Sydney Seau will get chance to speak for father at Hall of Fame induction

The Pro Football Hall of Fame has reversed field and allowed Sydney Seau to speak at the induction ceremony of her father, the late Junior Seau, after initially saying she could not, according to Fox Sports' Alex Marvez.

The Hall had passed a bylaw in 2010, which prohibited a substitute speaker, such as a family member, for a deceased player being enshrined. Former Los Angeles Rams inductee Les Richter was the first posthumous member to be elected, and his family did not speak on his behalf — something they were fine with.

But Seau had asked for Sydney, his only daughter, to be his presenter should he ever make the Hall of Fame. Seau died at the age of 43 in 2012 of a self-inflicted gun wound, and the initial suspicion once it was made public that Sydney would not step in for her father in the traditional speaking role was that the NFL nixed it for fear that she would discuss his concussion-plagued career or the CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) he was found to have when postmortem studies were performed on his brain.

The Aug. 8 ceremony in Canton, Ohio, will include Sydney taking part in an on-stage interview after the unveiling of Seau's bust, and Sydney and Seau's three sons will be the ones doing the unveiling, which is typically done only by the enshrinee and the presenter.

The Hall also will include the standard video presentation for Seau, but at 6 1/2 minutes, the highlight video of Seau's 20-year NFL career and comments from Sydney is more than double the typical length. Sydney also will take part in the Thursday night "Gold Jacket" ceremony, the first major event of induction week, and will speak during the NFL Network broadcast.

This was the only call for the Hall. Backlash reached uproar level, and both the Hall and the NFL — intentionally or not — were looking bad in the process. Although the rules weren't completely bent on this issue, it's clear that that Hall had to go above and beyond to make right of this situation.

There's a great chance that Sydney will be the star of the induction ceremony and that she will do a tremendous job of representing her father, which is why he wanted her to speak for him years ago.