Atlanta Falcons adding 12th member to their exclusive Ring of Honor

One of the biggest accomplishments you can have as a member of the Atlanta Falcons organization is to be inducted into their ‘Ring of Honor.’ Only 11 players in the 55 seasons of Falcons’ football have been inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame equivalent.

At least until now, as the Falcons have announced who will be the 12th member to join the exclusive club.

Falcons’ all-time great center, Todd McClure, will join the team’s Ring of Honor this season

One of the greatest offensive centers the Falcons have ever had will be added to the Ring of Honor during a halftime ceremony when the Panthers come to town on October 30th.

Todd McClure, otherwise known as ‘Mud Duck,’ was the definition of reliability. After being drafted in the seventh round out of LSU by the Falcons, he tore his ACL during his first training camp in the NFL but would then go on to be the team’s starting center from 2000 until 2012, only missing one game in that stretch.

He set the Falcons’ franchise record by starting 144 consecutive games between 2001 and 2010. Reliability at its best and it is much of the reason he will be joining the Ring of Honor. After all, the best ability is availability.

He will join the following players in the Falcons Ring of Honor at the end of October:

• William Andrews – RB
• Steve Bartkowski – QB
• Tommy Nobis – LB
• Jessie Tuggle – LB
• Jeff Van Note – C
• Mike Kenn – OT
• Claude Humphrey – DE
• Deion Sanders – CB
• Gerald Riggs – RB
• Warrick Dunn – RB
• Roddy White – WR

Those are the names you want to be associated with if you are Todd McClure, and fortunately for him, that will be the case.

Jeff Van Note, Todd McClure, and Alex Mack are really the three best offensive centers the franchise has ever had, and uncoincidentally they all have one trait in common — reliability.

If you exclude McClure’s missed rookie season due to his knee injury, those three combined to only miss eight games while playing in 522 games. That means they missed only 1.51% of their games. For a position where you get bashed around on every single play, that is simply remarkable.

So, needless to say, McClure is more than deserving of joining the highest Falcons’ Ring of Honor because of his toughness and reliable play.