Opinion: Quiet perfection finally honored with Monk enshrinement

Lance Martin/Senior Writer

Saturday, justice was served and quiet perfection honored as Art Monk was enshrined in the Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

It was an honor that should have been bestowed on the great wide receiver in his first year of eligibility but in a world where Pro Bowl appearances seem to overshadow on-field performance these days, Monk was all but ostracized, despite setting receiving records that have since been broken.

After leaving the game in 1995, he had to wait until this year to get word he was in.

Monk has since been overshadowed in the list of great receivers not because of the way he played the game, but the way he conducted himself on and off the field.

He was not boisterous. He didn't celebrate elaborately, if you call the end zone high-fives he did with teammates boisterous. Unlike today's self-absorbed antics of commandeering TV cameras, signing touchdown balls or keeping a cell phone in the padding of the goalpost, Monk's only distraction was in the secondary where he torched defenders for 68 touchdowns and 940 receptions which spanned 12,721 yards.

There are experts who believe Monk's records would still stand today had it not been for changes in the NFL which led to a more wide-open passing game.

What strikes most people about this man, however, is that he never complained about the wait.

He led his post-football life just as quietly as he led his pre-football life, graduating from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University where he is still on several top 10 lists for his football prowess.

He and some of his other Washington teammates founded the Good Samaritan Foundation. The foundation provides youth with the environment needed to equip them with the skills, training and resources necessary to compete successfully in society through the Student Training Opportunity Program. The program serves more than 50 high school students, four days a week during the school year and five days a week during the summer providing after-school programs, tutoring and mentoring.

Now an executive and co-founder of Alliant Merchant Services, he has had a football camp bearing his name since 1983.

One can only imagine the furor that would be created when the receivers who bask in the limelight and their own egos don't make it into the Hall. One can only imagine the disparaging comments someone like Terrell Owens, should he even be considered for such an honor, would make if forced to wait as long as Monk did.

Unlike some people who would probably think they deserve to be enshrined, Monk understands this is an honor and understands this honor comes with responsibility.

“It's more than a title. It's humbling. And it's something hopefully I can live up to,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.

This column focuses on Monk because it was a given his teammate Darrell Green was a shoe-in while year after year there was doubt cast on whether No. 81, a man who has two Super Bowl rings, would make it when all his supporters believed it should be automatic.

On Saturday it finally happened and in The Associated Press interview days before the induction, Monk was typical Monk.

“I've never been one to draw attention to myself. I think it comes from my parents. They're both not necessarily quiet, but they didn't boast about themselves. They just worked. They worked hard. It's all they ever knew, and they instilled that in me. That's the kind of approach that I took. I kept my head down and worked hard and just did my best.”