COLUMBUS, Ohio -- LeCharles Bentley took the field at Ohio Stadium on Saturday to be honored by football fans, one of the eight new members of Ohio State's Athletics Hall of Fame class.

The class each year always includes a major football name along with a collection of accomplished Olympic sport athletes. Basketball star Mike Conley Jr. was also among this year's group.

Bentley, the former star from St. Ignatius, is one to be particularly appreciated as an inductee. He's a Buckeye legend who made the game work for him, with a successful and fulfilled life now that was started when his football career ended in a way he didn't want it to.

A three-year starter at Ohio State and an All-American as a senior, Bentley was a four-year starter and two-time Pro Bowler with the New Orleans Saints. After the Browns locked him up in a major free agent signing, Bentley tore a tendon in his knee in training camp and never played again after a staph infection.

Great honor to be inducted in to the Hall of Fame of The Ohio State University. It's was a great chapter in my life. #ELITEMindset #BTD pic.twitter.com/Mm6jOEOazs — Offensive Line Performance (@OLPerformance) October 8, 2017

"I'm so disconnected from my playing days now," Bentley said, his last NFL snap 12 years behind him. "Moments like this, you have to look back on it.

"It's unbelievable at times. I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve, but at the same time, how my career ended was the best thing that ever could have happened to me. So I'm forever grateful for that experience because it allowed me to be where I'm at today."

Bentley owns and operates LeCharles Bentley O-Line Performance, a training center for offensive linemen.

If the unexpected end of his career helped lead him to this point, Bentley could celebrate Saturday a life and career in Columbus that had it all.

"I knew it's what I wanted to do," Bentley said of what he hand in mind when he left Cleveland for Columbus and his freshman year at Ohio State. "And not understanding fully the process and everything that was going to go into it, because you're young and naive and you think that success is always going to translate as you move forward in life, that's not the case. So you had to recalibrate and understand that there's going to be another level of success that you have to work towards, and that took a little bit of time to figure that out.

"But once I figured it out and got my feet wet, I knew that I could be as good as anyone else I've ever played against or played with or that's been here, obviously, and been a part of this great university.

"I still remember sitting over at the Woody Hayes (Athletic Center) wondering how the (heck) I was going to get through practice my freshman year. And here you are and watching my high school son practice his freshman year of football, life is moving forward, it's cool."