Packers: Top 10 Green Bay Packers not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
By Phil Watson
Sterling Sharpe, shown on the cover of the Packers’ 1991 yearbook.
7. Sterling Sharpe, WR (1988-94)
Unlike their first-round pick a year later, the Green Bay Packers never had reason to be disappointed with their choice at No. 7 overall in the 1988 NFL Draft.
That’s because South Carolina wide receiver Sterling Sharpe was as good as advertised … and then some.
Sharpe was a three-time All-Pro selection and five-time Pro Bowler while catching 595 passes in just 112 games for the Packers over the course of a seven-year career that ended prematurely after he sustained a stinger while blocking against the Atlanta Falcons during the last regular-season game in the 1994 season.
He never played again after being diagnosed with “unusual looseness” that required the top two vertebrae in his neck to be surgically fused, according to a 1994 report in The New York Times.
Sharpe still holds the single-season record for receptions in a season for the Packers with the 112 he caught in 1993, which was an NFL record at the time. His 18 touchdown receptions during his final season in 1994 also set a Packer single-season mark which still stands.
Sharpe is second in team history with 595 catches, a mark surpassed later by Donald Driver, and 65 touchdown receptions, and is third with 8,134 receiving yards, trailing James Lofton at the time of his retirement. Driver eventually passed both.
Sharpe led the NFL in receptions three times, in receiving touchdowns twice and in receiving yards in 1992. He became the go-to target for a young Brett Favre during the quarterback’s first three seasons under center in Green Bay and had 11 catches and four touchdowns in two games in the 1993 playoffs.
His brother, Shannon Sharpe, made the Hall of Fame as a tight end, but older brother Sterling still hasn’t had a whiff of it yet.
Sharpe, who turned 50 last month, was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2002.
Realistic Hall Chances: Someday down the line, he will probably be a seniors pick. Until then, not much chance.
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