One of the annual highlights of Super Bowl week comes during the NFL Honors ceremony when the league announces the regular season award winners and incoming class to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This year’s ceremony is scheduled for Thursday night in Las Vegas, and the Hall of Fame class could feature a very special moment.
Former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Steve “Mongo” McMichael is one of three senior finalists for the class of 2024. Since 2010, every senior finalist has been inducted that year, so it seems like a foregone conclusion for McMichael, who has been battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease since April 2021.
After McMichael’s football career came to an end, he joined Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling where he first worked as an announcer before becoming an in-ring performer, where he teamed with famed professional wrestler Ric Flair in The Four Horsemen.
This week, Flair joined Jarrett Payton on Chicago’s GNSports to share his experiences with McMichael and what it would mean to him to see his friend join football’s immortals in Canton.
“He’s just one of the biggest personalities I’ve ever met in my life. I mean in real life. His personality just takes over the room,” Flair told Payton. “We just clicked. I fell in love with him as a person – as a man. Loved hanging out with him. He just fit into the locker room. I think [McMichael’s induction] is mandatory. It’s one of these things where I think he already should have been based on his stats.
“He’s right there with Warren Sapp — almost tied or equal number-wise, and I’ll tell you this, if we all go to Canton and he gets inducted and they bring him up on stage, it’ll be a Jimmy Valvano moment. Like his speech at the ESPYs. ‘Never give up.'”
In addition to winning Super Bowl XX with the Bears, McMichael was a five-time All-Pro in his NFL career, nabbing two first-team selections and three second-team selections
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