As Steve Atwater contemplated football immortality bestowed by the Hall of Fame, one of the toughest tacklers ever to play in the NFL began to cry, thinking about how much that gold jacket would have meant to his late mother.
“You got me all teared up,” said Atwater, slipping an index finger under his glasses to dab the puddle forming in his right eye, as we sat together at Broncos headquarters.
As the most ferocious hitter ever to wear a Denver uniform knocked patiently on the door to the Hall of Fame, heaven couldn’t wait to take his mother.