FOXBOROUGH – In a quiet little corner on the second floor of The Hall at Patriots Place that felt more like a sophisticated library, Richard Seymour slipped on his red jacket at about 12:50 on Friday afternoon. With about seven cameras and five or six members of the media on hand, Seymour smiled, posed for some pictures then answered questions for a few moments while proud members of his family looked on.

Seymour’s name and number plaque was already hanging with all the others, right next to Rodney Harrison’s 37 high inside The Hall about 50 feet away from the intimate scene, but seeing the big man in red just seemed to make it more official. The call for Seymour to be put in the Pro Football Hall of Fame has grown louder and louder recently, but on Friday Seymour was extremely appreciative of this moment and the one he’ll experience in front of a large crowd on Saturday when he’s officially inducted.

“I think this honor is a part of your legacy,” he said. “You think about the people that have been with you the entire way. I said it to the fans last night, my wife saw my first snap and also saw my last snap as a Patriot. You just think about the sacrifices so many people have made,” Seymour said. “It’s a tremendous honor and like I said it’s a part of my legacy.”

During his media availability on Friday morning, Bill Belichick couldn’t say enough good things about the newest inductee.

“Everything,” he said when asked what made Seymour so special. “Yeah. Richard was a tremendous player. He had a tremendous skill set. He had great length. Explosive. Very quick for his size. He could do everything. He started his career at the nose, which was not really his best position, but he could play it for sure, and we needed him there in ’01. Then we moved him back to his natural position of five and three-technique. He played some on the nose in passing situations, but he was really more of a defensive end than a nose tackle, but he played there because we needed him, and then after we got Ted [Washington] and [Keith] Traylor and Vince [Wilfork], then he ended up outside. Again, long, athletic, very powerful. It was a tough matchup for the interior linemen. He could win with speed, and against some of the quicker guys, he could win with power. Smart player. Richard was very smart and had good awareness. He was a good situational player and certainly helped our linebackers a lot because he was either able to get penetration or able to draw blockers and tie up blockers that couldn’t get to the second level on some of our off-the-ball players.

“He was a very disruptive force. Good in the kicking game. Played in the punt return and had some big plays for us. Going back to ’01, like Troy’s [Brown] punt return against Cleveland. He had a huge block on that. He was an excellent field goal blocker. He had a lot of roles. He played in a lot of different situations. We won a lot of games with him. He was a great player. He certainly deserves to be in the Patriot’s Hall of Fame and the NFL Hall of Fame. Hopefully, that’ll be coming shortly for him as well.”

Seymour also had some high praise for Belichick and talked about what a confidence boost it was for him when he was drafted by the Patriots.

“You just think about, Coach Belichick one of the great defensive minds ever, probably the greatest, for him to draft you sixth pick overall out of the University of Georgia, that was the confidence I needed,” he said. “I know how much I respected and admired him from afar and just the confidence he displayed throughout his tenure as a coach, just all of the greats that he’s coached, the insight and that sort of thing. I’m just looking forward to this weekend.”

Seymour was also asked what his favorite moment was during his tenure here and he couldn’t point to just one, nor did he want to.

“I say this all the time, for me, it’s not one play or one game, it’s about a collective body of work,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, you just look at an entire career. There’s been plenty of guys that had great games, but when you just look at the entire body of work and trying to be a good teammate, being responsible to your team, to your family, there’s so much more that goes into being a Hall of Famer than just your play on the field in my opinion.

“I tried to live up to my family’s name and I was very fortunate to come to an organization that had the same principles and values that my parents taught me.”

Of course it’s hard to ignore how Seymour’s tenure in New England ended when telling the full story of his career. Seymour was asked if he felt like he was “back in the family” after essentially being shipped out to Oakland over a decade ago.

“I talked to Al Davis and he said he traded for me, so…” Seymour said with a grin. “It’s how you look at it. I’ll say this, my time here, I enjoyed my time, a lot of great memories. You think about teammates, colleagues, families, the organization and what we accomplished, those memories and the things we experienced together, that’ll never be taken away.”

Bill Parcells and Richard Seymour have had to wait far too long to be recognized for their contributions to this organization. One of them is still waiting, but at least “Big Sey 93” is getting his well deserved honor this weekend.

“It’s a tremendous honor, it’s a part of my legacy and I’m truly ecstatic to be a newly inducted member of the Patriots Hall of Fame,” Seymour added.