A day after wrapping up mandatory minicamp, the New Orleans Saints announced their 2026 team Hall of Fame class.
Former Saints running back Mark Ingram and offensive tackle Terron Armstead were introduced to the local media as the two player selections while press box security supervisor Sal La Rock will be awarded the Joe Gemelis Fleur De Lis award.
While speaking with Armstead about his selection, which will be made an official induction during a ceremony during the season, he opened up about how his team Hall of Fame career was set into motion by a single phone call made by a then-directionless self in his youth.
“That Terron was lost,” he said of his younger self. “I finished my high school season, no offers, no school, nothing. I called Pine Bluff. I called Pine Bluff in the bathroom of my high school and begged them to give me a chance, and they told me they had ran out of scholarships. Called me back later with half football, half track, and that’s how I got down there.”
Armstead is among the ranks of celebrated NFL players that attended a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) for his collegiate play, landing with the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff.
As he recounted, getting there wasn’t easy. Begging for a scholarship was only the beginning. He then had to perform while with the school and make a daunting leap in competition to the NFL once drafted by the Saints in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Upon his arrival in New Orleans, there was more adversity to overcome.
“Even coming here, getting drafted to New Orleans, I was lost,” he said. “I wanted to be here, but I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know what it took to be an NFL player. I had no example. So I get here, and I’m struggling in rookie mini camp, and I’m struggling in OTAs, and Sean Payton is telling me that I might not belong here. I’m like, ‘Damn, you might be right. I don’t know yet.’ So, I had to respond, and not only to myself, but I had to let his a** know that, I do belong for sure. And for a long time.”
That perseverance may be Armstead’s most underappreciated trait. From an uncertain future to doubt to health management, he overcame it all. A meandering and challenging road that led him to what he called an arrival at the podium as he was introduced as one of the Hall of Fame class nominations with one of his favorite former teammates.
In football, it’s often said that it’s not about how someone starts, but instead how they finish.
Armstead’s example, from a bathroom phone call to being told “You might not be good enough here,” by his head coach three snaps into his first NFL preseason game to a team Hall of Famer with that same team, Armstead is a shining example of the resilience that reflects the city he represents in New Orleans.
