Exclusive Interview with Pro Football Hall of Famer Sterling Sharpe

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Saturday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced that Green Bay Packers legend Sterling Sharpe had been selected as part of the Class of 2025. To Sharpe, getting the news from his Hall of Fame brother, Shannon Sharpe, mattered more than anything.

“It means a lot more knowing that he and I are the first two brothers to be inducted,” Sharpe told Packers On SI on Friday. “It means a lot more knowing where we came from and the fact that we got a chance to do what we wanted to do.”

Sharpe was the Packers’ first-round draft pick in 1988. In seven seasons, he led the NFL in receptions three times, including a record-setting 108 receptions in 1992 and a record-breaking 112 receptions in 1993.

Sharpe didn’t play for records. He didn’t play to be a Hall of Famer.

“All I wanted to do was play,” he said.

Here is a transcript from the conversation.

I think we’ve all seen the video of you going over to Shannon’s house. What was going through your head when you go down the stairs and he was standing there in the Gold Jacket? Did it hit you right away, like, “Holy bleep, this is happening?” What was going through your head?

No, I went over to see how he was doing. We had spoken about twice the day before because I was down at my sister’s, where we grew up. I was overseeing a roof being put on her house. So, I was down there with her, and he said on Monday he was going to come down. We had a snowstorm, so he couldn’t get out to get to me.

He just sounded different. And I was like, “Are you OK?” And he was like, “Yeah, I’m doing all right.” So, instead of going back home right away, I just made the decision to go by his house, which is 3 hours away. I was going to go to his house, hang out with him for the day or half a day before he left on Wednesday night going back to Vegas.

Sterling Sharpe during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 press conference in New Orleans. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

So, I was thrown off because I went to see how he was doing, and it kind of didn’t really register as far as him standing there. As I was walking down the steps, I just really didn’t put it together because I was just there to make sure he was OK because I know he’s got a lot going on. He’s had a lot of success in the last 12, 13 months and he’s been running a lot, going on the road. And so, I was just really going there to see how he was doing.

That’s incredible. So, he’s got a pretty good poker face, in other words. Or poker voice, I guess it’d be.

Yeah, the voice thing was really good.

So, you legit didn’t think much of it when he’s standing there in his Gold Jacket?

I really didn’t. Like I said, kind of trying to decipher what was going on. It was funny, I noticed Steve Wyche before I noticed the camera people. Steve and I have been friends for a long time, worked together at NFL Network, so it never really registered what was going on.

Like I said, it was not something I wanted. It’s not something I wished for. It’s not something I was looking for. And to have it fall in your lap like that – I definitely understand what the honor is and what it means but, for me, I did what I wanted to do and that was play. That’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t really concern myself with what my numbers meant. I didn’t concern myself with how things went. I played as well as I could for as long as I could, and I moved on.

I think I got the quote right, but you find out and you said, “I need a seat and a drink.” It was an all-time quote.

I wanted to sit down and just kind of process it. Usually when things happen to you – you figure if you get stopped by the police, you’re going too fast. Or too slow. So, I was just trying to decipher in that moment what it all meant and how it all happened and where it came from. So, it was a little bit scary, frightening, overwhelming just because I didn’t see this coming.

Green Bay Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe (left) poses with his younger brother Denver Broncos receiver Shannon Sharpe. — Green Bay Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe (left) poses with his younger brother Denver Broncos receiver Shannon Sharpe in Denver. | Tony Tomsic-Imagn Images

So, your time expires as the modern-era nominee. At that point, did you just think it’s not going to happen?

I have no idea what that means. Like I said, I never really concerned or knew anything about the Hall of Fame until probably 2011, when my brother went in. He didn’t get in on the first ballot, (but) I didn’t really pay attention because it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when with him because, based on the conversations that you hear people have, he had done everything that was possible. I didn’t concern myself with me doing it. I never cared.

That’s amazing. Do you care now? I don’t mean that in a negative way, but it’s the pinnacle and now that you’ve made it, does it mean something to you now? Something big and profound?

It means a lot more knowing that he and I are the first two brothers to be inducted. It means a lot more knowing where we came from and the fact that we got a chance to do what we wanted to do. It means a lot more knowing that I didn’t have a vote, he didn’t have a vote, my friends didn’t have a vote.

For a group of people to sit in a room and revisit me playing 30 years ago, sure, it definitely means a lot because it’s not what you saw or how you felt like you played. It’s what others thought. I never did anything for public consumption, but for them to sit in that room and say, “You know what? His career was worthy of being with the greats.” So, I know it’s a tremendous honor and I’m going to go with it. And, like I said, being the first brothers [to be inducted] probably means a lot more than what the actual Gold Jacket kind of thing means.

Since your brother had gone in and you become a finalist heading into this year, did you allow yourself to think about it at all? Or is it just not something that was even on your radar, even on the eve of it or the week of?

No, I’ve been a finalist before but, like I said, what am I going to be excited about? I’m a golfer now, so I was concerned with trying to get the ball in the hole as fast as possible. So, it’s hard to explain because everyone else’s excitement for me has definitely trumped mine for the simple fact that they would always say, “You should be in” or “Hope you get in.”

But I never considered or thought about it because, like I said, I didn’t play football for this. It was the only thing in my life I wanted to do, and I got a chance to do it. So, my football life was complete.

Dumb question coming here, but when Shannon said that he was the only person in the Hall of Fame whose brother was better – I’m probably butchering the quote there – but what did that mean to you?

It was a tremendous honor. Everybody used to ask me, what is the greatest thing anyone has ever said about you? And I said, Jim Brown said that I could have played in any era. That is a tremendous honor to be put on someone, playing when he played and then being able to watch over the years and all of us who played receiver come through, for him to say that about me was a tremendous gift to me.

But hearing Shannon say that, I think I have a greater appreciation for what he said I did for him. I have a greater appreciation for growing up and being his older brother. But he played football at the highest level at a tremendous clip. And for him to say that was a tremendous honor.

So, what was it like growing up? I’ve asked this to the Watts at the Scouting Combine and other brother tandems as they’ve been coming through. What was the dynamic like when you two were kids?

Growing up on a farm, there’s certain things you have to be able to do. And our grandparents did a good job of making sure we understood how to do a job better than anyone else doing anything else. That’s how I tried to approach everything that I did, from being a friend and a father and a football player.

I’m three years older than him. And so whatever I did, he was watching. And when there was a difficulty in something – teaching him how to drive, teaching him how to shoot a basketball, getting him to understand what people were doing to him when he started playing football – we were competitive but we didn’t fight. We never fought because we were brothers. It wasn’t like there was something I had he didn’t. The only thing I had that he didn’t have was age being three years older.

What are you most proud of during your time here in Green Bay?

That I played. That’s it. I mean, all I wanted to do was play. I came there and I did that. When my career was over, it was over. I was happy with what I put on film. Like I said, I wanted him to be proud of the person I was, the player I was from high school all the way through. Based on the words I’ve heard him say from 2011 up until today, I did that.

Green Bay Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe (84) in action against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1993. | RVR Photos-Imagn Images

So, the records and all that stuff take a back seat to Shannon and family bonds?

Never, never celebrated them. Never. It was what was put on me to help our team win a football game. And then the accumulation of the things that happened, I’m just trying to help my team be better when I left than it was when I got there.

You did, right? You guys won the Super Bowl a few years later and you kind of got them on that path. Do you think of it in those terms?

I do not. My career was seven years, from ’88 to ’94. That was it. I played as well as I could. I tried to make sure that our receiver room saw what I saw. I tried to get them to understand why I did certain things route-running. How to cheat the code of route-running. How to understand how what we do as a receiver can impact our offense based on if you’re playing a better pass rush, how to get the ball out of your quarterback’s hands. Even though the rule is a 14-yard route, you may run that route at 12 just to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands.

So, I tried to give the other guys in our room the same things that I saw, because it was like, if we all see the same things, then we can almost be in the same positions, regardless of who’s running a route.

A great example of that is, I want to say it was in ’92, we played Cincinnati at home and I had broken ribs. And my last catch I was like, I got to come out. And Kitrick Taylor came in, ran the route exactly like we had talked about, and he scored a touchdown. And he came over and said, the conversations that you’ve had with us helped me be able to do what I did to score. I believe, if I remember, that was the only touchdown he scored that year. But that’s all I tried to do is I tried to play the best I could, and I tried to share my information with the rest of our room.

I remember Ron Wolf called you the “perfect football player” at one point. Did you feel unstoppable? And if so, what’s that like? None of us will ever experience anything like that in any walk of life, the dominance that you had for that time.

I never experienced that. Like I said, a play was called and, based on the coaching I had – I had tremendous coaches from Buddy Geis, my first receivers coach, to Sherm Lewis to Jon Gruden – I had tremendous coaches that allowed me to perform to the best of my ability. So, I never looked at playing the game that way.

A play was called, I’m going to execute that play, whether it’s running or passing, run blocking or passing, receiving, I’m going to run that play to the best of my ability. I never looked at how I was or what I was or how other people saw me. I evaluated myself that week and moved on.

Enough football. What are you up to?

I just play golf. I don’t watch football. I watch South Carolina football. I watch my guys play because I live here. But I don’t watch football. I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. I just play golf to the best of my ability.

Sterling Sharpe watches his shot in 2013. | Imagn Images

I had eye surgery in October, so I missed about four months. I’ve only been playing about two weeks. I had another procedure on Monday, so I’m out of playing golf for about two more weeks so, hopefully, I don’t have any more setbacks and I can get back into doing what I love doing.

I’m assuming you’re pretty good?

I was before I had eye surgery. I had a really bad detached retina and I was face down for about 23 hours a day for six-and-a-half weeks, so my body atrophied. Once I got to where I could do exercises, I had to get back some strength to be able to bend over and touch my knees and then touch my toes, and sit on the floor and go through those exercises and try and do some light lifting to build my strength back.

So, I’m kind of in the first part of that. I usually hit my driver for instance about 260, 270. I’m hitting it now about 220. It’s still fun when I get a chance to play. It was fun being back but we got a ways to go to get back to where we play the way that we’re accustomed to playing.

Was golf how you filled that competitive void or is that something that happened later in life?

I never had a competitive void. Everything that’s in front of you, you either do it because you were asked to or you do it to the best of your ability. Competition never got me out of bed. I never saw athletics as competition.

It was just, whether it was football, basketball or running track, this is what I want to do and I want to be good at it. So, like I said, we were raised to attack whatever’s in front of us better than anyone else did anything else. And that’s how I try to approach everything in my athletic life.

I assume Shannon’s going to be your introductory guy in Canton?

As far as I know, yes.

When will you start writing your speech?

I probably will not write a speech. My life is pretty simple. My time in Green Bay, I had tremendous teammates. We had a lot of fun with them. I had outstanding coaches, which all taught me something.

It’s really interesting that they all taught me something different. And because of their teaching, Buddy Geis, I had for the first four years of my career, and then I had Sherm Lewis and, of course, I finished with Jon Gruden. They all taught me something totally different and I was able, with the help of my teammates, to be able to lead the league in catches for all three of them, which is tremendous.

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