GREEN BAY – Former Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer as part of Canton's Class of 2025.
Sharpe was voted in as one of this year's three finalists in the senior category after reaching the semifinalist stage multiple times previously. Senior candidates are no longer eligible for the modern-day selection process and last appeared in an NFL game in 1999 or earlier.
The Hall's Class of 2025 was announced on Thursday night's NFL Honors show.
A first-round draft pick (No. 7 overall) out of South Carolina in 1988, Sharpe played seven seasons with the Packers and was a three-time first-team All-Pro selection and five-time Pro Bowler.
He joins his younger brother Shannon in the Hall of Fame, making the Sharpes the only pair of brothers enshrined in Canton.
Back in 2011 during Shannon's induction speech, the younger Sharpe famously said, "I'm the only pro football player that's in the Hall of Fame, and the second-best player in my own family."
Sharpe set the (then) NFL record for receptions in one season with 108 in 1992 and broke it the next year with 112. He also led the league in TD receptions twice, including his final season with 18, before a neck injury forced his early retirement.
"I know from experience, Sterling was a beast, a complete receiver and game-changer, a dominant force in every game he played," said former Pro Bowl safety Eugene Robinson, who played for the Packers after Sharpe retired, discussing Sharpe's candidacy in a 2024 Packers Yearbook story.
"He led the league at times in Jerry Rice's era, who outshines everyone like a Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. Sterling carried their offensive load when every opponent was geared to stop him. We couldn't, no one could."
Hall of Famer and former Packers general manager Ron Wolf, who came to Green Bay midway through Sharpe's career, agreed with Robinson.
"Every NFL defensive coordinator thought all they had to do is take Sterling Sharpe away and they could beat the Packers," Wolf said in that same article. "But you know what? They could never take Sterling away."
Sharpe retired as the Packers' all-time leader in receptions (595) while ranking second in receiving yards (8,134) to James Lofton and second in TD receptions (65) to Don Hutson, both Hall of Famers themselves.
Here are additional notes related to various team records Sharpe set during his career:
- His franchise career receptions record stood for 15 years until broken by Donald Driver in 2009, and Sharpe now ranks third in team history in that category behind Driver and Davante Adams. Sharpe currently ranks third in receiving yards behind Driver and Lofton, and fourth in TD catches behind Hutson, Adams and Jordy Nelson.
- His NFL single-season record of 112 receptions in 1993 was broken the following year by Minnesota's Cris Carter, also a Hall of Famer, but it stood as the Packers' single-season mark for 27 years until surpassed by Adams in 2020.
- His 18 TD catches in 1994 broke the previous franchise record of 17 by Hutson, which had stood for 52 years, and it still ranks tied for first in team annals, having been matched by Adams in 2020.
- His 1,423 receiving yards in 1989 broke Lofton's single-season team record from five years prior. Sharpe broke his own mark with 1,461 yards in 1992, only to have that eclipsed by Robert Brooks the year after he retired.
Former Packers WR Sterling Sharpe has been named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Take a look back at photos of Sharpe during his seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers.
Having never gotten much traction through the modern-day selection process because of his injury-shortened career, Sharpe's Hall of Fame candidacy seemed to be revived by the senior committee in part due to the recent inductions of other players with similarly shorter careers.
Running back Terrell Davis and safety Kenny Easley were both inducted in 2017, along with offensive tackle Tony Boselli in 2022. All three of them played just seven seasons like Sharpe.
"I don't care how long or short his career was," Wolf said. "He was a dominant player in his era. Period. He's as good a football player that ever wore the green and gold."
Sharpe becomes what the Packers consider their 29th primary Hall of Famer, and he's the only player drafted by the Packers in the 1980s to reach the Hall of Fame.
The Packers missed out on their 30th Canton inductee as former coach Mike Holmgren, the lone finalist in the coach category, did not receive enough votes for induction.
The Packers' 29 primary Hall of Famers ranks second to the Chicago Bears' 32.
