Before ramping up to its regular season, the NFL takes a fond look back at its past. The new additions to the Pro Football Hall of Fame are commemorated this Saturday, with a quintet of era-defining players getting bronze busts and gold jackets.

The 2026 Hall of Fame class covers so much ground. It includes a heroic quarterback in Drew Brees, a graceful wideout in Larry Fitzgerald and a tough-as-nails linebacker in Luke Kuechly. Saturday also gives long-overdue flowers to innovative running back Roger Craig, and coronates Adam Vinatieri as the most clutch kicker in NFL history.

As is tradition, this year’s Hall of Fame members will deliver speeches and relive career highlights. It’s a must-see event for ardent fans of the sport. Here’s what to know before tuning in.

How to watch the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony

• Venue: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium — Canton, Ohio
• Date: Saturday, Aug. 8
• Time: Noon ET
• TV: ESPN, NFL Network
• Streaming: Fubo (Stream Free Now)

ESPN also streams with an ESPN Unlimited subscription. NFL Network also streams with an NFL+ subscription. 

Hall of Fame induction ceremony coverage

The broadcast on both ESPN and NFL Network is hosted by Rich Eisen, the inveterate football anchor. He’s joined by analysts Louis Riddick and Kurt Warner. Warner has a gold jacket of his own — the two-time MVP quarterback was part of the 2017 class.

As of July 30, NFL Network has been added to the ESPN Unlimited app. It’s part of the billion-dollar partnership that was announced last August.

This is ESPN’s 31st consecutive year, and NFL Network’s 23rd, covering the Canton celebration.

This year’s Hall of Fame inductees

Brees was the first pick of the second round in the 2001 draft. He went 30-28 under center for the then-San Diego Chargers, but suffered a brutal injury to his throwing shoulder during the final week of the 2005 season. The New Orleans Saints took a chance on his recovery, and it proved to be a fruitful decision. Brees arrived in New Orleans as the Saints returned to the Superdome, one year after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Across the next decade and a half, the pinpoint passer won two Offensive Player of the Year awards, led the league in passing seven times and set a single-season record in 2011 with 5,476 yards through the air. Most significantly, he was MVP of Super Bowl XLIV, the Saints’ emotional championship and first in franchise history.

Brees takes the stage ranking No. 2 in the NFL record books in career passing yards and touchdowns. He’ll be presented by his former coach Sean Payton.

Craig was a second-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1983. He turned into a fixture of the Niners’ dynasty and earned championship rings during the 1984, 1988 and 1989 seasons. He became the first player to record three touchdowns in a Super Bowl. In Super Bowl XIX, he rushed for one score and caught two others.

Craig’s 1985 campaign broke unprecedented ground when he totaled more than 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards. He also won Offensive Player of the Year in 1988 with a league-leading 2,036 scrimmage yards.

The versatile running back retired after stints with the then-Los Angeles Raiders and the Minnesota Vikings. He’s the lone 2026 inductee selected by the senior committee, which considers candidates from earlier seasons up to 2000. Craig’s presenter is Jamie Williams, his childhood friend and teammate in the NFL (49ers), college (Nebraska Cornhuskers) and high school (Davenport Central High in Iowa).

Fitzgerald went third overall in the 2004 draft. He quickly emerged as a playmaker for his Arizona Cardinals, with 1,409 receiving yards and an NFL-best 103 catches in 2005. Fitzgerald was a model of consistency through 17 seasons and played his entire pro career in Cardinal red.

His playoff run during the 2008 season was one for the ages: 546 yards and seven TDs across four games, capped by his inspired performance in a tough Super Bowl XLIII loss.

The generational WR1 ranks second all-time in receptions and receiving yards. His father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr., was a longtime sports reporter who covered Minnesota teams. Fitzgerald told The Athletic that he wanted his dad to be his presenter at the enshrinement. His son, Devin, will now do the honors following Larry Sr.’s passing.

Kuechly joined the Carolina Panthers as a 2012 first-rounder. His tenure was relatively short but absolutely spectacular — Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 and five first-team All-Pro bids in eight seasons. In 2015, Kuechly captained Carolina through its 15-1 regular season. He opened that postseason with pick-sixes in back-to-back games as the Panthers made it to the Super Bowl.

After the 2019 season, the archetypal middle linebacker retired at age 28. Now 35, he becomes one of the youngest Hall of Famers in NFL history, second only to Gale Sayers. Kuechly will be introduced by his father, Tom.

Vinatieri rose from an undrafted free agent to the NFL’s all-time scoring leader. He kicked for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts during his 24-year career, with three first-team All-Pro nods and four Super Bowl victories.

Vinatieri’s crowning moments were part of New England’s dynastic ascent — two clutch field goals through a blizzard in the famous Tuck Rule Game, then decisive makes at the end of Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII.

He is the third full-time placekicker to reach the Hall of Fame, alongside Morten Andersen and Jan Stenerud. He’ll be honored by Carlie Irsay-Gordon, the Colts’ current co-owner and CEO.

New Hall of Famers in the NYT archives

Drew Brees

This was the moment Drew Brees had longed for, the reason he came back from a shoulder injury so severe that doctors initially said it could not be repaired. This was for all the critics who said he was too short, for all the teams that passed on him as a free agent.

Mostly, this was for New Orleans, the city that adopted Brees, the place where he helped form a perfect union. Brees was the quarterback who desperately wanted to feel needed. New Orleans was the city destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city that desperately needed help. — Greg Bishop, 2010

Roger Craig

It was a typical Roger Craig moment. Late in the third quarter of last Sunday’s game against Dallas, Craig took a short pass from Joe Montana at the left sideline, turned upfield, gained 15 yards, tossed the ball aside and jogged back to the 49ers’ huddle without the slightest show of emotion.

With that play, Craig became the first player in National Football League history to surpass 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving in the same season. For almost anybody else, it would have called for a celebration. But for Craig, it was all in a day’s work. — Ira Miller, 1985

Larry Fitzgerald

Everything about Larry Fitzgerald seems elongated lately. It is in the way he leaps above and between defensive backs to catch passes, and how his braided hair flows from his white Cardinals helmet and falls on his shoulders.

Even the number on Fitzgerald’s back, 11, stands tall. His coach, Ken Whisenhunt, and his quarterback, Kurt Warner, said Fitzgerald might still rise to greater heights.

“When you see a dynamic player like that who wants to be great, the sky’s the limit,” Whisenhunt said. — Joe Lapointe, 2009

Luke Kuechly

But tucked away in the farthest corner of the same cavernous room, far from his brash and bold teammates, is where linebacker Luke Kuechly quietly hangs his jersey.

Kuechly, the defense’s 24-year-old leader, doesn’t seek the spotlight. He is “laid-back,” as his fellow linebacker Shaq Thompson described. He rarely says anything that isn’t expected, and he doesn’t have anything hanging above his locker aside from his nameplate. When prodded by a reporter to give himself a nickname, he said, simply, “How about ‘Luke?’” — Jodie Valade, 2016

Adam Vinatieri

The ball was snapped cleanly and went dead center through the uprights, a 48-yard field goal that beat the Rams, 20-17, as time expired.

That was not snow swirling in Vinatieri’s face, as it had two weeks ago, when the kicker sent the Patriots into overtime with the Raiders with a 45-yard field goal to tie the game, then kicked a 23-yarder to beat the Raiders. Tonight it was victory confetti. — Judy Battista, 2002

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