LA Rams: Best quotes from Isaac Bruce’s HOF speech

Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks of putting thoughts onto a form of media that others can read, critique, take out of context, or misinterpret is the attempt to honor one of the NFL greats. When it comes to an LA Rams player, it becomes triply difficult because there is the Cleveland Rams – LA Rams – St Louis Rams – back to LA Rams thing that is out there too.

But I will wade into this topic, despite my own reservations about doing this man proper justice, because this one is for Isaac Bruce. He was more than a football player to me. He was more than a gentleman off the field. He was one of the most likable guys to ever play the game.  And perhaps now, amidst a cancel-culture, of exclusion, and of deep divisions across the spectrum of chasms that seem to be no coming back from, my amateurish attempt to describe why Isaac Bruce is one of the most inclusive players to ever step onto a football field. He was my first NFL star, the first guy I cheered for, even after he joined the rival San Francisco 49ers. He was the reason that the NFL became so very popular in my life.

He played for the Rams. He was drafted with the 33rd overall pick of the 1994 NFL Draft out of the University of Memphis. In his first season, he played in Los Angeles. But by the time he returned for his second season, the Rams played in Saint Louis, taking over in the city vacated by the Cardinals.

But it didn’t matter where he played. It could have been Nome Alaska, Rio De Janeiro Brazil, or Hanoi Vietnam, and I would feel the same. Isaac Bruce was a humble superstar. He was gifted to be one of professional football’s best receivers, blessed to play a game that he loved, and humble enough to never become bigger than the game.