August 2, 2008 was a bright blue day in Canton, Ohio, the kind of day when anything seemed possible.  And to more than 20,000 Redskin fans, suddenly anything was possible.  After eight long years, one of Washington’s favorite sons, Art Monk, was finally being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. As Art approached the podium to receive football’s highest honor, the crowd went wild, shouting, “It’s about time!”  Art received the longest standing ovation in the history of these coveted awards – four minutes and four seconds, to be exact.

Art was a wide receiver for the redskins from 1980 to 1993.  he was a first-round draft from Syra-cuse university.  After his fourteen years with the redskins, he spent a year with the New York Jets and then the Philadelphia eagles before retiring in 1995.  he finished his career with 940 receptions for 12,721 yards and 68 touchdowns and was the first player in NFL history to record over 100 receptions in a season and over 900 career receptions. I recently visited with him at Alliant merchant Services in Virginia, the elec-tronic payment processing company Art founded in 2000 with former teammate Charles Mann. As I waited, I wondered what this beloved hall-of-famer would look like. Having met a few pro football players, i know there is an impressive physicality about them that few mortals possess. Add to that a glint in their eyes that seems to say, “Despite my size, I can tear out of here at the speed of light.” As Art entered the room, I noticed his height.  he’s in fabulous shape at 51, like a strong oak.  he was wearing black slacks and a black sweater.  As I shook his hand, I felt very, very small. I quickly became aware that Art selects his words carefully, searching for just the right ones before inserting them into the conversation. He is even more careful when looking for words to describe disagreeable people, finding nouns and verbs just vague enough to get the meaning across without actually saying anything unkind about anybody. This is one hall-of-famer with the quiet dignity and gentle refinement worthy of a past century, a time when character counted far more than sound-bite bravado. He belongs to an endangered species in 2009 – a truly regal, old-fashioned gentle-man. Because of his quiet nature, Art was never a media darling, despite his popularity with the fans.  he was never the guy who did anything unsportsmanlike, such as a butt-wagging, crotch-grabbing touchdown victory dance.  The loud-mouthed, breast-beating heroes of the moment, swaggering with attitude, make for good sound bites.  A humble, thoughtful man, however, is far less interesting to the press.  “Art Monk did Not Boast, Do drugs or Shoot Anybody Today” makes boring copy. “I’m shy,” he explained, and it was difficult for me to imagine how any hall of famer could actually say that.  “I’m not an out-front talkative person. I like to stand in the background and observe. I just wanted to do my job. I didn’t want the media attention. I liked the journalists,” he added, perhaps afraid that he was being unkind. “But.” No more needed to be said.

After retiring from the game in 1995, Art qualified for the hall of fame in 2000.  Yet the years came and went without his name being called.  many have speculated that the delay was due to his reticence with the press; others thought that his readiness to sacrifice his own stats to help the team hurt his chances for the hall of fame.  redskins fans chomped at the bit and fumed as their golden boy was ignored again and again.  i asked Art how he felt about having to wait eight years for the honor.“Getting into the hall of fame wasn’t really as big a deal for me as it was for people in this community where i played for so long,” he replied, “Because I don’t base anything that I do on the decision of man.  You can never trust in man.  I put all my faith and trust in something that does not ever change -- my relationship with the Lord.  This was the appointed time for me.”