CANTON, Ohio – The wait was worth it. Every painstaking moment from 18 additional months of waiting to step to the dais and deliver his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech evaporated for Harold Carmichael on Saturday here. His dream came true.
Harold Carmichael is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a football "journey," as he called it in his induction speech, complete.
"I can't describe what this means for me and my family and the fans who have supported me through all of these years," Carmichael said after he was honored second after the late Steve Sabol from NFL Films was inducted. "It's been a journey and I'm just so blessed to be here enjoying this moment. God has given me the patience. He told me, 'Just wait, Harold.' I waited, and here I am. I prayed for this day. I prayed for the moment. He got me through it. I was kind of shaking. My whole insides were shaking up there (on stage)."
Every step of his Canton experience has been treasured: mingling with the rest of the Centennial Class and the Class of 2021 (28 players were inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend, three times the usual number), seeing the Eagles fans and the Eagles brass (Jeffrey Lurie and Don Smolenski were among those from the organization on hand), sharing the experience with a large number of former teammates, taking part in the Gold Jacket Ceremony on Friday, seeing his bust displayed on the Hall of Fame stage ... every bit of it.
Worth the wait? Oh, and then some.
"I was calm and cool for 18 months until the Gold Jacket Ceremony and then it hit me like a ton of bricks," Carmichael said. "I was crying. I was trying to be cool, wiping my tears away like it was sweat. But I was breaking down. All of my emotions came flowing through."
Presented by his agent and longtime friend Jim Solano, Carmichael thanked all of those who helped him along the way as he delivered his acceptance speech. He reached out to the fans who were in attendance in Canton and those in Philadelphia and around the world. He thanked his family. He thanked his teammates and former Head Coach Dick Vermeil. He thanked everyone – and still left people out, no doubt.
It's been that kind of weekend. It's been that kind of 18 months since the COVID-19 pandemic upended everyone's lives. Truthfully, Carmichael has been waiting since his career ended in 1984, when his 590 career receptions ranked sixth in NFL history. Since then, of course, offensive inflation has made his numbers relatively pedestrian (his 590 career receptions are now 89th most in league history), but time hasn't erased the impact Carmichael made on the Eagles or the wide receiver position. He was always larger than life, both in stature (6-feet-8) and performance.
"I played the game the way I was taught to play it," Carmichael said. "I loved it. I played hard and gave it everything I had. That's the way we did it. Every day you come in to work and you work your tail off. Gosh, it was so much fun. I wouldn't take any of it back. We had some tough seasons and that made our winning even sweeter. I heard it from people at times in the media, the fans, and that's just the nature of the fan base and the City of Philadelphia. They wanted to win and it took us some time to get on the right track."
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