August 3, 2025
The three-time first-team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver was inducted 30 years after retiring.
History was made this weekend when Green Bay Packers legend, Sterling Shape, joined his brother Shannon, already inducted, into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Sharpes are the first and only brothers to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Almost 35 years after the brothers faced each other in the 1991 AFC Championship game, when Shannon suited up for the Denver Broncos and Sterling for the Packers, instead of being opponents on the football field, they were on the stage as Pro Football Hall of Fame members. Shannon was inducted into the Hall in 2011, where he praised his brother, Sterling, during the ceremony. Sterling was able to return the favor, 14 years later, on August 2.
The Green Bay Packers celebrated Sterling’s accomplishment as his younger brother spoke of his influence on him and his football career.
Sterling told the audience, “Everything I did athletically, everything, I did for an audience of one. I didn’t want this person to look outside our own dinner table to find a role model.”
When Shannon won his first Super Bowl, he gave the ring to Sterling, and he stated that it is “the most precious gift I’ve ever received.” He then presented Shannon with his newly given gold jacket.
“The last time I was here, you said you were the only pro football player in the Hall of Fame that could say this, that you were the second-best player in your own family. Well, I agree with that statement.” Yet, he added, “It would be my extreme pleasure for you to be the only player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with two gold jackets.”
Sterling did not have a long career like his brother due to a neck injury, forcing him into retirement. Spending his whole career (seven seasons) with the Green Bay Packers as a three-time first-team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver. In his last season on the field, he caught a league-high 18 touchdowns in 1994.
While playing in the NFL, Sterling averaged 85 catches and 1,162 yards. During his seven years in the league, he had 65 touchdowns. He led the league in receptions three times and in touchdown catches twice. Sterling is one of six players in the Super Bowl era to win the receiving “triple crown,” when he led the NFL in catches (108), receiving yards (1,461), and receiving TDs (13) in 1992. He became the first player to have consecutive seasons with 100-plus receptions. The 108 in 1992 was a single-season NFL record, which he topped the following year when he caught 112 catches.
He may have gotten to the Hall of Fame sooner if his career hadn’t been cut short.
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