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Class of 2001
 Lynn Swann says his Steeler teammates helped get him the gold jacket.
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Incomplete
 Lynn Swann say his celebration will not be complete until teammate John Stallworth is inducted.
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Monday, August 6, 2001
Swann finally catches up to Hall of Fame
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH -- It wasn't the sheer number of receptions Lynn
Swann made that put him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after
more than a decade of anxious and often frustrating waiting.
Rather, it was passes only he could catch that separated him
from a handful of receivers in the game's history.
Swann doesn't rank among the NFL's all-time top 20 receptions
leaders -- his 336 catches aren't even one-third as many as Jerry
Rice has made -- and his career lasted only nine years.
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I take some pride that players like Cris Carter and Jerry Rice
have said they watched me play when they were coming up and that
they wanted to play the game the way I played it. That gives me a great deal of satisfaction. ” |
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— Lynn Swann |
But when the big catches were needed in big games -- in a
run-oriented Pittsburgh Steelers offense, during an era when
defenders could bump-and-run receivers all over the field -- nobody
made more than Swann. Or made them more spectacularly. Or made
catches that were more wondrously photogenic.
And on Saturday, as he finally was being enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, Swann said there were no hard feelings for being passed up 14 times previously.
"Every year, when the call came telling me that I hadn't made it into the Hall, it was a humbling experience," Swann said. "But getting into the Hall of Fame, now being a part of this and seeing the caliber of person that you have to be for induction, that's even more humbling. Let me tell you, and I might not have always felt this way before, but the wait to get here was worth it."
His acrobatic, you-can't-possibly-make-those grabs in Super
Bowls against the Cowboys and Rams remain a staple of NFL
highlights reels and were an inspiration to a generation of young
receivers.
"Jerry Rice came up to me once and said, "Swannie, you were
the guy," said Swann, who says several other top receivers have
told him the same thing. "That was good to hear."
Almost as good as the words he finally heard Jan. 27, after 14
years of usually being a Hall of Fame finalist but never quite
making it. Finally, he learned he would join nine other Steelers
from the dynasty days of the 1970s in the Hall of Fame.
"I don't think I'll cry much Saturday, because I did enough
crying that day," Swann said.
Swann's induction is a relief to former teammates such as Jack
Ham, Mel Blount and Franco Harris, all of whom worried the forces
of quantity would rule over those of quality when it came to
debating Swann's Hall of Fame fate.
For years, voters were torn between Swann's not-too-spectacular
numbers during the regular season -- he didn't even average three
receptions per game -- and his remarkable ability to dominate in big
games.
"The mark of a good player is being able to play in big games,
and nobody played better in big games than Lynn Swann," former
Steelers coach Chuck Noll said. "If we had thrown the ball more
(during the season), he would have been in the Hall of Fame a long
time ago."
To Swann, the numbers that truly represent his special gifts as
a receiver were IX, X, XIII and XIV -- the four Super Bowls the
Steelers won in six seasons from 1974-79.
"Without Lynn Swann, the Steelers don't win four Super Bowls,"
said Blount, a Hall of Fame cornerback.
He was right. In the first Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowl, in
January 1976, Swann's ballet classes -- yes, ballet -- paid off
remarkably as he made two of the most famous catches in NFL
history.
Swann's sprawling catch of a pass he tipped to himself while
tumbling over cornerback Mark Washington may be the most replayed
Super Bowl reception ever.
Before that, he made a juggling sidelines catch that Ham called
"the best catch I ever saw" -- until Swann's next catch, that is.
Swann also added a 64-yard TD reception in the fourth quarter.
Remarkably, Swann was playing with the aftereffects of a
concussion sustained two weeks before, the result of a blindside
hit by the Raiders' George Atkinson in the AFC title game. No
matter, Swann finished with four catches for 161 yards and the
Super Bowl MVP award.
Three years later, in the Cowboys-Steelers Super Bowl rematch,
he had seven catches for 124 yards and a touchdown, then followed
that up with five more catches and a touchdown against the Los
Angeles Rams in the next Super Bowl.
And it's not that Swann didn't have good regular seasons to go
with his reputation as postseason receiver nonpareil. When he
wasn't bothered by concussions and rib injuries, he had 11
touchdown catches each in 1975 and 1978, and his ratio of one
touchdown per 6.6 receptions is one of the best in NFL history.
"I take some pride that players like Cris Carter and Jerry Rice
have said they watched me play when they were coming up and that
they wanted to play the game the way I played it," said Swann, an
ABC announcer since his retirement following the strike-shortened
1982 season. "That gives me a great deal of satisfaction."
Not as much as Saturday will.
"It was difficult waiting those 14 years, but maybe it will
make me appreciate it more to be in the Hall of Fame," Swann said.
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