Most Recent
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Ten first-year eligible players, including defensive standouts DeMarcus Ware and Robert Mathis, and receivers Andre Johnson, Steve Smith and Anquan Boldin are among 122 nominees for the 2022 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hall of Fame center Mick Tingelhoff, the ultimate ironman who started 240 consecutive games at a bruising position for the Minnesota Vikings and played in four Super Bowls, has died.
Paul Tagliabue left his job as commissioner of the NFL in 2006 and didn't get selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame until last year.
Three-time All-Pro receiver Cliff Branch and Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil are finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2022.
Branch is the senior candidate and Vermeil is the nominee in the coaches category picked Tuesday by a five-person committee of Hall of Fame voters.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Peyton's Place is now in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The only five-time NFL MVP and a two-time Super Bowl winner who left the game five years ago with a slew of passing records was enshrined Sunday night with other members of the class of 2021.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — The Latest on the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions:
___
For 18 seasons, whether playing cornerback or safety, Charles Woodson was as dependable as they come.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — From bone-rattling tacklers Troy Polamalu, Steve Atwater and Cliff Harris to hard-charging runner Edgerrin James to the pass-catching brilliance of Isaac Bruce and Harold Carmichael, the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2020 has something for everyone.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — The Latest on the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions on Saturday:
___
The steely jaw. That’s the physical feature that seemed to define Bill Cowher.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Lynyrd Skynyrd has pulled out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame concert after guitarist Rickey Medlocke tested positive for COVID-19.
The country rock band was set to co-headline the concert Monday night with Brad Paisley but Medlocke’s positive test forced the group’s withdrawal, according to a band statement.
DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos will be partying aplenty at this weekend’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies with Peyton Manning, Steve Atwater and John Lynch going in.
Atwater, who starred in the franchise's back-to-back Super Bowl victories in the late '90s, goes into Canton with the Class of 2020 in a ceremony Saturday night that was delayed a year by the pandemic.
WEBBERVILLE, Mich. (AP) — Calvin Johnson is simply in awe that he will soon join Jim Brown and Gale Sayers as Pro Football Hall of Famers inducted at 35 years old or younger.
“That’s football royalty, man," Johnson said in an interview with The Associated Press.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The realization he could make a living in the NFL didn't actually dawn on Steve Hutchinson until his final year at Michigan, when he learned his status as a widely projected first-round draft pick.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Charles Woodson walked onto his covered patio, overlooking a pool and golf course, to share some sources of pride with visitors.
Tom Flores was ready to pursue a career in teaching instead of football after getting cut by a team in Canada, having a stint with a minor league team in California and failing to hook on with Washington in the NFL.
DALLAS (AP) — Drew Pearson celebrated his entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with all three first-ballot members of the class of 2021: Peyton Manning, Calvin Johnson and Charles Woodson.
The “original 88” of the Dallas Cowboys figured it didn't much matter anymore that he had to wait almost 40 years.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu said on social media Friday that he recently tested positive for COVID-19, a week before he's due to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
For those who consider the Steel Curtain teams of the 1970s as the NFL’s all-time best, the name Bill Nunn needs to be remembered.
And honored.
Next week, that happens in Canton, Ohio, when Nunn enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2021 as a contributor.
NEW YORK (AP) — Joe Namath was recovering from knee surgery in his hospital room just a few weeks after being drafted by the New York Jets when he heard a knock at his door.
DENVER (AP) — Steve Atwater was in his second season with the Denver Broncos in 1990 when then-public relations chief Jim Saccomano approached him a few days before their home opener against Kansas City.
Isaac Bruce would love to see “The Greatest Show on Turf” playing with today’s NFL rules. No head-hunting safeties. No handsy cornerbacks. No limits to what the St. Louis Rams’ offense could do.
“We’d probably have to call off the dogs,” Bruce said.
As Jimmy Johnson looks back on the rocky relationship that abruptly ended his championship run with the Dallas Cowboys, he can laugh now. He’s heading into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
For Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the emotions are more complicated, with America's Team mired in a 25-year Super Bowl drought.
DALLAS (AP) — Cliff Harris was preparing for one of his six Pro Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s when Minnesota coach Bud Grant went over the defensive signals for a game that's always been more exhibition than competition.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — In an era when NFL teams chose general managers from the ranks of former players, coaches and personnel executives, George Young was ahead of his time with the New York Giants.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Mac Speedie spent his life overcoming hurdles both physical and figurative. He's about to clear another.
A quick, sure-handed wide receiver on powerhouse Cleveland Browns teams in the 1940s and 50s, Speedie, who overcame a childhood disease and later delayed his playing career to serve in World War II, is finally being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Sue Withers laughs at the notion of her father, Hall of Fame inductee Ed Sprinkle, being called the “Meanest Man in Pro Football.”
“He was just so gentle,” she said.
Withers admittedly was 2 years old when Sprinkle retired from the NFL after 12 seasons (1944-55) with the Chicago Bears, so she recalls little, if anything, about his playing days.
Duke Slater was so good the NFL couldn't keep him out.
For a Black player in the 1920s and ‘30s, that was a remarkable achievement.
And now Slater is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In 2016, Brett Favre spoke for 36 minutes in one of the most memorable Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speeches ever, a mark that was topped by Tony Gonzalez's 39-minute address in 2019.
Nobody will challenge those marks next month when the classes of 2020 and 2021 are enshrined in Canton, Ohio.
Of the 26 men who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame as Packers and preceded Bobby Dillon into the shrine, nearly all won an NFL championship with Green Bay. Dillon never got the chance.
Indeed, during his eight superb seasons with the storied franchise, Dillon was one of the best defensive players in the league.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Peyton Manning didn’t rule out a future role with the Denver Broncos given the ownership uncertainty surrounding one of the NFL’s iconic franchises.
“I am as interested in what’s going to happen as anybody because I care about it,” Manning said Wednesday in a Zoom call ahead of his induction next month into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Peyton Manning was elected to the Broncos Ring of Fame on Wednesday in recognition of his record-breaking four-year run in Denver that culminated with a victory in Super Bowl 50.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Gino Marchetti, a Hall of Fame defensive end who helped the Baltimore Colts win consecutive NFL championships in the late 1950s, has died.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame said Marchetti was 93...
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — One of the great leaders football has seen, Ray Lewis used his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech to call for more enlightened leadership in the United States...
The latest on Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions Saturday in Canton, Ohio, and Terrell Owens' separate celebration in Chattanooga, Tennessee (all times local):...
Terrell Owens always likes being the center of attention. His decision to skip the induction ceremony for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August will keep him far from the spotlight...