The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game is an annual National Football League (NFL) preseason exhibition game in Canton, Ohio, held the weekend of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's induction ceremonies. The game is played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, part of the Hall of Fame Village and located adjacent to the Hall of Fame building.[1] The first game was played in 1962, when ground was broken for the Hall of Fame, and it was used as a fundraiser for the Hall of Fame.[2][3][4]
Since 1970, the game has mainly been held in the beginning of August, marking the start of the NFL preseason. It is traditionally celebrated by fans as the first NFL game since the prior season's Super Bowl, which takes place nearly six months earlier.
The two teams that play in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game are typically selected by the league in advance of the remainder of the preseason schedule. The participants are usually announced around the time that the new Hall of Fame members are announced, which coincides with Super Bowl week. Often, when a particularly notable player will be entering the Hall of Fame that year, a team with which he had been strongly associated may be selected to play in the game to help maximize attendance and publicity of the game itself.
From 1971 to 2010, the opponents for each game usually included one AFC team and one NFC team. In 2009, as recognition of the 50th anniversary of the American Football League, the game paired two AFC teams who were part of the "original eight" franchises of the AFL (1960), the Tennessee Titans (dressed as their previous incarnation, the Houston Oilers) and the Buffalo Bills, whose owner, Ralph Wilson, was inducted into the Hall that year. An all-NFC matchup was scheduled for 2011,[5] but it was canceled by the lockout; the following year, another intra-conference matchup of two NFC teams took its place. From 2011 onward, each team selected to play in the game has had at least one prominent alumnus being inducted into the Hall that year.
Since the Hall of Fame Game and the Hall of Fame induction ceremony are scheduled for the weekend before the normal NFL preseason season starts, both teams end up playing an additional exhibition game compared to the remaining teams in the league (formerly four, three as of 2021).
The last four expansion teams added to the league all played in the Hall of Fame Game as their first game. In 1995, expansion clubs Jacksonville and Carolina played each other, and Houston appeared in 2002. When the new Cleveland Browns returned to the league in 1999 with a rebooted roster, they played in the Hall of Fame Game.
The Baltimore Ravens, officially established in 1996 as a result of the Browns' relocation, did not play in the Hall of Fame Game until 2018. With the Ravens' participation, all 32 current NFL teams have at least one appearance.
Prior to the AFL–NFL merger, the Hall of Fame Game was played in August or September, in some cases at the end of the preseason. In 1970, it was moved to the beginning of the preseason. Prior to 2001, it was not uncommon for the game to be played in July. Since 2001, when the league permanently moved the start of the season to the weekend after Labor Day, the game has always been played in early August. In 2002, the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony was moved from the steps of the museum to the football stadium. This created a tight schedule between the ceremony and the game.
The 2011 game was originally scheduled between the St. Louis Rams and the Chicago Bears, but the game was canceled by an ongoing labor dispute that had disrupted nearly all league activity during the 2011 offseason. The two clubs had set a deadline of July 22 to ratify a resolution in enough time to prepare for the game: the league and players did not ratify the agreement until July 25, forcing cancellation of the game.
The 2016 edition, which was scheduled to be played between the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts, was canceled at the last minute for unsafe playing conditions. Mike Silver of NFL.com reported that on the morning of the game, it was discovered that the logos at midfield and the end zones had been painted using paint which was not intended for use on the newly installed synthetic FieldTurf. Subsequently, the paint had not fully dried, and officials heated the field to speed up the drying process, causing its rubber infill to melt; the affected areas were described as being slick and "like cement," making it impossible to get decent footing. Stadium officials attempted to address this issue by applying paint thinner to the turf before a Packers employee alerted them to a label warning that the substance could result in burns when exposed to skin. In deciding to cancel the game, the league and the Players Association cited safety concerns.[6][7][8]
Both teams were told at 6:40 p.m. EDT, eighty minutes before kickoff, that the game was going to be canceled. However, fans in the stadium only learned of the pending cancellation via social media, and no official announcement was made until just before the scheduled 8 p.m. kickoff, which was greeted by boos and jeering.[9]
The next year, in 2017, the game was moved to Thursday night, making it the first event of the Hall of Fame weekend:[10][11] the game was moved prior to the ceremony to prevent a repeat of the 2016 incident, and has been maintained since. Immediately following the game, the stage and seating area for the Hall of Fame ceremony are erected in the stadium.
The game in 2020, which was scheduled to be played between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as all other preseason games, was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The matchup was held over for the 2021 game.[12][13]
Unlike the majority of NFL preseason games, which air on local television stations, the Hall of Fame Game airs nationwide. From 1999 to 2005, the game was held on Monday night, televised as part of ABC's Monday Night Football package. It had previously been held typically on Saturday afternoons, except from 1963 to 1965 on Sunday afternoons, televised as part of ABC's Wide World of Sports package (still using the MNF crew). In 1998, the game was put in the MNF package, and played on a Saturday night, which served as a test run for the move to Monday night.
Since 2006, the game has largely aired on NBC as part of the Sunday Night Football package (which replaced MNF as the NFL's flagship primetime broadcast that season), except in 2007 (when NBC planned to air the China Bowl preseason game in Beijing, which was postponed and ultimately canceled) and in all Summer Olympics years (2008, 2012, 2016, 2021, 2024, 2028, and 2032) due to NBC's broadcast rights to the Games. In these years, the game is sold to one of the NFL's other media partners, such as NFL Network (under Thursday Night Football), ESPN (under the current iteration of Monday Night Football), and Fox.[14] The 2024 game, which will be broadcast by ESPN due to the 2024 Summer Olympics, will be simulcast by ABC.[15]
40°49′12″N 81°23′53″W / 40.820°N 81.398°W / 40.820; -81.398
