Rich Reveals Who’s Putting Gold Jackets on the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

Rich had the run of show in his hands and decided the rest of us should know what is coming.

The gold jacket dinner in Canton has a shape to it. Dan Fouts introduces the returning Hall of Famers one by one. Each of them waves from the stage, then peels off right or left to form what they call the gauntlet, two lines running from the stage all the way to the exits. Up at the back sit two risers. That is where the incoming class gets introduced, alternating side to side, before walking the gauntlet through hugs and high-fives to collect the jacket.

Rich hosts it, and his job during that walk is to keep the room moving. As he put it, put your hands together and tap dance until they finally get to the stage.

A few years ago the Hall changed how the jacket itself gets put on. The Saturday presenter now stays a Saturday thing. Each incoming member instead picks a returning Hall of Famer, anyone at all from the 387 total members as of Saturday morning, to do the honors on Friday night. It produces some strange bedfellows. Joe Thomas once picked Jerome Bettis, which did not go over gently with the Browns fans in the room.

Drew Brees chose LaDainian Tomlinson, with Sean Payton set to introduce him the next day.

Roger Craig went with Eddie DeBartolo Jr., the longtime owner of the San Francisco 49ers.

The Adam Vinatieri reveal is where the segment turned into blood sport. Rich made Chris guess, and Chris, being who he is, worked the Patriots angle first. Ty Law. Richard Seymour. Then Peyton Manning, on the theory that anyone who is not a Patriot would be an insult.

Rich told him he was in the right church, wrong pew with the Colts. Chris tried Curtis Martin. Then Rich asked the real question, which was not who is doing it but who would anger him the most.

Chris got there on his own. Bill Polian.

The reaction was not printable, and it was earned.

Then came the one that will land differently. Larry Fitzgerald asked Cris Carter to put the jacket on him. Fitzgerald's father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr., who recently passed, was a longtime reporter in Minneapolis, and Fitzgerald was a ball boy for Carter with the Vikings. Rich does not expect a dry eye in the house.

That moment is the whole argument for showing up to this weekend if you ever get the chance. It is not televised, which is part of why Rich went ahead and told the story anyway.

"I guess don't give me the run of show in advance next time," he said.

He will be at the podium again, and he knows exactly what is waiting for him when he steps to it. Nonstop O-H, with Carter in the room, ready to find him the second it starts.