Rich’s Favorite Stories from Behind-the-Scenes at the ‘26 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductions

Hosting the gold jacket dinner in Canton is an honor and a job. Set the stage, keep it moving, and accept that the audience is going to have more fun with you than you have with them.

Rich stepped to the podium and got the greeting a Michigan Wolverine always gets in that building. "O-H."

His return fire was ready. He always loves coming to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he told the room, so Buckeye fans can prove they can spell four-letter words. He had a better one loaded, but the commissioner of the NFL was seated right next to him, so it stayed in the holster.

It did not stay in the holster long. A prize was given away late by a number in the program, so Rich told the room to stay seated and that the winning number would involve page three. For those Buckeye fans, he added, that is between pages two and four.

Roger Goodell leaned over after Rich sat down. "Do you have security?"

"I've got Steve Hutchinson," Rich told him.

Then the returning Hall of Famers get introduced, a job Dan Fouts now does flawlessly, working off cards and an earpiece. For reasons Rich cannot explain, his Michigan cap gets under the skin of a man who went to Oregon. Cris Carter came out first, from The Ohio State, sorry Rich. Orlando Pace came next, another Ohio State guy, Rich, and then the question: are there really any Michigan guys here tonight? There aren't any.

Rich looked over at Hutchinson, who had been one of the first men introduced and was standing right there. You could read his lips. Then Ty Law came out, and Goodell said, "There's another one."

That is the dinner. The party afterward is something else. Rich walked up on a single table holding Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Lynn Swann and Jackie Slater, and stood there wanting to ask Slater what it was like to block Mean Joe Greene while also not wanting to intrude on a moment those men rarely get anymore. Elsewhere in the room: John Lynch, Bill Cowher, Warren Moon, Jim Kelly, and a table where Thurman Thomas sat with Bruce Smith, Tim Brown and Jerome Bettis.

Even the trip home delivered. Rerouted through Dallas, Rich found Cliff Harris across the aisle and Drew Pearson right behind him, at which point Harris turned and told Pearson it was very rare that he got behind him. Harris then explained how Tom Landry handed his defensive backs dot matrix printouts of opposing receivers' route tendencies by down and distance, which Harris color-coded by marker. Landry's sermon: anticipation is better than reaction.

As for the speeches, the one that landed hardest was Drew Brees describing the film session in San Diego with Cam Cameron and Brian Schottenheimer that changed everything.

"They asked me the question, hey, why didn't you throw to this receiver? He was wide open," Brees said. "To which my response was, I couldn't see him. The tape paused, there was a moment of silence, they glared at me and said, it's your job to see."

Nobody gets up there and says it came easy. Rich has heard these speeches since 2003 and has never heard one.

And then Adam Vinatieri went up and did a set, tie loosened, channeling Rodney Dangerfield. Bill Belichick got the first one high and tight, absent and unable to defend himself. Tom Brady got the next when Vinatieri thanked the greatest quarterback in Patriots history, Drew Bledsoe.

The all-time leading scorer, closing on a two-drink minimum. It was up and it was good.