COMPLETE STORY: https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/college/sapakoff-donnie-shells-daughter-perfect-pick-for-pro-football-hall-of-fame-presenter/article_a524ac22-d019-11ea-9922-83e498910226.html

It was an easy choice for Donnie Shell, despite options crashing in from career mileposts like the former NFL safety collided with NFL running backs.

Shell upon learning in January of his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame could have picked any of a dozen worthy candidates to serve as his ceremonial presenter, a prestigious role that's part of Canton, Ohio, lore.

Willie Jeffries, Shell's S.C. State coach, could tell how a committed kid from Whitmire wound up in the College Football Hall of Fame before Canton called.

Harry Carson, Shell's S.C. State teammate who went on to a Hall of Fame career as a New York Giants linebacker, could take the podium and wonder what took so long for a man with 51 interceptions and five Pro Bowl appearances.
 
Or any of Shell's nine Steelers teammates already enshrined in the Hall of Fame, a testament to the Pittsburgh glory days. Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Mel Blount, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris …
 
Donnie Shell, someone would recall, went from an undrafted free agent in 1974 to a huge part of four Super Bowl-winning teams.

Instead, Shell chose family.

And when Hall of Fame officials told him he couldn't have all three of his children at the podium, he picked his oldest daughter, another Shell who keeps pushing people to overachieve.

April Shell has one of the toughest homework assignments of anyone at Columbia's Summit Parkway Middle School, where she has served as principal for four years.

But preparation is a Shell family trait; April was almost ready for a 2020 Hall of Fame ceremony originally set for this week in Canton when the coronavirus forced postponement until August of 2021.