SAN FRANCISCO >> Mike Singletary’s passionate speech came to an impactful pause while he described Patrick Willis, a former star 49ers linebacker Singletary helped groom.

Willis was taking a rightful spot amid Thursday night’s Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement, and Singletary’s thoughts drifted toward the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

“I thought for sure he’d be in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame this year. There’s no reason why ... I won’t even go there,” Singletary said with a sigh to the audience of nearly 1,000 at a downtown San Francisco hotel.

Asked during the ceremony to expand on that, Singletary succinctly answered that Willis should have been a first-ballot entrant to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, five years after Willis’ award-laden 49ers career ended because of toe injuries.

Willis, 38, has been stuck in Canton’s finalist queue the past two years, and with fellow linebacker Zach Thomas breaking through in this year’s class, perhaps that opens a door for Willis in 2024.

Willis takes solace in knowing he did all he could in 7 1/2 NFL seasons. He started with NFL Rookie of the Year honors in 2007, earned seven straight Pro Bowl nods and six All-Pro selections, then was limited to six games in 2014, his final year.

“I always heard (NFL) football was for Not For Long,” Willis added. “Whether it ended tomorrow or four years from now, I wanted to be able to evaluate and stop and say, ‘Look at this time. I was giving it everything I had.’ That’s what I was graded on. Not what could have been, what he should have done. Take what you see and do what you will with it.”

Singletary, whose linebacker career vaulted him to Canton’s Class of 1998, said Willis “didn’t have the hype” of others.

Reminders like Thursday night’s Bay Area Hall of Fame induction should help, as should last year’s into the 49ers’ Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. Hall of Fame, his 2019 induction to the College Football Hall of Fame and his 2015 spot in the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame.

In today’s data-driven sports society, perhaps the 49ers should unearth tracking data from Willis’ time to somehow relay his blazing speed and brick-wall force.

“When you buckle the chin strap, there are no friends,” Willis said. “It’s straight business. It’s game time. I’d have to tell Marshawn (Lynch) that, because he’d try to talk between the lines, and I’d say, ‘Man, stop talking to me. We’ll talk when the game’s over.’ It’s just about knowing what needs to get done and getting it done.”

When Willis and the 49ers weren’t getting it done in a 2009 loss at Houston, then-Niners coach Singletary hollered from the sideline, “Pat, let’s go! Get them going!”

Singletary recalled Thursday how, on the flight home, he checked in on Willis, who was upset about being the only targets of his coach’s yells during that game.

“I sat down next to him,” Singletary recalled, “and said, ‘Pat, you’re the only one I could yell at. You know why? Because I know you can take it. Because I know you will get up and fight. I know you will lead. I know you will work through it. You’re like my son.’

“Pat said, ‘Coach, you can yell at me anytime.’ ”

Gary Payton Sr., an Oakland basketball legend and fellow BASHOF inductee, was among those who wish Willis’ career had gone longer.

“I’m a big 49ers fan,” Payton said. “I really hated when he retired in the middle of his career, and how good he was, but he wanted to protect himself.”

Willis wanted a longer career. Toe surgery during the 2014 season put an end to it.

“If I had it my way, who knows how it could have ended out if I kept playing,” Willis said. “I hadn’t spoken on it a whole lot, but my other toe was just as bad. At some point, you had to make that decision.”