Pitt's Jimbo Covert: Waiting 20 years to reach Pro Football Hall 'makes it so much sweeter'

From his humble upbringing in the small Beaver County borough of Freedom, Jimbo Covert has reached a lofty station in life on many levels:

• Successful businessman

• Pitt Board of Trustees member

• Pro Football Hall of Famer (when he is inducted Aug. 7 with the 2020 Centennial Class)

• An NFL player who sacrificed his back, literally, for the good of the team

So excuse him if he speaks his mind. What he said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters is what many people were thinking, anyway.

“I felt, in my mind, I played as well as any tackle that played in the ’80s,” said Covert, a two-time Pitt All-American offensive tackle (a consensus pick in 1982). “From 1983-1987, I thought I played as well as any tackle (in the NFL), 20 years before that as well.”

It’s not bragging when you can back it up, and he did that at Pitt and with the great Chicago Bears teams.

After he was selected sixth overall in the 1983 NFL Draft — one of nine Pitt players chosen that year — he went to four Pro Bowls in his eight seasons with the Bears, was named NFL Offensive Lineman of the Year twice and was awarded a spot on the NFL All-Decade team. He also blocked for Walter Payton and helped the Bears win Super Bowl XX.

So why was Covert forced to wait 20 years after his retirement to be inducted (with an extra year tacked on because of the covid pandemic)?

“Waiting for so long, I think, makes it so much sweeter,” he said.

“That process, around 20 years, has been — I don’t want to say frustrating — maybe a little disappointing because you never got to the next level from the semifinal side.

“So you just kind of waited, and then you got to the point where you said, ‘I don’t want to think about it anymore’ when it’s always in the back of your mind.”

Covert will be presented for induction by Bears teammate and roommate and former Penn State fullback Matt Suhey. Covert has said having Suhey with him on the podium is a treasured link to Payton, who died in 1999 and was a close friend of both men.

“From the very first day, he treated everybody like family,” Covert said of Payton.

“It didn’t matter if you were a first-round pick or a free agent. He treated everybody the same. He had this unique ability to talk to you like you were the most important person in the world at that time to him. That’s a gift. He was a tremendous person and a role model.”

Long before Covert met Payton, he was steered toward a strong work ethic by two other role models: his parents.

“My dad worked in Armco Steel for 34 years. My grandfather worked there for 44 years,” he said. “Every male member of my family did.

“My dad would work shift work. He would come home in the morning, when he worked night turn. He’d take a shower and go back out on a Sears and Roebuck moving truck for another eight hours.

“My mother worked at J.C. Penney. We didn’t really like it that much because every stitch of clothing we had was from J.C. Penney. At the end of the day, you just saw how hard your parents worked to create a better life for their children, and you want to copy that and say, ‘Hey, I want to do the same thing’ because you know if you do that, good things will happen.”

Covert likes to talk about his Freedom roots, and having Jimmy Johnson inducted into the Hall of Fame this year brings back good memories.

Johnson, a Pitt assistant before he coached the Miami Hurricanes and Dolphins, recruited Covert by visiting Freedom High School “practically every other day,” Covert said. “Little bit of a homecoming.”

In the end, Covert hopes to be remembered as a player who didn’t cheat his fans.

“If I had one thing to tell people: I left it all out on the field,” he said. “I played after back surgery six weeks later. That was probably not a very smart thing to do.

“I wouldn’t take it back. I don’t regret it. Those were things I had to do to support my teammates and be a great teammate and a great leader.”