Pro Football Hall of Fame 2016: Brett Favre, 7 others inducted Saturday in Canton

The biggest name of the Class of 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame was also the final member inducted Saturday night in Canton, Ohio. Brett Favre, a prolific quarterback who set numerous records in his 20-year career, was elected into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Favre said prior to the ceremony that he hadn’t prepared a speech, and in classic Favre style, he just planned to wing it. He opened by joking about maybe coming out of retirement for the Hall of Fame game on Sunday.

Dungy, who had a brief career as a player, joked about his induction.

“I’m now the 10th Steeler from the Super Bowl X team to be enshrined, but you could have won a lot of money in ‘78 if you would have bet that I would have been one of those 10,” Dungy said.

DeBartolo opened by joking about the differences between him and his 2016 Hall of Fame classmates.

“I could be the only inductee of this great Hall who didn’t make his high school football team,” DeBartolo said. “To share this stage with these amazing gentlemen behind me today is more than humbling. We all may be wearing the same jackets, but they have shoes that I could never, ever fill.”

“I am side by side with Brett Favre for eternity, right where a linebacker needs to be.”

He thanked Dom Capers, who presented him for induction, and recognized the impact Capers had on his career as a coach by putting him in positions to affect games. Later, when Greene became Green Bay’s linebackers coach, Capers put him in a position to teach others how to affect games.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Seniors Committee has a tough job when it comes to offensive linemen. Going back into the history of the league to determine which offensive linemen should be nominated for the Hall of Fame can’t be easy, so it’s a big deal when one of them makes it. It’s an even bigger deal when that player is a guard, like Dick Stanfel, formerly of the Detroit Lions and Washington.

Stanfel, who passed away in June 2015 at the age of 87, was one of the most consistent players on a vastly underrated Lions team in the 1950s. The team didn’t win a Super Bowl, but Stanfel was one of the best blockers in the league at the time.

Hall of Fame enshrinement always hits a few emotional cords, but the most touching moment at the 2016 ceremony came when ESPN’s Chris Mortensen came to the stage to accept the Dick McCann Memorial Award. Mortensen is currently on a leave of absence from ESPN battling stage 4 throat cancer.

The McCann Award recognizes journalists with long and distinguished careers, and Mort’s been doing this since 1969.

Marvin Harrison is one of the most enigmatic players in recent memory and has never been much of a talker, which is why his Hall of Fame speech was one of the most anticipated of the evening.

“You don’t have to be so quiet,” Harrison opened, and the crowd responded with applause