Friday, February 11, 2022

'Welcome to the Hall of Fame': Former Packers safety LeRoy Butler earns NFL's highest honor

From JSOnline:


GREEN BAY - As LeRoy Butler was trying to rush along his son to take him to school in the morning a couple weeks ago, he heard a knock on the door so loud he thought it might be the police.

As he went to answer the knock he saw who was there and wondered what in the world Charles Woodson was doing at his house.

It wasn’t until Butler opened the door and saw a camera crew and maybe a 25-person delegation that he realized the dream of a lifetime had come true: He was going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“Roy Lee, welcome to the Hall of Fame,” said Woodson, a former Packers star who was elected to the Hall last year.

“Don’t play, don’t play,” Butler answered.

“Trust me, you’re in the Hall of Fame,” Woodson said.

And with that, Butler felt none of the cold even though he was standing on his South Milwaukee porch in his stocking feet on a January morning.

“I feel like I stepped outside my body and watched myself,” he said of the moment.

Butler was one of five modern-era candidates and eight total voted into the Hall in the 2022 class that was revealed on the NFL Honors Show on Thursday night. The others were modern-era players Tony Boselli, Sam Mills, Bryant Young and Richard Seymour, along with senior finalist Cliff Branch, coach finalist Dick Vermeil and contributor finalist Art McNally.

Butler was introduced at the Honors show by former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Brett Favre.

"He was the first to leap in Lambeau and one of the fiercest to defend it," Favre said. "An all-decade safety and an All-Pro competitor, an all-time teammate, LeRoy Butler."

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2022/02/10/leroy-butler-green-bay-packers-safety-voted-into-hall-of-fame-class-2022-nfl-honors/6711524001/

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