SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Singletary’s passionate speech came to an impactful pause while he described Patrick Willis, a former star 49ers linebacker Singletary helped groom. Willis was taking a rightful spot amid Thursday night’s Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement, and Singletary’s thoughts drifted toward the Pro
Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. “I thought for sure he’d be in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame this year. There’s no reason why … I won’t even go there,” Singletary said with a sigh to the audience of nearly 1,000 at a downtown San Francisco hotel. Asked during the ceremony to expand on that, Singletary succinctly answered that Willis should have been a first-ballot entrant to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, five years after Willis’ award-laden 49ers career ended due to toe injuries. Lee Posey, 11, left, shakes hands with Patrick Willis while standing with his father Buster Posey during media interviews before the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 25, 2023. The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 is inducting Julie Foudy, Gary Payton, Buster Posey, Andre Ward and Patrick Willis. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) Willis, 38, has been stuck in Canton’s finalist queue the past two years, and with fellow linebacker Zach Thomas
BREAKING through in this year’s class, perhaps that opens a door for Willis in 2024. Willis takes solace in knowing he did all he could in 7 ½
NFL seasons. He started with NFL Rookie of the Year honors in 2007, earned seven straight Pro Bowl nods and six All-Pro selections, then was limited to six games in 2014, his final year. “I always heard (NFL) football was for Not For Long,” Willis added. “Whether it ended tomorrow or four years from now, I wanted to be able to evaluate and stop and say, ‘Look at this time. I was giving it everything I had.’ That’s what I was graded on. Not what could have been, what he should have done. Take what you see and do what you will with it.” Singletary, whose linebacker career vaulted him to Canton’s Class of 1998, said Willis “didn’t have the hype” of others. #49ers linebacker Patrick Willis enshrined into #BayAreaSportsHallOfFame pic.twitter.com/mHDcIxFAuG — Cam Inman (@CamInman) May 26, 2023 Reminders like Thursday night’s Bay Area Hall of Fame induction should help, as should last year’s into the 49ers’ Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. Hall of Fame, his 2019 induction to the College Football Hall of Fame, and his 2015 spot in the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame. In today’s data-driven sports society, perhaps the 49ers should unearth tracking data from Willis’ time to somehow relay his blazing speed and brick-wall force. “When you buckle the chin strap, there are no
Friends,” Willis said. “It’s straight business. It’s game time. “I’d have to tell Marshawn (Lynch) that, because he’d try to talk between the lines, and I’d say, ‘Man, stop talking to me. We’ll talk when the game’s over.’ It’s just about knowing what needs to get done and getting it done.” When Willis and the 49ers weren’t getting it done in a 2009 loss at Houston, then-Niners coach Singletary hollered from the sideline, “Pat, let’s go! Get them going!” Singletary recalled Thursday how, on the flight home, he checked in on Willis, who was upset about being the only targets of his coach’s yells during that game. “I sat down next to him,” Singletary recalled, “and said, ‘Pat, you’re the only one I could yell at. You know why? Because I know you can take it. Because I know you will get up and fight. I know you will lead. I know you will work through it. You’re like my son.’ “Pat said, ‘Coach, you can yell at me anytime.’ ” Gary Payton Sr., an Oakland
basketball legend and fellow BASHOF inductee, was among those who wish Willis’ career had gone longer. “I’m a big 49ers fan,” Payton said. “I really hated when he retired in the middle of his career, and how good he was, but he wanted to protect himself.” Willis wanted a longer career. Toe surgery during the 2014 season put an end to it. “If I had it my way, who knows how it could have ended out if I kept playing,” Willis said. “I hadn’t spoken on it a whole lot but my other toe was just as bad. At some point, you had to make that decision.” Gary Payton, center, shakes hands with Mike Singletary before the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 25, 2023. The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 is inducting Julie Foudy, Gary Payton, Buster Posey, Andre Ward and Patrick Willis. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) OAKLAND SUCCESS STORIES Payton, 54, was inducted a decade ago into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, yet Thursday’s Bay Area enshrinement was even more special. “This is bigger than the Naismith to me, because this is in my hometown,” Payton said. “I want kids to look up to me, to become where I’m at now … especially kids out of Oakland. They need guidance, and the guidance is me. Payton also took pride in entering the BASHOF with fellow East Bay product Andre Ward, the last
United States boxer to win an Olympic gold medal (2004) before capping his pro career with a 32-0 record. Oakland native/leader @GaryPayton is enshrined into #BayAreaSportsHallOfFame pic.twitter.com/a4nRUkZZSe — Cam Inman (@CamInman) May 26, 2023 “There’s something different about being inducted at home,” Ward said. “I’ve heard about how Oakland and the Bay Area is a small market, that you can’t sell tickets here, you can’t become great here, that nothing good comes out of Oakland. “You need to remind them: I just did that throughout the course of my career, in the ring and how I carry myself out of the ring. They can’t really introduce me or say my name without saying where I’m from, and, for me, that’s big.” More on Ward will be gleaned in an upcoming Showtime documentary, “S.O.G. The Book of Ward,” which comes out Friday; a private screening is set for Wednesday at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre. FOUDY ON WOMEN’S SOCCER Olympic Gold Medalist Julie Foudy is interviewed by Lindsay Mibach, of Sunnyvale, during media interviews before the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 25, 2023. The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 is inducting Julie Foudy, Gary Payton, Buster Posey, Andre Ward and Patrick Willis. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) Some 30 years after leaving Stanford and serving as a longtime captain for the U.S. Women’s National Team, Julie Foudy is thrilled the Bay Area has landed a National Women’s Soccer League expansion team for 2024, even though she’s a part owner of Angel City FC in
Los Angeles. “To not have a women’s sports team here in the Bay Area feels criminal to me, especially with how well women’s sports are doing,” Foudy said. “So I’m ecstatic they finally got their (NWSL) team.” Foudy credited her family with opening doors for her to succeed. “With the best of intentions, as parents we hover and we want (children) to be successful. My parents basically opened doors and said, ‘You go, you walk, you do it. I’ll be here to support you, but you’re going to do it.” Soccer star @JulieFoudy — of @stanford and @USWNT (1999 team was favorite I’ve ever covered — is enshrined into #BayAreaSportsHallOfFame pic.twitter.com/05ci3YoVro — Cam Inman (@CamInman) May 26, 2023 KUIPER ON POSEY Duane Kuiper dutifully presented Buster Posey as “the backbone” of the Giants’ three world championship teams, and Kuiper also praised the work Posey and his wife, Kristen, have done the past decade with childhood
cancer research and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Posey autographed a Giants catcher’s helmet – along with attendees Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Dave Dravecky and Kuiper – which reached $10,000 in a bidding war during Thursday’s auction. Payton intervened, suggested two helmets be awarded, and, boom, $20,000 was headed toward the event, which benefits Special Olympics of Northern
California. “There’s been a bit of false advertising on the helmet,” Kuiper joked. “It was advertised as all the great players had signed it. Well, I signed it, too, so whoever purchased it, if they need a discount, I’ll pay for it.” SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN Now that Posey has moved back to his native Georgia, he reflected on the culture shock of his decade-plus in the Bay Area. “It’s just a different way of life, in a lot of respects. One of the bigger ones is the weather,” Posey said. “You’re used to really hot, humid weather, and then you’re playing in 52 degrees and wind in the middle of the summer here. That was a big change.” Related Articles San Francisco 49ers | Inman: Brandon Aiyuk, 10 other things to stand out at 49ers’ practice San Francisco 49ers | 49ers ‘incredibly encouraged’ after Brock Purdy’s first throwing session San Francisco 49ers | What are Sam Darnold’s chances of winning 49ers’ quarterback job? San Francisco 49ers | Brock Purdy relishes new dynamic in 49ers’ ever-changing quarterback room San Francisco 49ers | Where will soon-to-be-named Bay Area NWSL team play its matches? Willis grew up in Tennessee and he talked about his and Posey’s shared Southern roots when they met Thursday for the first time. Willis hasn’t left the Bay Area since arriving as the 49ers’ 2008 first-round draft pick. “I grew up watching ‘Baywatch’ and ‘Crocodile Dundee’, and being a kid from the South, it’s hot summers, with some ponds, but you didn’t see the ocean,” Willis recalled. “I remember as a kid saying, ‘One day, I want to live somewhere like that and drive a nice car on a nice open highway.’ “Then I got drafted by the 49ers,” Willis said, “and it wasn’t long before I had this moment I walked out on my balcony, the sun was shining and hitting me just right. I said, ‘I’m having a real-time moment. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.’ Here I’ve been 15 years later and still loving it.” PAYTON ON WARRIORS After cheering on his son and the Warriors to last season’s NBA championship, Payton is excited about their potential next season and beyond. “It was a disappointment to go out in the second round (this year), but that’s just what happens. You win championships and it’s not that easy to repeat,” Payton said. “They’re going to be back next year. They’ve got a lot of things to think about in the summer and I think (Gary Jr.) is going to have to come back and get himself very, very healthy and be ready to play a full year. “This Golden State team is used to winning. They know what they need to do. They were down for a bit, then came back up. They’ll be fine,” Payton added. “First they’ve got to get Bob Myers back. They have to get the mastermind back. If he comes back, he knows what he needs to do.”