The Show.

Today is a day that will go down in football history as two of the greatest players in the game are inducted into the Hall of Fame:

22 - Emmitt Smith

- All-time leading rusher (18.355 yards)

- All-time rushing touchdowns leader (164)

- 3-time Super Bowl champion

- Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl MVP and regular season MVP in 1993

- 8-time Pro Bowler





80 - Jerry Rice

- All-time leader in touchdowns (208)

- All-time leader in reception touchdowns (197)

- All-time leader in receptions (1,549)

- All-time leader in total yards (23,540)

- 3-time Super Bowl champion






It's worth noticing that the numbers these players accumulated and the records they broke clearly set them apart from anyone else who ever played the game. However, something that the modern era sports fan can appreciate, perhaps more than said numbers, is the way these two players played the game. These are two guys who played the game the right way. They kept their mouths shut and played hard. They played for their teams and cared about winning. They were honest with themselves, their teams and their fans. They stayed true to the integrity of the game. Today, we're surrounded by players who reach monumental achievements, but the means by which they achieve these feats are questionable, and when we're not hearing about cheaters, we're hearing about egomaniacs. Smith and Rice were two players that set the record straight about what a professional is. There are players today - whose heads are nearly too big to fit in a stadium - that will never come close to what these now hall-of-famers achieved.

So on a day where numbers speak for themselves, records are acknowledged and careers are remembered, know that the way these men played the game is what truly sets them apart from others, and hope that today's athletes can take a page or two from the examples laid out by two of the greatest players football has ever seen.