Steve Atwater Reveals That Broncos' RoF Safety Dennis Smith Will be his Hall-of-Fame Presenter

Steve Atwater is tapping his close friend and mentor, Dennis Smith, to usher him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Denver Broncos are giddy right now in the wake of legendary safety and team employ Steve Atwater being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020. The team hosted a press conference on Thursday for Atwater and some news came out of the event. 

Every player, coach or NFL figure who is elected to the Hall of Fame has a carefully selected person to 'present' them for enshrinement. For Atwater, he has chosen former teammate and close friend, Dennis Smith, to do the honors. 

"I texted him last night, he agreed, my good friend and mentor, Dennis Smith," Atwater revealed on Thursday. "He's going to present me." 

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Smith was the Broncos' first-round pick back in 1981 out of USC. He and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Lott composed arguably the most fearsome safety duo in college football history as Trojans, although Lott also played a lot of cornerback. 

Eight years after arriving as a Bronco, Smith would once again serve as one-half of yet another all-time safety pairing when Atwater arrived as the team's first-round pick in 1989 out of Arkansas. Atwater and Smith would patrol the back-end of Denver's defense for the next five years, appearing in four Pro Bowls together, along with Super Bowl XXIV, where the Broncos fell to Smith's old college teammate, Lott, and the San Francisco 49ers. 

Smith himself has a great case for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He earned six Pro Bowl nods during his 13-year NFL career and two First-Team All-Pro selections. Smith was enshrined in the Broncos' Ring of Fame in 2001. 

If Smith played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, or New York Giants, odds are, he'd already be in the Hall of Fame. Atwater believes Smith should be in Canton, and he's not alone in that opinion. 

"We have a lot of guys that we need to see go in," Atwater said on Thursday. "Randy Gradishar, Karl Mecklenburg, Dennis Smith, John Lynch—hopefully next year, Peyton Manning—hopefully next year, Rod Smith. This franchise, unfortunately, has been overlooked for many years. Fortunately, we've gotten some players in in the last several years. But we've got to keep it going because we still are, I think, very much underrepresented in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the history that we've had here at the organization, with the winning ways that we've had. That Orange Crush defense—how could they not have not one person in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? To this day, I don't understand that. Hopefully, in the coming years, that will be taken care of and we can get some guys in there." 

No doubt, as new Hall-of-Famer, Atwater will do what he can behind the scenes to continue to campaign for his friend and former teammate. For now, the next-best thing is having Smith present him for induction later this summer. 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.