Hall of Fame enshrinement Sunday: What you need to know

PreSeason Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers vs Minnesota Vikings
Whats happening

Hall of Fame and Festival Events

Today

12:30 p.m.Enshrines Gameday Roundtable at the Canton Memorial Civic Center and Cultural Center.

3 p.m.Special Autograph Session presented by Panini at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

8 p.m.NFL/Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Monday

6:30 p.m.Drum Corps International Competition at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

Hall of Fame Fan Fest on turf

A free fan festival will from Friday-Monday on the turf located in the center of the Hall of Fame"s campus is open to the public. There will be live music, mini football clinics and appearances by Gold Jackets. Local and national bands and DJs will provide music. There will be an AVI food court and beer garden each day. Below is the Fan Fest and live music schedule.

Today 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

Biz Markie3 p.m.-6 p.m.Monday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.Scott Paris4 p.m.-6 p.m.Today"s weather forecastToday is a beautiful day for Hall of Fame events. The high will be 85 degrees. With the exception of an occasional cloud, it will be mostly sunny. There is a small chance of a passing shower.What did you miss?Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium was a sea of green with thousands perhaps 75 percent of the fans watched Brett Favre join the Class of 2016. Longtime observers compared said only the Jerome Bettis Steelers invasion of 2015 rivaled such a complete takeover of the stadium.One of the largest parade crowds lined Cleveland Avenue to watch Saturday"s Canton Repository Grand Parade. The parade took about 2 1/2 hours to complete. Brett Favre, who brought a swarm of fans from Green Bay to Canton, stood up in the convertible he was riding in at one point and threw a pass to a young fan. They said it"This is my new home." Marvin Harrison upon his enshrinement on Saturday night. "This is very special. I have never played anything like this. ... To get into the hall of fame of anything, it"s a very, very rare club and a special group of people." Tim McGraw to a Hall of Fame video crew Friday night before his Concert for Legends.You tweeted it"Tim McGraw sure rivals Brett Favre in his wranglers." from @JBMumsterPage 2 of 2 - "Seeing @TheTimMcGraw at the #PFHOF16 enshrinement concert = epic! I"m dead right now!!" from @JanelleTassartSeen and heard

The Bluecoats alumni corps "Rhythm In Blue" will be at the Gameday Roundtable event at Memorial Civic Center today starting at 11:30. The group will play for those waiting in line at the enshrinee entrance.

Sightings and rumblings

Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett were all at a private party for Class of 2016 enshrinee Edward DeBartolo Jr.Brett Favre had his private party at Gervasi Vineyard Saturday afternoon after The Canton Repository Grand Parade.Remember when?"If I was gonna have this machine, I needed a center. I didn"t get any ol" center; I got the best there ever was. ... I loved him from the very first moment I put my hands under his b**t. He was the total package. ... I turned him on to Jimmy Dean"s pork sausage. I taught him how to scramble eggs with whole butter. I showed him what buttermilk tasted like and he drank a gallon of it on game day. ... I said, "Dream, give me somebody I can count on. Give me somebody I can talk to, somebody to help me in a game.""The last time I was here in 1989 (I said) "Just one more time let me put my hands under Mike Webster"s b**t." (Pulls a football from the podium) Just one more time let me take that snap." Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw presenting Mike Webster for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame in 1997.Quick notesThe enshrinement shined on the new stage on the new north side of Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Among the nice extra touches were images on the big screen that were in sync with the speeches for example, as soon as Marvin Harrison referenced quarterback Peyton Manning, highlights of the two appeared on the screen.There was only one parade scratch and that was the Marine Corp Band out of Parris Island. The group was unable to make it to Canton after mechanical issues with its plane.Seen something, heard something?Contact Repository Special Projects Editor Todd Porter with your odd and curious notes or sightings from Hall of Fame week. Todd can be reached at 330-580-8340, by email at todd.porter@cantonrep.com or on Twitter @toddporterTODD PORTER

Source: http://www.cantonrep.com/news/20160807/hall-of-fame-enshrinement-sunday-what-you-need-to-know

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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

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