He changed the game.

Running backs used to be just that – running backs. They ran the football. Three yards and a cloud of dust.

They weren't expected to catch passes out of the backfield, but Roger Craig changed all of that. Without the 49ers second all-time leading rusher and ninth all-time leading receiver, there might not be the dual-threat backs showcased in today's game.

That alone, some people say, should land Craig in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But it's out of his hands now. He did everything he could during his playing days, now all he can do is sit and wait for that call.

But he's not consumed by it. He isn't stewing over it, and he certainly won't let it define him. But that's not to say Craig wasn't nervous last February as he waited to find out his Hall of Fame fate.

His heart was racing as he the announcement of the 2010 class drew closer. Months earlier Craig was proud just to have been named one of 15 finalists, but when the time came he wanted more than anything to hear his name called.

So there he sat, anxiously waiting in a hotel room with the other finalists. Minutes felt like hours. It seemed to take forever.

But then it was over as quickly as it started. The first name was called: Russ Grimm. That was it. The list was alphabetical, meaning Craig was left out.

Was he disappointed? Yes. Crushed? No. Because as Craig would later say, "life goes on."

Still, people tell him every day that his bust belongs in Canton, Ohio, and he feels the same way.

"If it happens down the road, great. If not, I'm fine too," Craig said. "I have a life and a family that I love and care about.

"I don't feel any pressure to get in the Hall of Fame or anything like that. I feel like I had a great career."

So while Craig doesn't feel the pressure now, that wasn't the case during his playing days.

He was a big-time player coming out of a big-time college program, and everyone in the 49ers organization had high expectations when they drafted him in 1983.

The second-round pick out of the University of Nebraska knew this, and he was okay with it. In fact he liked the pressure, he always has. But Craig kind of expected to ease into the NFL.

Or at least not get called out on his first day.

"We drafted you to get back to the Super Bowl. That's why you're here."

Those were the words Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds told Craig the moment he stepped foot inside the 49ers practice facility.

Craig was taken back. Reynolds was a two-time Pro Bowl linebacker and one of the hardest hitters in the NFL. Craig was just a 22-year-old kid from Davenport, Iowa.

"I was like, 'wow,'" Craig said. "Talk about pressure. I thought I knew what was coming and I thought I was prepared for it. I had to throw all of that out the window.

"From that moment I knew I had to start thinking like a veteran because these guys weren't going to treat me like a rookie. I felt like in my first year I had to make something happen."