Columbia great Richard Seymour earns Pro Football Hall of Fame honors
The wait is over for Richard Seymour.
The former Lower Richland High School standout will be part of this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class, which was announced Thursday night as part of the NFL Honors program.
The rest of this year’s induction class includes Tony Boselli, Cliff Branch, LeRoy Butler, referee Art McNally, Sam Mills, coach Dick Vermeil and Bryant Young. The class will be enshrined on Aug. 6 in Canton, Ohio.
Seymour, a former defensive lineman for the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders, has been a finalist for the past four years. The Patriots posted a video of Seymour on Twitter after the announcement.
“Any time you achieve an award like this, there have been so people along the way in your journey. I’m so honored and grateful. Football has allotted me so much. … I’m so excited. Thank you Patriot nation,” Seymour said.
Seymour was a first-round draft pick by the New England Patriots coming out of Georgia in 2001. He played eight years in New England and was part of three Super Bowl championship teams.
Seymour spent his final four years with the Raiders and ended his career with 496 tackles and 57.5 sacks. During his 12-year career, he was selected to eight Pro Bowls, including five straight from 2002-06.
Seymour also was a three-time First-Team All-Pro selection from 2003-05. He was a member of the NFL’s All-Decade team from 2000s and was enshrined in the Patriots Hall of Fame this fall.
“I have spent over 25 years in the NFL as a scout and executive — primarily in pro personnel, evaluating every guy in the league — and Seymour was one of the best players I saw during my time scouting,” former Patriots general manager Scott Pioli said on NFL.com last year. “He was dominant at times, but most of the time, he had to play within Bill Belichick’s system. He played selfless football that did not afford him the opportunity to stockpile personal statistics. Instead, he willingly played within the scheme and helped New England win championships.”
Former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also lobbied on social media on Seymour’s behalf.
“I would love to see Richard Seymour inducted into NFL HOF. Not only was he a dominant player but a team-first, selfless player who played championship fb each & every wk. He was a cornerstone of the Patriots dynasty & deserves to be recognized for his contributions to fb history,” Brady posted in 2021.
Seymour didn’t start playing football until he was a freshman at Lower Richland High School but went on to a standout career. He was a selection to the 1996 Shrine Bowl. In 2017, he returned to his alma mater and presented the school with a golden football for his Super Bowl accomplishments as part of the NFL’s Super Bowl Honor Roll program.
The Super Bowl High School Honor Roll program was put in place to acknowledge schools and communities that have directly influenced Super Bowl history and impacted the game for the better.
“Anytime you have success, you have to think about the people that laid the foundation for you,” Seymour said in 2017. “This is really just a small token for my appreciation for my family, friends, teachers and everybody that led me in the right direction.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 10:08 PM.
