Sam Mills — the 5-foot-9 linebacker who liked to say he was short, balding and couldn’t see very well — made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Mills joined the ultimate football team posthumously. He died of cancer in 2005, at age 45. He was inducted in Canton, Ohio, site of the Hall of Fame, along with seven other members of the Class of 2022. Jim Mora, Mills’ former head coach both in the USFL and with the New Orleans Saints, and Melanie Mills, Sam’s widow, presented Mills for enshrinement and unveiled his bust.
“So thank you for this honor, for believing in Sam, and for helping to keep his story alive,“ Melanie Mills said at the close of her acceptance speech on her late husband’s behalf at the ceremony Saturday afternoon. “Keep pounding, everyone. That’s what Sam would want you to do.”
