INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Curtis Martin has gone from the mean streets of Pittsburgh to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The star running back with the Patriots and Jets for 11 seasons was one of six players elected Saturday to the shrine. He is joined by Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy, Willie Roaf, Dermontti Dawson and senior selection Jack Butler. They will be inducted Aug. 4 in Canton, Ohio.
Martin once disliked playing the game, but used it to escape a neighborhood where his grandmother was murdered.
“When I get awarded something like the Hall of Fame, it's almost foreign to me,” said Martin, the NFL's No. 4 career rusher. “This wasn't something I planned on doing. Football is something I did so I didn't end up jailed or dead.”
Martin made the hall for his consistency and durability, rushing for 14,101 yards and 90 touchdowns. He rushed for at least 1,000 yards in each of his first 10 seasons. The 1995 Offensive Rookie of the Year, Martin won the NFL rushing title in 2004 with 1,697 yards.
Doleman and Kennedy were sackmasters from the defensive line, Doleman at end and Kennedy at tackle.
Doleman had 150½ sacks in his 15 seasons, mostly with Minnesota, and was one of the prototype agile yet powerful pass rushers who dominate the game today.
Kennedy was a force inside, both as a run stopper and in threatening quarterbacks. The 1992 Defensive Player of the Year made eight Pro Bowls, had 58 sacks — an unusually high total for a tackle — and spent his entire 11-season career with Seattle.
Roaf blocked the likes of Doleman and Kennedy in his 13 seasons with New Orleans and Kansas City. He played one season at right tackle, then the rest of his career on the left side, making 11 Pro Bowls. He made the All-Decade team for the 1990s.
Dawson made seven Pro Bowls as the Steelers' center. He was that rare snapper who also could block defensive players one on one. He replaced a Hall of Famer, Mike Webster, and started for Pittsburgh for most of his 13 pro seasons.
Guard Will Shields didn't get in. The former Husker, the only first-year eligible player to make the 15-man finals, started all but one of the 224 games in his 14 seasons in Kansas City.
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