The gold jacket is coming. As the Pro Football Hall of Fame's summer enshrinement approaches, Roger Craig prepares to be formally inducted into the sport's most exclusive fraternity in Canton, Ohio.
Enshrinement week is the culmination of a decades-long journey - from a small town in Mississippi to the University of Nebraska, to the second round of the 1983 draft, to the center of a San Francisco dynasty. The ceremony makes it official and forever.
For Craig, the honor is shared. He has consistently pointed to the coaches, teammates, and family who shaped his career, framing the bust not as a personal trophy but as recognition of an era of 49ers football that changed the league.
When his name is read in Canton, it will join the roll call of the game's very best - a fitting home for a player who spent his career refusing to be brought down.