Much has changed for Alan Faneca since he retired from the NFL in 2011 after 13 seasons in the league. He’s about 100 pounds lighter. He ran a marathon in under four hours in 2014. And starting this fall, football players at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia will call him head coach.
But before the former Pittsburgh Steelers standout guard returns to the gridiron — with a clipboard in hand — he’ll get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of its 2021 class.
The honor has been a long time coming for the six-time Hall of Fame finalist who went to nine Pro Bowls, picked up six first-team All-Pro honors and played upfront on several teams that finished the season top 10 in rushing during his time in the league. Faneca also earned a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers in 2006, but he said even that career moment pales in comparison to being immortalized in Canton.
“The gravity of it still hasn’t hit me,” Faneca told reporters in July.
It’s not often that offensive linemen get recognition for honors such as the HOF, but they’re getting some visibility. Faneca is the second guard in two consecutive years to be offered a spot in Canton. Seven-time Pro Bowler Steven Hutchinson, a fellow former guard, is a member of the 2020 Hall of Fame class, which will be inducted in one day prior to the 2021 class.
A member of the Steelers’ all-time team, Faneca said it feels vindicating to finally get the enshrinement. He went into the trenches for years, putting his body on the line each game day. Faneca was an All-American at LSU and allowed just one sack during his last year in Baton Rouge.
Ahead of the 1998 NFL draft, where the Steelers selected Faneca with the 26th overall pick, one talent evaluator described him as the “toughest mf in this draft.” Jerome Bettis, a Steelers running back from 1995-2005, said Faneca was mobile, despite his 300-pound frame. Hall of Famer and rival Ray Lewis said Faneca belongs in the Hall.
“He was one of the guards that … controlled the tempo of the front seven,” Lewis said.
When Faneca played for the New York Jets, and finally, the Arizona Cardinals in the back-end of his career, he was an instant difference maker. When the Jets signed Faneca in March 2008, he was the highest paid offensive lineman in NFL history with a five-year, $40 million contract and $21 million in guarantees.
“Playing on the offensive line … is a relentless game,” Faneca said. “There is no front or back side of a play. You are always at the front of it. You’re always working.”
For Faneca, he says the little things defined his career — the everyday battles, his athleticism and personal improvements. But football fans might remember the NFL 2000s All-Decade team member most for his block in the Steelers’ Super Bowl XL win over the Seattle Seahawks. The hit freed running back Willie Parker for a 75-yard touchdown run that gave Pittsburgh a 14-3 lead in the third quarter of a 21-10 win.
Every Super Bowl has a game-defining play. That year, it was Parker’s score, though Faneca could share in the glory of it just as much as the running back. Overlooked no longer, Faneca is finally getting his moment.