The New York Times reported that Junior Seau’s family will not be allowed to speak during his Hall of Fame induction ceremony Aug. 8.
According to the Times, Seau had told others that he wanted his daughter Sydney to introduce him. Now she won’t get that opportunity, even though she told the Times she doesn’t plan to talk about the traumatic brain injuries he suffered.
“It’s frustrating because the induction is for my father and for the other players, but then to not be able to speak, it’s painful,” Sydney said. “I just want to give the speech he would have given. It wasn’t going to be about this mess. My speech was solely about him.”
It’s not the first time a deceased inductee didn’t have somebody speak for him (the Times story mentions nobody spoke for 2011 inductee Les Richter).
But in this instance, it sure comes off as the NFL trying to avoid drawing attention to what happened to Seau, especially with the family filing a lawsuit against the league.
