Shannon Sharpe Golden For HOF Speech

John Mason once said, “As every thread of gold is valuable, so is every moment in time.”

Now that Shannon Sharpe wears a jacket full of gold threads, he can attest to the greatness of all his moments in time.

Tonight when Shannon Sharpe takes the podium at the NFL enshrinement ceremony, he will reflect back on his life, football and non-football, to give thanks and appreciation to those who mean the most to him.

It’s not an easy task, however.

“When you see all those people, you’re going to be looking at someone, and you know their name, but you’re not going to be able to get it out,” Sharpe said of the nerve-provoking speech he’s prepared.

Sharpe had to condense 26 years of football into a 12-minute speech, and he did it the old-fashioned way – pen to paper.

“The speech kind of wrote itself…I got in as many people as I could in the allotted time,” Sharpe said.” I’ve always had an idea if this were to ever happen, what I would want to say.”

That doesn’t mean that Sharpe is completely comfortable giving his speech. For a guy known for his big mouth in his playing days, and for a guy who continues to speak with ease as an NFL commentator on CBS, Sharpe is nervous for tonight.

“It’s almost like the Super Bowl. The build-up through the week. I’m getting excited, I’m getting a little antsy.”

Sharpe will be the last speaker of the night, and he said that he’s happy going last since he was voted on by the other inductees to be the one most likely to shed tears while giving the speech.

“The only difference between truth and fiction is fiction has to make sense,” Sharpe said of his constant amazement over what is happening to him this weekend.

With insight like that I think we can all agree that Sharpe’s speech will be nothing but, well, nothing but solid gold.

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