thou shalt not touch Roger,' " Lomax said. "The second was, 'Thou must not impede the forward progress of Calvin [Hill] or Tony [Dorsett].' "

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

Troy Aikman poses with his bust.

Like Wright, Aikman was considered the ultimate team player.

"In Dallas, my role as the quarterback was to move our team down the field and score points," Aikman said. "Sometimes that meant passing the ball. Sometimes it meant handing it off. We had a good system in Dallas.

"Although it wasn't one that allowed me to put up big numbers, that was fine. I did what was asked to help the team win. So it is extremely gratifying that after a career of putting team accomplishments in front of personal achievement, today I am receiving the greatest individual honor a football player could ever receive."

Aikman was easily the most popular member of the Class of 2006 with the crowd. Cowboys No. 8 jerseys were the preferred uniform of the day. He was inducted last to ensure the crowd would not thin out as the ceremony lingered.

Moon's induction provided a history lesson. He is the first black quarterback in the Hall. But initially, NFL teams showed little interest in him as a quarterback.

Coming out of the University of Washington, Moon, undrafted by the NFL, played in the Canadian Football League, where he led the Edmonton Eskimos to five championships.

"It was a foregone conclusion quarterback was not in my future in the NFL, but changing positions was," Moon said. "I was going to play quarterback, and I was looking for somebody who would let me do that. Thank you, Canada."

Moon finally joined the NFL in 1984 and thrived in the passing offense of the Houston Oilers. He also played for Minnesota, Seattle and Kansas City in his 17 years in the NFL.

"A lot has been said about me being the first African-American quarterback in the Pro Football Hall of Fame," he said. "It's a subject that I'm very uncomfortable about sometimes, only because I've always wanted to be judged as just a quarterback. But because I am the first and because significance does come with that, I accept that."

Predictably, the glib Madden, who has grown into the most successful television analyst in all of sports, appeared the most at ease in his acceptance speech.

"This is a little goofy here," he said in introducing a new Hall of Fame theory.

"Here is the deal: I think over in the Hall of Fame, that during the day, the people go through, they look at everything. At night, there's a time when they all leave. All the fans and all the visitors leave. Then there's just the workers. Then the workers start to leave. It gets down to there's just one person. That person turns out the light, locks the door.

"I believe that the busts talk to each other. I can't wait for that conversation, I really can't. Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne, Reggie [White], Walter Payton, my ex-players, we'll be there forever and ever and ever talking about whatever. That's what I believe. That's what I think is going to happen, and no one's ever going to talk me out of that."