NFL Hall of Fame Week 2019: From Broncos vs. Falcons to the enshrinement ceremony

Tony Gonzalez wasn’t the first tight end to top 1,000 receiving yards in a season. Mike Ditka kicked down that door way back in 1961. Two decades later, Kellen Winslow Sr. and Ozzie Newsome spun the position forward with dominant seasons.

When Gonzalez was drafted in 1997, Shannon Sharpe was already posting stats for the Broncos that would eventually get him into the Hall of Fame.

This weekend, eight new members will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Every year at the enshrinement ceremony, the new inductees in attendance are slated to speak. And every year, most speeches begin the same way — they thank God, their family, the team owners, and fans. But after that, each induction speech is different from the next.

From goofy to heart-warming to tear-jerking, there are a number of great Hall of Fame induction speeches and moments. I picked the most memorable ones from the last 20 years, starting with my absolute favorite speech.

This week at SB Nation, we’re shining the spotlight on the NFL’s most underappreciated — from our favorite underdog stories to the most overlooked players and teams. Now’s the time to give them their due.

Not every great NFL player can be as fortunate as Tom Brady or Jerry Rice when it comes to longevity. Most players slow down long before hitting age 40. Even playing into your 30s takes relatively good luck.

There’s a reason why Ed Reed is a first ballot Hall of Famer. He simply did everything at an elite level. No matter what area of the field needed to be defended, Reed was the man for the job.

What made Reed so incredible was just how damn long he was on top of his game. In 11 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, Reed only missed 16 games and had a whopping 61 interceptions. Even toward the end of his career, he was still one of the league’s most feared defenders.

This week at SB Nation, we’re shining the spotlight on the NFL’s most underappreciated — from our favorite underdog stories to the most overlooked players and teams. Now’s the time to give them their due.

Ty Law wasn’t drafted into a perfect situation. He spent his first five NFL seasons starting for an interesting but limited Patriots team. While he earned first-team All-Pro honors in 1998, his spot on a flawed roster made the Super Bowl 31 loss to the Packers — one in which the Green Bay passing offense repeatedly torched his secondary for big plays — look like the apex of Law’s career.

Winning in the NFL doesn’t just happen on the field. Victories large and small come in many different forms, ranging from nine-figure contract extensions to a few kind words said by an important figure.

While we’ve got a whole table to determine division-by-division standings and playoff odds, we often lose track of the more subtle victors each week. Rather than just running down a list of the Dolphins’ weekly opponents this fall, I decided to take a deeper look at the winners who transcend the box scores and spill glorious into the greater world as a whole.

The Falcons and the Broncos faced off in the annual Hall of Fame Game to give us a product that almost represented a complete game of football. Denver ended up winning, 14-10, on a late circus touchdown catch, a highlight (finally!) that came more than 58 minutes into the game.

None of the big-name players for either team suited up in Canton. Julio Jones, Matt Ryan, Von Miller, and pretty much every other starter sat out Thursday night. That meant the game was populated by rookies trying to make a strong first impression — and some of them did.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game signals the beginning of the NFL season. After waiting through the spring and the summer, football is back starting with this preseason opener. Despite it being the preseason, there is still enough to look forward to — even watching bad football is good sometimes.

NFL football in August can be rough to watch. Teams obviously don’t go at full speed, the starters hardly see the field, and coaches are trying to avoid showing all of their schemes. This can lead to mostly mundane Hall of Fame Games. Yet every once in a while we are treated to something special.

There have been no women inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. To most fans, that’s not surprising: There’s never been a woman who’s played in the NFL, after all. Coaching platitudes still suggest the sport is a way to “separate the men from the boys” — a cliche that has its roots on the battlefield, which has, ironically, accepted women more readily than the gridiron.

This week the Canton mecca is recognizing women players and coaches for what appears to be the first time since 1983, though not with gold jackets. Four cases in the museum’s Pro Football Today Gallery are now devoted to the achievements of women in football, specifically spotlighting those who’ve spurred “firsts” within the past five years: Jen Welter, the NFL’s first woman coach; Sarah Thomas, the NFL’s first full-time woman referee; Katie Sowers, the NFL’s first out LGBTQ coach, and Beth Mowins, the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game. They join Lesley Visser, Andrea Kremer, and Charean Williams, who have all previously received awards from the hall for their contributions to football journalism.

It’s pretty funny the most famous moment in Benjamin Watson’s career was an inconsequential effort to stop Champ Bailey from returning a touchdown. Bailey picked off Tom Brady in the end zone during the 2006 AFC Divisional playoff game, and Watson ran the entire field to catch the cornerback at the one-yard line, only to watch the Broncos score on the next play. The Broncos would go on to win the game 27-13.

Bailey set an NFL record for the longest non-scoring play, but where that moment would go to define Watson, the effort and never-say-die attitude he had, it barely registers in Bailey’s legacy.

We did it, folks! The NFL is back! Gambling on football is back!! Oh yes, the Hall of Fame Game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos means we did it. We’ve been waiting since February for NFL action (RIP AAF) and we now we’ve got it. No, this game isn’t the regular season but it’s a football game you can gamble on and that’s all that matters to me.

Motivation for preseason games can vary widely between teams and even more so between players, and the first preseason game is where that shows the most. The first preseason game, whether it’s the Hall of Fame Game or otherwise, is the first time to put out film.

The Atlanta Falcons are 0-8 straight up and against the spread in their last eight preseason games. The Falcons will get a chance to pick up their first preseason win since 2016 on Thursday night when they face the Denver Broncos in the Hall of Fame Game.

Atlanta is a 3-point underdog on the NFL odds in Canton at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Over their last 10 preseason games, the Falcons are 1-9 SU and 0-10 ATS.

The NFL preseason is dumb.

It’s less dumb for rookies and borderline players looking to win over coaches and make their first NFL roster. For the most part, however, it’s a month of half-formed exhibition games that offer little insight about a team’s actual prowess while affording very real opportunities for season-changing injuries.

Frank Gore is just 252 rushing yards away from being the fourth running back in NFL history to top 15,000 yards. Only Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, and Barry Sanders are ahead of him.

He may also be the last to join that elite tier.