Watch The Powerful Hall Of Fame Speech Junior Seau’s Daughter Wasn’t Allowed To Give

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Chargers (and Dolphins and Patriots) great Junior Seau was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night, three years after he tragically committed suicide in his California home. Unfortunately, the Hall of Fame made the decision to not allow anyone — specifically Seau’s daughter, Sydney — to speak on his behalf at the enshrinement ceremony, despite Junior telling Sydney he wanted her to speak on his behalf if he was ever inducted. Canton says they stopped allowing presenters of deceased inductees in 2010, although an argument could certainly be made for making an exception in this case. That didn’t happen.

Instead, Sydney Seau gave the speech should would have given at the Hall to the New York Times in her Canton hotel room, which can be seen in the video above. She was allowed to be part of the video package that was shown during the ceremony, as well as a brief on-stage interview:

You can read the complete transcript of the speech Sydney would have given here.

(Via the New York Times)