A Hog in the Hall: Redskins' Grimm goes to Canton

WASHINGTON (AP)

The guys wearing the dresses and pig snouts can rejoice. There's finally going to be a Hog in the Hall.

But Russ Grimm also belonged to another select group during his 11 NFL seasons, all with the Washington Redskins. He and his teammates would gather in a shed at the old Redskins Park as members of the ''5 o'clock club,'' where choice beverages were consumed in a sort of counterculture to the straight-laced ways of coach Joe Gibbs.

Now Grimm is headed to the Hall of Fame, one of seven members to be inducted Saturday. The character who got up to so much mischief in his playing days is now a respected assistant head coach with the Arizona Cardinals, and he's the first among the NFL's most famous offensive line to be enshrined in Canton.

''He drove Joe nuts,'' said Bobby Beathard, the longtime Redskins general manager who assembled the Hogs. ''We had some times there. Boy, it was funny. They could drive you to an early grave, that group. They were doing everything.''

But, said Beathard, when it was game time: ''They all knew they came to play. There was no messing around, no shortcuts. They were so smart, the smartest group of guys.''

And Grimm is considered the best of them all, the left guard in a fivesome that punished defenses on the way to Super Bowl titles. They were the first offensive line to become glamorous, thanks to an unglamorous nickname that inspired T-shirts, slogans and those strangely dressed male fans. The NFL championships at the end of the 1982, 1987 and 1991 seasons wouldn't have been possible without the Hogs, and there's long been a case that their recognition by the Hall was well overdue.

''We've finally got that first step, where one of us is in now,'' Grimm said. ''I think that'll put a little bit more light on some of the guys I played with.''

A third-round draft pick from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, Grimm became a starter as a rookie and anchored the Hogs for the next six years. There wasn't a more powerful left-side tandem than Grimm and left tackle Joe Jacoby. John Riggins always had room to run, and Redskins quarterbacks mostly lived in a cocoon of protection.

''You have to have good people playing beside you,'' Grimm said. ''I could have been on a team that had losing seasons and didn't have the caliber of players that I had playing up front with me. Those guys are a part of it.''

Grimm was a three-time All-Pro, went to four straight Pro Bowls and was named to the NFL's All-Decade team for the 1980s. Injuries began to hamper his career in 1987, and a new generation of Hogs gradually began to take over. Still, he was mostly a starter when healthy until his final season in 1991, when he earned a third Super Bowl ring in his last game.

''He was one of the hardest guys I got after,'' said Joe Bugel, the offensive line coach who gave the Hogs their nickname. ''He was the leader, and I wanted other guys to see that Buges is going to go after the leader.''

Given his reputation, it's easy to conjure up an image of Grimm finding ways to party after every win, but he actually would go to Bugel's house many Sunday nights after the games. They'd watch the tape, or just sit on the back porch and talk through everything that happened.

''We always said, 'Do you want to be good or great?' And he wanted to be great,'' Bugel said.

It's only natural that Bugel - the ''Boss Hog'' - will be Grimm's presenter at the induction ceremonies. The question remains: Will Bugel get to do it again? Will Jacoby or another member of this one-of-a-kind group get his due?

''The biggest thing about that, was holding that group together as long as we did,'' Grimm said. ''That would be hard to do nowadays with the free agency, salary cap, things like that.''

Being a member of the 5 o'clock club, of course, is not a prerequisite for a Hog to get in the Hall. Even so, Grimm said the guys in the shed had a positive effect on the team.

''The 5 o' clock thing - as much as it look like a bunch of guys going out in the shed and having a few beers - you solved a lot of problems,'' Grimm said. ''There's a lot of different personalities on the football team. There are guys who would come out and (talk). It was a little bit of downtime.''

It's hard to argue with the results.