NFL doing the right thing to recognize Hayes

Something about the greats who have left us. Be it for a few weeks, months, years or decades.
Their legacy lives on.

 
Forever

 
You know; the likes of Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali.

 
And, how can we forget Bob Hayes — the only man to win a Super Bowl championship and an Olympic gold medal.

 
This weekend, the NFL will bring Hayes to the forefront almost 15 years after his death and eight years after the league inducted him into its Hall of Fame. Hayes will be recognized posthumously along with 27 other football greats who went from a historically Black college or university to make their name in the league.

 
The NFL is using the ceremony to highlight its initiative to recognize the contribution of players from HBCUs. It almost has a ring that seems as if the league is saying pardon us for taking so long.
Better late than never.

 
FAMU, where Hayes made his name on the track and on the football field, is making a big deal about the NFL honor. Rightfully so. Apart from legendary coach Jake Gaither, there hasn’t been any other Rattler to attain the standards established by Hayes.

 
He was one of a kind, and as his former classmates and teammates recall, Hayes didn’t make much of his greatness. Never arrogant. He simply fit in like any other FAMU student on campus.

 
On the football field, he was just another one of the guys. Hayes didn’t mind, as Rudy Givens remember.

 
“He wasn’t like a knight in shining armor sitting over on the side,” Givens said. “He was just like one of the crew. That’s one reason that we didn’t put him on a pedestal.”

 
Not even when he made his fans changed his nickname from “Crow” to “Bullet Bob,” by winning the 100-meter race in the 1964 Olympics.

 
Hayes was too humble for any hoopla.

 
Let Eddie Jackson, who heads up the 220 Quarterback Club tell us.

 
“You would never know he had done great things; seeing him around campus,” Jackson said.
He’d probably have the same attitude about an ongoing question if he’d beat Usain Bolt. Bolt’s 9.58 seconds stands as the fastest time for the 100. Hayes ran it in 10 seconds flat when he won his gold medal in Tokyo.

 
There shouldn’t be any argument, though. Hayes would have been clocked at a faster time had he had the same advantages that technology provides Bolt today. You know; like the suits runners wear now to dart through the wind.

 
Even on the football field there have been arguments when Hayes would have been able to hold his own against today’s defensive schemes. But let’s not forget that it was Hayes who changed the game because defenses couldn’t find a way to stop him from averaging as many as 20 yards per catch.
So is Hayes underrated? Of course.

 
But as long as there are occasion like the ceremony that will take place before Sunday’s Super Bowl, Hayes’ legacy will live on.