The vital reason Roger Craig shared dementia diagnosis at Pro Football Hall of Fame
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CANTON, Ohio – Minutes after Roger Craig announced that he has been diagnosed with dementia during a 10-minute videotaped acceptance speech, Emmitt Smith zipped past me and shook his head.
“It’s a brutal game,” Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, said as I stood near a side entrance to the stage where the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies were conducted on Saturday inside Tom Benson Stadium.
Craig, 66, won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and in 1985 became the first player in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards and notch 1,000 yards receiving in the same season. But the former running back acknowledged in his speech – without regret – that doctors suspect concussions suffered during his football career may have contributed to his condition.
That’s what Smith, the former Dallas Cowboys star, was undoubtedly processing in the moments after Craig’s courageous revelation.
“You learn a lot,” Smith continued. “It teaches you. But damn.”
After Craig was showered on the stage with love from a contingent of 49ers Hall of Famers – former roommate Ronnie Lott, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Charles Haley, Steve Young and Eddie DeBartolo among them – he jetted backstage and posed for pictures with his newly unveiled bust. He was joined in the moment by more than a dozen family members, including his son, Rogdrick, who never left his side.
In some ways, it was the same Roger Craig who brought so much pop to one of the NFL’s most productive offenses – full of life, energy and positivity.
He stretched his arms wide, looked to the sky and yelled, “This is my family! What the hell?”
Craig waited 28 years for this moment, elected as a seniors finalist, decades after some of his teammates were enshrined.
“I kind of knew something was going to happen sooner or later,” Craig told USA TODAY Sports. “I was just waiting.”
Despite the extended time on the Hall of Fame runway, Craig and his family made certain that receiving the highest honor in football was not just about him. Classy. Rogdrick said it was “super important” to publicly reveal the diagnosis of his father’s brain disorder – dementia symptoms include loss of cognitive functions, including memory impairment and reasoning – because awareness may help other football players.
“There are a lot of players that deal with this, and they don’t say anything,” Rogdrick said. “By the time they get older, it’s already too late. We’re big proponents of getting on offense early and making sure you’re talking to your doctor. He just wants to help as many people as possible. He’s the bravest person I know. My hero. I’m so proud of him.”
Witnessing Craig and the other inductees – Larry Fitzgerald, Adam Vinatieri, Luke Kuechly and Drew Brees – take their final steps into football immortality from a different vantage than usual added context to the week of festivities.
With the new class, the roster of Hall of Famers – the team you can never get cut from, the late, great Deacon Jones used to say – has expanded to 387. And never have as many returned to Canton to ring in the new class, with 120 coming back to usher in the Class of 2026.
Behind the scenes
The respect and camaraderie with the Hall of Famers is palatable. Even with several events leading up to the enshrinement – the gold jackets were presented on Friday night at the Civic Center, a few hours after a group photo and the Ray Nitschke Luncheon, when existing Hall of Famers pass around the microphone preaching to the new class, who can’t speak during the lunch – there was still a great deal of catching up happening backstage.
LaDainian Tomlinson, a first-ballot inductee in 2017, flew in Saturday morning. He certainly wanted to support Brees, his former San Diego Chargers teammate and fellow member of the team’s 2001 draft class. Yet as we chatted backstage between speeches, he pledged to make it back more often. It was his third time back.
“My perspective has changed,” Tomlinson told USA TODAY Sports. “So many guys that I played with and against are going in. I really need to be here.
“I mean, just hearing the old stories is special. Just sitting around and listening to Mean Joe Greene. Are you kidding me?”
Backstage was a hub of motion between and even during the speeches. Players can lounge in plush recliners situated on stage, but with the heat and various levels of attention span, it’s not uncommon for some of the Hall of Famers to hang backstage for portions – or extended portions of speeches.
Of course, it’s a who’s who of football royalty. I got into a rather deep conversation with Eric Dickerson, who is miffed that Bill Belichick was not inducted on the first ballot. And well, the former running back was far from the only Hall of Famer to broach that topic during the week of festivities.
In any event, my chat with Dickerson was briefly interrupted – by Joe Montana. A couple minutes later, someone comes from behind and grabs my shoulder. It was Bruce Smith. Yep, football royalty.
Adam Vinatieri one-liners draw jokes
Did somebody mention Belichick?
Well, Vinatieri surely did. Vinatieri, the NFL’s all-time leading scorer and field goal-makers, who won three Super Bowls with Belichick and the New England Patriots and another with the Indianapolis Colts, had some distinct stand-up comedy in his speech.
In acknowledging that Belichick wasn’t in attendance, Vinatieri cracked: “I thought it was because training camp had already started. But in truth it’s because he is judging his girlfriend’s cheerleading competition.”
Ouch. Although Vinatieri added, “All jokes aside, in my opinion Bill is the greatest coach of all time,” the punch line was enough to get Warren Sapp out of his seat.
Sapp, the gregarious, former “QB Killa,” bolted backstage, cackling.
“He’s going to burn every bridge going in,” Sapp said.
Vinatieri also made a reference to the size of Peyton Manning’s head. As Manning whisked past me following the speech, it was apparent there were no hard feelings.
Manning shrugged his shoulders and deadpanned, “Humble kicker.”
Then Manning headed to a photo area and mingled with Vinatieri’s family members that he eventually ushered toward the kicker’s bust. Classic P-Money.
Hey, it’s a major fraternity. And Chris Berman is surely a member. The ESPN icon was back for his 26th consecutive ceremony (excluding the pandemic-canceled event in 2020) as the master of ceremonies.
Last year, Lynn Swann presented Berman with a silver football signed by Hall of Famers, to commemorate the 25-year mark.
With Jim Porter, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s executive director, within earshot, Berman declared, “If they’ll have me, I’ll do it every year that I still have a voice.”
In other words, Berman wants to be back-back-back-back…
He’s certainly old-school. Berman whipped out a folder that contained hand-written scripts for the introductions of each inductee and other portions of the ceremony.
Then there was the new-school flavor in the mix. Fitzgerald was presented by his son, Devin, a freshman receiver at Notre Dame.
When Larry introduced me to Devin a couple of months ago, he was certainly the proud papa as he proclaimed, “You’re going to be writing about him one day, Mr. Bell.”
That sounded a lot like something Larry’s late father, Larry Sr., a former sportswriter and radio host, would say about his son. It’s no wonder that Junior – who was once the Minnesota Vikings ballboy that Cris Carter and Randy Moss took under their wings – said he felt his dad’s presence all week.
I’ll never forget Larry Sr. pulling out a newspaper article about his son that was folded up in his wallet, telling me his son had potential. Junior was probably just starting high school.
Fast forward to Saturday. Backstage, I asked Devin how training camp is going.
“I’m missing a day right now,” he said.
For good reason. The response, though, sounded so much like something his dad would say – a clear sign that there’s another Fitzgerald receiver to keep an eye on.
Who’s next? The first-time eligibles for the Class of 2027 include Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, Ben Roethlisberger, Richard Sherman and Antonio Brown. And those are just some of the new candidates joining a well-credentialed cast of returning nominees.
And did somebody mention Belichick?
One way or another, it will be buzzing backstage again next time.
Follow Bell on X: @JarrettBell