Watch: Curtis Martin recalls his rough life and mother's pain in emotional Hall of Fame speech

(CBS/AP) The linemen led the way as they always do, accepting their inductions into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with an abundance of humility. Curtis Martin finished the evening by supplying plenty of tears.

The last of the six players to have their bronze busts unveiled Saturday night, Martin used the big stage to recall his rough life, his mother's pain and his life-long indifference to the game that allowed him to become famous.

"I don't necessarily have notes, so I'm going to just bare my soul," Martin cautioned. "So bear with me."

His moving story was the longest of the six and had the audience of 12,100 cheering supportively whenever one of the NFL's greatest running backs got choked up or lost for words. It was quite a way to end a three-hour induction that celebrated some of the game's best blockers and tacklers.

Linemen Willie Roaf, Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy and Dermontti Dawson and 1950s cornerback Jack Butler were the first inducted, accepting their honor with simple thanks and generally short stories.

When it was time for Martin, a former Jets star, to finish the evening, Broadway Joe Namath couldn't help but notice the "J-E-T-S! J-E-T-S!" chants were getting overwhelmed.

"I hear a lot of big mouths from Pittsburgh out there," he told the crowd. "And justifiably — yes, yes!"

Martin soon had them dabbing their eyes.

He described growing up in a rough neighborhood in Pittsburgh, the son of an alcoholic father who would beat and torture his mother by setting her hair on fire or pressing burning cigarettes to her legs. His mother, Rochella, wiped tears from her eyes as he shared his story, occasionally pausing to collect himself.

"My greatest achievement in my life was healing my mother and nurturing my mother," Martin said.

Martin credited his mother with helping him get through the darkest days of his childhood.

"I'm so grateful to my mother," he said. "That is the strongest individual that I've ever known and I appreciate her so much."

She urged him to play football to stay out of trouble. Even when New England coach Bill Parcells decided to draft him out of Pitt, Martin wasn't sure he wanted to play. His pastor told him he could use football as a platform to do greater things.

"I played for a purpose bigger than the game because I knew that the love for the game just wasn't in my heart," Martin said.

He followed Parcells to the Jets and finished his career and the fourth-leading rusher in NFL history. Parcells became one of his biggest influences, and Martin chose him for the introduction on Saturday.

"He has tremendous compassion for his fellow man," Parcells said. "He is, I think, the poster child for what the NFL is supposed to be. You come into the league, maximize your abilities, you save your money, you make a smooth transition into society and then you pass all those things on to other people. That's what this guy has done."