Club Shay Shay - REWIND: Sterling Sharpe makes a case for why he should be in the Hall of Fame

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

In this special rewind episode of Club Shay Shay, revisit some of Shannon's favorite segments from the show so far. Today, the first-ever episode of Club Shay Shay, featuring Shannon's brother, Sterling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Can't get enough football? Look no further than the Good Morning Football podcast.

Join me, Jamie Erdahl, alongside Peter Schrager, Kyle Brandt, and Akbar Bajabiamila for a daily breakdown of the league's biggest stories. Hey, you want to know the secret ingredient that makes Patrick Mahomes unstoppable? Or maybe which reality show best describes the Jets season? Look no further. We've got recaps, retweets, and reactions to all the wild moments you might have missed both on and off the field.

Make sure to listen to the Good Morning Football podcast Monday through Friday on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Club Che Che listeners. We'll be back soon with weekly episodes featuring brand new interviews with exciting roster of guests. Until then, enjoy this special rewind episode with one of my favorite moments from Club Che Che so far. All my life, I've been grinding all my life. We win AFC in 97.

We go to Pittsburgh. I mean, we have to go. We're a wild card team. So we have to go on the road and beat Kansas City, who had just beaten us three weeks earlier, to win the division. So now we're going to be the wild card. We beat Kansas City and Kansas City. Now for the AFC championship, we got to go to Three River,

the old Three River Stadium, and play the Steelers, who had just ramshackled us about six weeks earlier. And winning that game, and we're going to the Super Bowl, and we have a conversation that night, you know, about what the expectations, although you had never been. And I just remember hearing the adulation in your voice, like, somebody I really, really know, somebody that I grew up next to, is going to play in the Super Bowl. Yeah, that was the only thing. It didn't dawn on me at the time when you and I were talking that, oh, wait, your team is playing my old team in the Super Bowl. It was like, finally, someone, I mean, I had done a lot of work,

been in a lot of battles with the Brett Favres and the Robert Brookses and the Edgar Bennets and the Dorsey Levins. We had been teammates. And I had an idea of what it took for them to get to, you know, get that team in the Super Bowl because they had just won one the year before. But with you, it was different because it was like, okay,

he was going to the Army to start off with, and then he ended up going to Savannah State. And then he wasn't getting drafted, and then he ends up going to Denver in the seventh round. And then my old quarterback is not throwing him the ball in positions that he can catch it. So my old quarterback is about to get him and Shannon cut. So everything is starting to look like, you know what, this is supposed to happen this way.

And I think the only time I left, since I left the NFL, that I ever went, what if, was what if I was playing for my team and he's playing with his team, playing in this Super Bowl? That would have been something else. That's the only time I have ever missed playing in the NFL. That's the only time. Not one time since I left, except for that time, did I ever miss playing in the NFL. I don't think Mama and Buck could have handled it. No, because now you've got to make a decision.

I don't think Buck could have handled it. Mama would have been fine because mama would have had a Jersey with, you know half Green Bay, half Denver. She'd enjoyed it. Okay, at least, but Buck couldn't have took it. My sister, no, she wouldn't have handled that very well. That wouldn't have gone over very well.

Let's talk about your career. Obviously you retire at the 29 years of age, seven years in the season, and there have only been two seasons in which someone has caught more than 18 touchdowns. Jerry Rice in 1987 had 22. Randy Moss broke that record in 2007 with 23. If you look at what you've done up until the point you retired, nobody had that many catches to start a career like you have. Your last season, and what people don't understand about this, in your last six games, only one person in history has had that many touchdowns over a six-game stretch.

Your last six games of your career, you had 13 touchdowns. Only Jerry, record-breaking season, he had 14. And he did that during the strike, so his is pretty impressive. He did that during the strike. He did that during the strike short season. Yeah. And your last game, you had nine catches, a buck 33, a buck 32, and three touchdowns.

And when you see the Hall of of fame and i know it's something that's something that you don't talk about and you don't politic for but do you believe looking at your resume and looking at the guys that you competed against the michael irving the jerry rice the chris carters the herman andre reed andre reed and Rising, Tim Brown, and four or five of those guys are in the hall, do you believe your resume for seven years since Sterling Sharp should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Because it's you, I'm going to answer the question. Normally, I wouldn't answer the question because I'm like,

I can only get in based on what I did. But because it's you, I'm going to answer the question. And I would say, if the Hall of Fame is for what you did, everybody always talks about with me what I didn't do. And they go, if he would have played longer. And I always say, well, if you collect rocks, and if I collect rocks for three years, and you collect rocks for seven years, there's a good chance you're going to have more rocks than me. And so when I look at the Hall of Fame, in my seven years, I led a receiving category, either catches, yards, or touchdowns. I did that a lot. And I did that in Green Bay, Wisconsin. And I did not do that with Hall of Fame quarterbacks. I got some catches in there for Bud Keyes and Mike Norsef and Mike Tomczak and Blair Keel and Anthony Dillwig. I got some catches from those guys.

with what they see. And, you know, I'm a firm believer in Randy Moss and Terrell Owens, and I'm a firm believer in Heinz Ward. I'm a firm believer in Ike Bruce. I mean, I got no problem with nobody who's in, but I'm like, if you're saying I needed to play longer, then you're punishing me because those guys played 12, 13, 14 years. So if it took them 12, 13, 14 years to do what I did in seven,

then are they Hall of Famers? And I'm not knocking anybody. I'm just making an argument. So I don't think about it. Don't talk about it. I was like, if me getting in the Hall of Fame would make me feel better than I feel right now because my brother's going in the Hall of Fame, I don't want to go because that was a great, that weekend was a great weekend being there with me, you, Libby. That was a great weekend. And so I don't think about the Hall of Fame, but the argument is, well, he didn't do, they always

talk about what I didn't do because not many people saw what I did. And with the coverage that we got in Green Bay, it's not with the coverage that we got in Green Bay, it's not like the coverage that you have in professional sports right now. But I'll take my seven years, and you take any receiver's best seven years. Just take their best seven years. I like the way my numbers stack up. It's not my fault that I only played seven years. Sorry.

That Hall of Fame, for me me getting into the hall of fame and you were there every step of the way because you were there in 09 when i didn't get in uh that was probably the lowest i'd ever seen you too yeah that was worse than i'm going to the army and that was worse than I didn't get drafted on day one that was the worst because I think you allowed yourself to let your guard down and say I had done what others because I think at the time it was you Ozzie and John Mackey you know hey who's the best? John Mackey. KQ, kill it, be killing. Yeah, I'm killing. So it was you, Ozzie, John Mackey, cause they're like John Mackey, so Kellen, he can go stand up and play wide receiver.

Ozzie, he's not a dominant blocker, but he blocked for a dude that ran for 2000 yards. So he knows what he's doing. You know, John Mackey, just crafty route runner. So I think you allowed yourself to look at your numbers and say, definitely. And just icing on the cake, I've been to three Super Bowls. So you can say, yeah, you won two Super Bowls, but you played with John Elway and Terrell Davis.

Hey, look, I went to Baltimore and, you know, we didn't have John Elway, Trent Dilfer, and we won a Super Bowl. Right. And so when you didn't get selected that first year, I think that was probably the lowest I'd ever seen. Yeah, I was disappointed because I'm saying to myself, if you didn't like my numbers this year, it's not like I can add to it next year.

And if you don't like them next year, it's not like I'm going to add to them on the third year. And so for me, I thought, okay, I thought it was about winning. Well, no tight end at the time had won more games than I had won. Very few tight ends had had the career that I had with the eight Pro Bowls. True. With the all pro selections, the 50 catch seasons, the thousand yard seasons. Nobody had ever done that. First tight end with 700 catches 800 catches with 8,000 9,000 10,000 yards and I'm like wait a minute so what do you need what so so I thought it was about winning and then it was like come to find out winning only matters if they want you not to if they want you

to get in then it and then they come I don't believe you should come up with a reason to keep somebody out well if you're looking at what someone didn't do right okay then they then fine i'm never gonna get in and i'm gonna be fine with that but if you're looking for a way to or you're looking for a way to keep someone out of the hall of fame. You know, because it's, you know, other than where is Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Earhart, the only other, the most difficult question to ask is what's the criteria for getting into the Hall of Fame, the NFL Hall of Fame? Because it's the most secretive and no one knows. And that's the thing is you go, I'm just looking at what I was able to, you know, I'm sorry, but I didn't draft the

guys I got to play with. You know, I didn't set the schedule up. I didn't go, this is what I did. And I'm like, so if Shannon Sharp's going to get in the Hall of Fame because he played in three Super Bowls, you're penalizing me for not having John Elway and Terrell Davis on the team. You know, so I just look at it like I say, you know what? I like my numbers and my numbers. And it's funny playing, you know, playing travel golf. Now I get a chance to be around a lot of Hall of Famers. I have a lot of friends who don't like being around those guys. They don't feel comfortable.

And I feel comfortable. You know, the Marcus Allens and drone bettises of the world uh the eric dickerson's uh have always treated me wonderfully and they'll make me feel like hey i'm not a hall of famer and so i i'm like i think that's because i i i'm i'm happy about the way i played i'd get i played as hard as i could for as long as i could and if i wasn't a hall of famer eight years ago, am I a Hall of Famer today? You know, am I a Hall of Famer at 92? You know, and I, you know, the other argument I say is if you put people in an arena like the Hall of Fame, if you do it every year, you're going to have some people that shouldn't be in. You're going to have some people that's not going to get in.

And so I'm like I I like my numbers and I said you just take the top seven wide receivers pick any seven and you take their best seven years and you stack their seven years up against my only seven and let's see where we are yeah I mean that's that's a very compelling point but for me man you know what when I think about it it's the one thing that I really and that's a very compelling point. But for me, man, you know what, when I think about it, it's the one thing that I really, and it's a great honor. I mean, I was two, I think I was 267 that got into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They're well over 300. I think they're in the 350s now. But for me, it's something that I really don't think of. And I get, you know, when Skip refers to me as a Hall of Famer, I kind of get uneasy. You know, when Skip refers to me as a Hall of Famer, I kind of get uneasy because I'm like, because, yeah, it's me. I get the gold jacket. But so many other people played a part in me getting this gold jacket. And so for me, I get like Super Bowl. That's the whole team because everybody on the team got a ring. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And so that's something. And then when I went to Pro Bowl, when my first time I was a North Pro,

I got all the offensive linemen, Rolexes. And that very few, very few, that's something running backs normally do. Quarterbacks normally do. But I was just like so appreciative that I wanted to thank them because I really thought they blocked a little harder when they knew the ball was going to come my way. So I get, I kind of get uneasy and that's how I am. There are guys like, I don't like get around someone who's like, Oh,

I'm in the hall of fame. You're not, or you're this and that. That's not how I look at it because I know. And I know when we played you guys, I know what Wade Phillips was saying and I know what the DBs were saying. And I know what other, don't talk to Deion Sanders and Rod Wilson and Nils Williams and Darrell Green, guys that are in the Hall of Fame at the cornerback position, and ask them. I know what they tell me about Sterling Sharp.

So all that other stuff is fine and good, and the people that vote, they vote. But I know what the guys that played said about my brother. You know what to do. Hit the subscribe button to become an official member of Club Shea Shea, where we always do something for two something. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.