Dec. 9, 2014

Sterling Sharpe

Transcript from today’s National Football Foundation 2014 College Football Hall of Fame press conference:

BONNIE BERNSTEIN: In 1983 and from 1985 through ’87, our next inductee set school single-season and career records for both receptions and receiving yards at South Carolina. He has since gone on to have a pretty decent broadcasting career. Good to see you’ve come out of your shell over the years.

STERLING SHARPE: Don’t consider me media (laughter). First of all, I am, like everyone else, humbled and very thankful to be sitting up here with this group of guys, some I know very well, and some I can’t wait to get to know. But my daughter, who will be here tonight, is a broadcast journalism major. She asked me, Dad, what does this mean to you? I said, Honey, I really don’t know. I haven’t had it happen yet. I haven’t had a chance to go back and think about what this really means. But I will say this. Going to the University of South Carolina was the first decision I made as an adult. This tonight, being here today with this group of wonderful men, lets me know that I made the right decision. My idol at the University of South Carolina in George Rogers, he is in the College Football Hall of Fame. When I moved to receiver, the guy I tried to emulate at the University of Michigan, Anthony Carter is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Last but certainly not least my coach Steve Spurrier is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Making that decision as an 18-year-old, an 18-year-old adult, lets me know that going to the University of South Carolina, I made the right decision.

BONNIE BERNSTEIN: South Carolina has been in the SEC since 1991. It was an independent school when you were playing. How different was the experience?

STERLING SHARPE: For me specifically it was very interesting because we weren’t held hostage by having to play Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn every single year. We got Miami and Notre Dame, NC State. We got a chance to play a little bit of everyone. So for me it was an opportunity to showcase the talents that we had, the athletes that we had, the students that we had across the country. For me at the time, I like being in the SEC right now, but I loved the opportunity to share our talents with the rest of the country.