Richard Seymour, consistent centerpiece of Patriots' early dynasty, elected to Hall of Fame
LOS ANGELES — It's finally Big Sey's time.
When the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022 was announced Thursday night during the NFL Honors event, it included Richard Seymour, the dominant defensive lineman who played for the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders.
Seymour will be joined by Green Bay Packers safety LeRoy Butler, San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Bryant Young, the late New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers linebacker Sam Mills, the late Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders wide receiver Cliff Branch, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Tony Boselli, Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams head coach Dick Vermeil, and former referee and NFL director of officiating Art McNally.
This was the fourth time Seymour was a finalist, and while he'd been very close before, this was the year he garnered the votes needed for induction.
A 6-foot-6 force of nature, Seymour doesn't have the gaudy stats some d-linemen have, largely because he played on a three-man line with the Patriots. But to have watched Seymour is to understand why he's worthy of a gold jacket: He was consistently dominant.
"I think that's the magic of Richard's career, was his consistency," Scott Pioli told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. Pioli was the Patriots' director of player personnel and de facto general manager when Seymour was drafted in 2001. "The consistency of his dominance, the consistency of problems other people knew he posed."
The sixth overall draft pick out of Georgia in 2001, Seymour was a seven-time Pro Bowler (2002-2006, 2010-2011) and first-team All-Pro for three consecutive years (2003-2005). He was also second-team All-Pro in 2006 and 2011, and was a member of the Hall of Fame's team of the 2000s.
Last October, Seymour was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, which offered Bill Belichick ample opportunity to extol Seymour's virtues as a player and once again stump for him as worthy of Canton.
"Richard was a tremendous player, tremendous skillset, great length, explosive, very quick for his size, was really — he could do everything," Belichick said. "He started his career here on the nose [tackle], which was not really his best position but he could play it for sure.
"Long, athletic, very powerful. He was a tough matchup for the interior linemen: He could win with speed against some of the quicker guys and against some of the quicker guys he could win with power."
When he arrived with the Patriots, Belichick said, Seymour made an immediate impression and he was "unlike any player that I had coached up until that point."
Retired tackle George Foster played with Seymour at Georgia and against him in his career with the Broncos and Lions.
"He’s a load. He's 6-6, long, has that size 18 shoe that digs in the ground, an immovable force. He was always a handful," Foster said.
In 164 career regular-season games, Seymour had 498 tackles, including 326 solo tackles and 91 tackles for loss. He also had 57.5 sacks, 39 pass break-ups, four forced fumbles, two interceptions and eight fumble recoveries, including a memorable 68-yard return for a touchdown against the Bills in 2004.
If that return doesn't offer enough proof of his athleticism, consider that Seymour was also the rare defensive lineman who played on punt returns. He also had four blocked field goals on special teams.
Nearly all of Seymour's pass break-ups were at the line of scrimmage, using his length, sense of timing and "big paws" as Foster called them to swat an attempt.
"That's no yards gained, that’s a loss of down, those are big plays and he made a ton of those," Foster said.
One of the frustrations around Hall selections — not just for Seymour but other players through the years — is the absence of guidelines or standards. In baseball, getting 3,000 hits or 300 wins as a pitcher are basically green lights for Cooperstown.
In football, those kind of numbers don't really exist. And Pioli thinks that's just fine.
"Hall of Fame players are supposed to be great and dominant in their era. In certain instances statistics don't tell that story," Pioli said. "[Seymour] played a 2-gap defense and people had to game-plan around him. We've got to be careful that we don't make the Hall all about numbers on paper. These are human beings that are players, not numbers on a sheet of paper."
Foster recalled the 2006 playoff game his Denver team played against New England, the game most remembered for Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson chasing down Champ Bailey on an interception return. Seymour was getting the best of Broncos left tackle Matt Lepsis and started yelling to his former Bulldogs teammate, who was playing at right tackle.
"He said, 'Fost, you better tell them to put you over here.' I was like 'no'," Foster said. "Me and Ty Warren are fine over here. Ty's no slouch, but I'll let you and Matt have at it."
Seymour was also a beloved leader. He wasn't a rah-rah type at all.
Even at Georgia, "He was always a cool dude, always great to be around, always been a wonderful guy. The ferocity that he played the game, you don’t really expect the person. He’s so mild mannered and nice and want to make sure everyone is OK. But once the ball was snapped he was hell on wheels. I don’t know anyone that dislikes Seymour."
Pioli put it perfectly when he described Seymour's carriage in the locker room: he did it with dignity, pride and humility.
"It's dignity. It's not arrogance," Pioli said. "And then he had an intensity about him, but he has that smile. When he smiles his eyes smile too."
Hall electors may have made him wait a few years, but to opponents like Foster, Seymour should have been first ballot.
"I’d be really confident that all of his opponents would say that's a Hall of Famer. You heard the talk among your peers. The peers will let you know that he was a real problem every Sunday."
