New York Jets: Kevin Mawae deserving of Hall of Fame honor

Kevin Mawae is a new member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He spent his best seasons with the New York Jets as a premier center.

Humble, unassuming and yet tough as nails. Those words describe one of the newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Kevin Mawae. The Savannah, GA native spent 16 years as a center/guard in the NFL, eight with the New York Jets. As a member of Gang Green, Mawae was a six-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro.

Want more accolades? The 6-4, 289-pounder also played for the Seattle Seahawks and the Tennessee Titans and was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s First Team All-2000s squad. He was one of the main reasons why the Jets had one of the finest rushing attacks in all of football from 1998-2005. In fact, fellow Hall of Fame halfback and teammate Curtis Martin led the league in rushing in 2004 with 1,697 yards. Mawae certainly helped.

Mawae was drafted in the second round (36th overall) by the Seattle Seahawks in the 1994 NFL Draft. The LSU product started his career with Gang Green in 1998 when the Jets finished at 12-4 before losing the AFC Championship Game to the Denver Broncos, 23-10. That was New York’s best team aside from the Super Bowl III championship contingent.

Not only was Mawae talented and hard-working, he was also very durable. From 1995 through 2004, a period of 10 seasons, Mawae did not miss a single NFL contest. That durability in a brutally physical sport speaks volumes about the former star.

When Mawae is enshrined in Canton on Aug. 3, there is only one person he considered presenting him: his wife of many years, Tracy, as he told NewYorkJets.com:

"“If I got in, my daughter said she wanted to give the speech. My son said, ‘Why are you giving it? I’m older.’ I nipped that in the bud and said, ‘Mom’s gonna do it,’ ” Mawae said. “Tracy knows everything about me. She’s been through this every step of the journey. She’s a Hall of Fame mom, a Hall of Fame friend, a Hall of Fame wife. She needs to be honored as much as I do. There was no hesitation that Tracy was going to be the one.”"

Mawae is currently an offensive analyst under his former Jets coach, Herm Edwards, at Arizona State. In the eyes of Gang Green fans though he’ll always be remembered along with Nick Mangold and Joe Fields as one of the premier centers in Jets history. No. 68 was also a class act and is richly deserving of his upcoming enshrinement with the elite players of all-time.