It turns out Sydney Seau will be allowed to honor her late father, Junior Seau, when he is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next Saturday.
“Sydney will be given a chance to share thoughts about her father immediately following the unveiling of his bronzed bust,” the Hall of Fame said in a statement, via ESPN.com. “The unveiling, which typically features just the presenter and enshrinee, will include Sydney and Junior’s three sons.
“Her remarks will be live and onstage in a fashion similar to interviews of returning Hall of Famers.”
The Hall will maintain its rules allowing only video presentations for posthumous inductions. However, Sydney will have the chance to talk about her father in the video, which will be twice as long as most induction videos, according to Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com.
Sydney also will be at the Thursday night gold jacket ceremony, where she can represent her father, who played for the New England Patriots from 2006 to 2009, the last four seasons of the linebacker’s 20-year NFL career.
“Our goal was to try and keep our policy but also show some compassion and understanding,” Hall of Fame president David Baker told FOX Sports. “Through all the conversations, Sydney has always been great.
“She will have the opportunity to say whatever she wants to say, but we will still maintain our (posthumous induction) policy. We want this to be a great day for Sydney and her family. Should she choose not to speak afterward, that should be OK.”
Originally, the Hall wouldn’t allow anyone from the Seau family to speak at the induction because of its policy for posthumous inductions. That caused controversy because some believed the Hall was punishing the Seaus, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NFL two years ago.
Seau committed suicide in 2012 at age 43 and later was diagnosed with CTE. Seau’s family believes he received CTE from repeated blows to the head while playing football and blames the NFL for not doing enough to educate and protect its players about the dangers of the game.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@SInow
