At the beginning of the summer, my brother and I were extremely disappointed when our dad told us that our cousins, who are from North Carolina and are both our age, would not be coming to Virginia this year. He then told us not to be mad because we would see them in Canton. Any football fan knows that Canton, Ohio is home to the famous NFL Hall of Fame.
To get into the hall of fame, you must be voted in by 44 members of the board of selectors. Each player must have 80% of the members vote for them to get in. This is a huge achievement because the selection process looks at the newest players to older players from the 80's. To date, there are only 247 players in the hall of fame and there are roughly 1696 players in the NFL a year. You must truly be a Hall of Famer to be inducted.
We then packed up and started our exhausting seven-hour drive, and that night finally made it to our hotel where we met up with our cousins.
The next day we woke up at 6:30 in the morning to go watch a parade. We ended up sleeping through half of it we were so tired! Then later that day we went to a fancy luncheon with the inductees and they told us their life stories. It was actually pretty sweet. We went to bed early because we knew the next day was the one we had been waiting for.
We woke up and went to the NFL Hall of Fame to get a look around. It was amazing! It was so cool seeing what all these players had accomplished, all the records they had broken, and the famous busts of each player's head.
Then we took our seats for the induction ceremony. The whole stadium was absolutely filled with Redskins fans! If I had to give a number, I would say about 99% of everyone was a Skins fan! This just goes to show how good these guys were. We got to watch all the previous inductions walk in front of the stage, and it was amazing to see the people who defined the great game of football. Then each inductee gave their speech and was given their bust. When Art Monk walked up to the stage, the entire stadium jumped up and screamed! Monk was left speechless and the crowd cheered for an entire five minutes before he could even bring out a word! It must have been the loudest thing I've ever heard. Then it was Darrel Green's turn. He walked up to the stage and received an equal amount of gratitude from his loyal fans. Green's speech was truly moving; it pulled you in from the beginning and never let go.
That whole ceremony was a life experience I will never forget. One cool part about this whole trip was that it seemed to never end! That night, the Washington Redskins would take on an impressive Indianapolis Colts team. Our seats made it seem like we were actually in the game! We could see everything happening on the field with ease! I have been to a lot of Redskin games, and they are all so much fun! But nothing was even close to matching the atmosphere this game created. The game was really intense but in the end, the Skins dominated with an awesome 30-16 victory! That whole trip would be something I knew I would never ever forget.
The next day we said goodbye to our cousins and headed back home to (compared to Canton) a very quiet Virginia. That was by far the best thing I did this past summer!