RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Five men — Drew Brees, Roger Craig, Luke Kuechly, Larry Fitzgerald and Adam Vinatieri — will be formally enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in Canton, Ohio. Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab and Eric Edholm wrote on how each legend reached football immortality.
QB Drew Brees
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports)
It's possible no free-agent signing in NFL history was more important than Brees. He helped save the Saints in New Orleans . Brees was instrumental in the rebirth of New Orleans, immediately becoming a familiar face in the community in the aftermath of Katrina. Then he brought the Saints a championship that seemed impossible when he arrived.
And the Saints pushed him on a path toward immortality.
Brees was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, a headliner in a fantastic 2026 class. All of New Orleans might go to Canton to see him be inducted. Few players have been more important to a city. — Schwab
WR Larry Fitzgerald
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports) Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports
Fitzgerald's career was defined by consistency, character and clutch moments, thriving for an incredible 17 seasons — all with the Arizona Cardinals . He is arguably the best player in franchise history, which spans back more than a century to St. Louis and Chicago .
And after 11 Pro Bowls and three All-Pro Team mentions, not to mention his 2016 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, missing a mere eight games over the course of his career, Fitzgerald was one of the easier first-ballot Hall of Famers in recent memory. — Edholm
RB Roger Craig
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports) (Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports)
Decades ago, most starting running backs occasionally made plays in the passing game but it wasn't a priority. Niners head coach Bill Walsh, one of the game's greatest innovators, saw it a different way after the 49ers made Craig a second-round draft pick out of Nebraska in 1983.
Craig immediately became a big part of the passing game in Walsh's West Coast offense, with 427 receiving yards as a rookie, 675 in his second season as the 49ers won a Super Bowl, then more than 1,000 the year after.
Craig was stellar running the ball too. He became the 49ers' starter as a rookie, on a team that went 10-6 and lost in the NFC championship game. He rushed for 8,189 career yards with a great mix of athleticism and toughness. His famous touchdown against the Rams is one of the greatest runs in NFL history, as he showed off his entire skill set by breaking multiple tackles and then running for the score in the open field. — Schwab
K Adam Vinatieri
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports)
Adam Vinatieri made 599 regular-season field goals in his career, the most in NFL history. But four made field goals in the playoffs might have been the difference in him making it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Vinatieri's career spanned more than two decades and it's remembered mostly for the biggest few moments. Vinatieri won two Super Bowls with field goals in the final seconds, and neither one was his greatest kick. His greatest kick came in the "Tuck Rule" game, sending a memorable playoff game between the Patriots and Raiders to overtime. He won that game in OT with another kick in the blinding snow.
Vinatieri didn't make the Hall of Fame only because of those kicks. He set multiple NFL records, including the most points ever scored by a player. He was a tremendous kicker for 24 seasons, 10 with the Patriots and 14 with the Colts. — Schwab
LB Luke Kuechly
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports) (Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports)
While the middle linebacker's importance waned in comparison in his era of football compared to prior generations, Kuechly helped keep the torch lit for the position, taking the mantle from predecessor Brian Urlacher and becoming arguably the signature player there in the 2010s. He was the perfect blend of size, athleticism and football IQ. He was a true defensive cornerstone.
A top-10 draft pick in 2012, Kuechly entered the starting lineup immediately as a rookie and was the runaway pick for Defensive Rookie of the Year. The next season, Kuechly rose even higher, earning the league's Defensive Player of the Year award. That kicked off a dominant seven-year stretch in which he earned a Pro Bowl invitation and was named first- or second-team All-Pro every season. — Edholm
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