NFL: Colts, Packers set to kick off preseason with Hall of Fame Game

Marvin Harrison Hall of Fame Speech | 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame | NFL

CANTON, Ohio Two of the NFLs top quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck, will be on hand for Sundays Hall of Fame game.

The QB who will get the most attention wont take a snap.

That, of course, will be Brett Favre, who was inducted into the pro football shrine on Saturday night. As the featured name in a class of eight, center stage has belonged to the record-setting Favre all weekend.

No one begrudges that. Not the other living inductees: Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, Kevin Greene, Orlando Pace and Ed DeBartolo Jr. And certainly not the families of the late Ken Stabler and d**k Stanfel, both of whom were nominated by the seniors committee.

So when Rodgers Green Bay Packers yes, the franchise Favre helped revitalize in the 1990s and Lucks Indianapolis Colts, who won the 2007 Super Bowl with Dungy as coach and Harrison as the leading receiver, face off to open the NFLs preseason, Favre figures to still be in the spotlight.

I mean, the excitement for me is being a part of the environment to watch Brett and Kevin go in, said Rodgers, a two-time MVP, one fewer than Favre won. I dont know if anybodys real, real excited about a fifth preseason game, except for the people making the money on that, but itll be exciting to be there because theres so much history and tradition surrounding Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Its quite possible neither quarterback will play Sunday, particularly Luck. He missed nine games last season with a variety of injuries, including a lacerated kidney. Coach Chuck Pagano said he would wait until game day on Luck.

I may wake up Sunday morning and decide he may not play, Pagano said.

There are benefits to benching Luck it would ensure keeping him healthy. And there are benefits to letting him get on the field, even briefly.

Yeah, there are certain things in games that are just hard to replicate in practice, Luck said. Whether its the crowd noise, an official spotting the ball a certain way, certain types of weather, going against a different defense, having some type of a game plan. We dont game plan for our defense at training camp.

Bringing the new guys into the fold and seeing what everybodys game-day demeanor/attitude/body language is, I think is important when you are sort of forging your team.

Some other things to watch for as the exhibition season begins:

Whos that?

With so many players on the rosters, rookies, particularly the undrafted kind, and newcomers will seek to get noticed. Its an excellent opportunity for them to impress not only their own coaching staffs, but to get something on video for the other clubs to see.

So if youve never heard of some of the guys blocking or tackling, running or catching, well, there are people throughout the league who barely know them right now, too.

Why them?

After the Hall of Fame class is announced the day before the Super Bowl, the NFL figures out which teams will be the most attractive for the game that accompanies the inductions. This year was easy with Favre, Dungy and Harrison headed into the hall. A year ago, Jerome Bettis and Mick Tingelhoff went in, and the Steelers played the Vikings. In 2014, it was Giants-Bills as Michael Strahan and Andre Reed were inducted.

Fifth game

With most suggestions to cure some ills of the preseason centering on reducing the number of exhibition contests, two lucky teams get to play five of them instead of four.

I think the correct answer for us would be, We love it, wed like to play in it every year, Packers defensive back Micah Hyde said. But, me personally, I cant speak for anybody else in the locker room, five preseason games is tough. Four is tough already, and now we have five.

But maybe its not such a bad thing all around.

It is worth it for us to play an extra game, Colts linebacker Robert Mathis said, to see those guys go into football immortality, so its worth it.

Source: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/sports/nfl-colts-packers-set-to-kick-off-preseason-with-hall/article_775a582e-b35c-5ece-a279-d430f9b2e600.html