Sterling Sharpe Named to Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025

Former South Carolina standout Sterling Sharpe was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025, it was revealed Thursday night at NFL Honors show in New Orleans, three days before Super Bowl LIX. He will become the first Gamecock in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he is inducted in Canton, Ohio later this year.

Sharpe concluded his South Carolina career as the school’s all-time leading receiver with 169 catches for 2,497 yards and 17 touchdowns. His best season came in 1986 when he caught 74 passes for 1,106 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also had a school-record 104-yard kickoff return against Duke in 1985, the longest play of any kind in Carolina Football history. A two-time All-American, he had his jersey No. 2 retired following the 1987 season, becoming only the second Gamecock to have his jersey retired while he was still active at the school. Sharpe was a first-round draft pick by the Green Bay Packers in 1988. He was inducted into the University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 and into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 2014.

Here’s what Jeremy Bergman, a digital content editor for the NFL, said about Sharpe:

The lone finalist from the Seniors, Coach and Contributor categories to make the Hall in 2025, Sharpe knows a thing or two about maximizing his opportunities. An NFL pro for just seven seasons, the three-time first-team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver still enters Canton as a highly decorated player. Sharpe led the league in receptions three times in his seven seasons, all with the Packers, including his historic 1992 campaign, during which he paced all pass catchers in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns. One of Brett Favre’s favorite targets in Green Bay, Sharpe would have had an even more prolific career if not for a neck injury discovered after the 1994 season, his last in the NFL. Sharpe went out with a bang, catching a league-high 18 TDs in ’94, but he just missed out on a Super Bowl title, which the Packers claimed without him during the 1996 campaign. After retiring as a member of the Green and Gold, Sharpe is now the second member of his family to earn a gold jacket; his brother, Shannon, a champion tight end for Denver and Baltimore, was inducted in 2011. Sterling’s election is therefore a historic one, as he and Shannon are the first pair of brothers to be enshrined in the Pro Football Football of Fame. Football is family, forever.