Introducing the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

As it does every year, the 2016 NFL preseason gets underway Sunday evening, with the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts taking the field for the Hall of Fame Game at 8 p.m. ET.

However, a preseason contest in which starters will barely play is hardly the headline attraction this weekend. The big happenings are on Saturday, when the Hall will welcome its eight newest members.

There are two quarterbacks with Super Bowl rings and NFL MVP awards on their resumes. A prolific wide receiver. One of the greatest offensive tackles ever to play the game. A pass-rusher whose job was giving tackles like that fits. A Super Bowl-winning coach. A former team owner who built one of the NFL's all-time dynasties. And an offensive guard who is being inducted posthumously.

The teams playing Sunday night are well-represented by the class. Three of this year's inductees helped either the Colts or Packers to win a Lombardi Trophy.

As they usually are, it's a class loaded to the gills with greatness. A group of the best ever to put on pads and take to the gridiron. Or at least pay the men who did.

It's time to meet the Pro Football Hall of Fame class for 2016.

Brett Favre, QB, Green Bay Packers

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Brett Favre's induction into the Hall of Fame is a formality.

After a 20-year career in which Favre set a number of since-broken passing records (thanks, Peyton...you big jerk) and played in two Super Bowls (winning one), we knew No. 4 would be enshrined in Canton five years after he retired.

We just didn't know if Favre was ever going to actually retire.

He first hung them up in 2008, only to reconsider and eventually work a trade from Green Bay to New York. After one disastrous season with the Jets, Favre hung them up again, only to once again un-hang them and sign with Minnesota.

That led to a great 2009 season for Favre in which the Vikings came within one missed field goal of Favre's third Super Bowl. It also led to more than a few hard feelings from Packers faithful who saw his playing for the team's NFC North rivals as treason.

2010 wasn't nearly as magical. In his second year in the Twin Cities, Favre just looked old, and on January 17, 2011, the 11-time Pro Bowler and only man to win three consecutive NFL MVP awards retired for good.

Since then, Favre and the Packers have kissed and made up. He was inducted into the team's Ring of Honor last season, and there will be no shortage of green and gold in the crowd at the induction ceremony.

Favre told ESPN.com's Jason Wilde that it feels good to be back in the good graces of the denizens of Titletown:

"

[The love] started coming back this past summer. It was a great welcome back. Again, I am not surprised. The fans here, it's a special place. I tell people all the time, "L.A. tries to field a team over and over again. They got way more people in L.A. than we have in the state of Wisconsin, I'm sure, but yet there's a 45-, 50-year waiting list for season tickets." It's because this place is special and unique and they support their home folks. It meant a lot this past summer, and it means a lot now.

"

Manning broke Favre's records for passing yardage, touchdowns and wins, but Favre still has a number of records all his own.

In addition to making more consecutive starts (297) than any player in league history, Favre also has more pass attempts, completions, interceptions, sacks and fumbles than any signal-caller ever.

OK, so those last few aren't records Favre wants, but they're his nonetheless.

Plus, he's impeccably groomed.

Ken Stabler, QB, Oakland Raiders

Ben Margot/Associated Press

Favre isn't the only quarterback going into the Hall of Fame in 2016.

But where Favre's induction happened as quickly as it could, Ken Stabler's took a long time.

Far too long, in the eyes of many.

Despite a 15-year career in which The Snake made it to four Pro Bowls, won the 1974 NFL MVP award and led the Oakland Raiders to a win in Super Bowl XI, Stabler was passed over time after time.

Some pointed to less than stellar passing numbers. (He threw for 3,000 yards only twice, and that was later in his career.) Or the fact that Stabler threw 28 more interceptions than touchdowns in his career, including four straight seasons from 1977-80 in which he tossed at least 20 picks.

However, as Joe Posnaski of NBC Sports wrote, supporters pointed to Stabler's time in Oakland as meriting a bust in Canton:

"

Stabler’s Hall of Fame case builds mostly around the seven years he was quarterback of the Oakland Raiders. In those seven years, his Raiders went 68-25-1, won a Super Bowl, reached five straight conference championships and created a marauders aura that lasts to this day. Stabler always threw a bunch of interceptions; he threw 30 or so more picks than touchdown passes over his career. But he kept flinging the ball downfield. He kept bringing the Raiders back. He had a knack for fashioning a miracle happen every now and again: the Ghost to the Post; the Sea of Hands; the Holy Roller.

"

The cold, hard truth is this: What got Stabler over the top and voted into the Hall of Fame was his death last July from colon cancer at 69. Stabler's passing created a wave of nostalgia about his time as the leader of the rough and tumble Raiders of the 1970s—a wave he rode all the way home.

Cynics call it an underserved sympathy vote. Supporters say it's an overdue accolade. The way this writer looks at it, if Joe Namath rates a spot in the Hall of Fame for a Super Bowl win and being a colorful character, then saying Stabler doesn't is a bit hypocritical.

At any rate, he's in. Congratulations to possibly the only Super Bowl-winning quarterback who had a preference for studying his playbook by the light of a jukebox, according to ESPN's Ed Werder.

Marvin Harrison, WR, Indianapolis Colts

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

As the NFL has become more and more pass-centric over the past 25 years, it's only natural that we would begin to see more and more receivers posting gaudy numbers. That's created a bit of a logjam at the position. Art Monk of the Washington Redskins had to wait his turn. Then Andre Reed of the Buffalo Bills. Ditto for Tim Brown of the Oakland Raiders last year. Terrell Owens was passed over in 2016.

Because now it's Marvin Harrison's time to shine.

It took Harrison three tries to make it Canton, which says more about the glut of eligible talent at the position than it does Harrison's play over 13 years in Indy.

For his career, Harrison made 1,102 catches for 14,580 yards and 128 touchdowns. Eight straight seasons from 1999 to 2006, Harrison topped 1,000 receiving yards. In all eight of those seasons, Harrison found the end zone 10 or more times.

From 1999-2002, to say that Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison was the NFL's most productive quarterback-to-receiver hookup does them a disservice. Harrison's average stat line over that four-year span is simply staggering—117 catches, 1,580 yards and 13 touchdowns. 

That was the average!

Harrison, alongside Randy Moss, was named a first-team wide receiver for the 2000s All-Decade team. His 143 catches in 2002 remains the single-season benchmark for receptions.

Harrison told Mike Chappell of CBS 4 he's honored to be included among the best to ever play at the position:

"

It’s definitely an honor. It’s definitely a privilege. It doesn’t just happen. You don’t take it for granted. You don’t just wake up one day and say, "I’m a Hall of Famer." You don’t start off your career and say you’re going to go to the Hall of Fame. You take it step by step and all of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for me to where I was able to show my talent.

"

In an era when wideouts more than ever before had the reputation of being me-first divas, Harrison stoically went about the business of catching passes.

It's a business he excelled at. And while Owens may not be happy Harrison got in first, it's hard to argue his credentials are anything but Hall-worthy.

T.O. will just have to wait his turn.

Orlando Pace, OT, St. Louis Rams

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

In January 2015, I was fortunate enough to be invited to do a radio spot live from Radio Row a few days before Super Bowl XLIX. It just so happened that I was in the midst of a huge assemblage of players and sportswriters as the 2015 Hall of Fame class was announced.

There was one player who didn't get in whose omission was met with incredulity by the vast majority of people I spoke to at Radio Row and the various watering holes in downtown Phoenix that evening.

That player wasn't Kurt Warner. Rather, it was the player who protected Warner's blind side during the heyday on "The Greatest Show on Turf" Rams teams.

That snub has now been rectified.

When the Rams took Orlando Pace No. 1 overall 1997, it marked the first time in three decades an offensive lineman was taken first overall. He finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting the year before. In his last two seasons at Ohio State, Pace did not allow a sack.

Pace didn't miss a beat when he entered the NFL. He was a starter by the end of his first month. A Pro Bowl alternate by his second season. A first-team All-Pro by the third.

Over 13 seasons in the NFL, Pace made the Pro Bowl seven times. He was a first-team All-Pro three times. He was also named a second-team tackle on the NFL's All-2000s team.

Warner, who is still waiting on his own call from the Hall (relax, he'll get one), told Mark Hazelwood of the Sandusky Register that he owes much of his success in the NFL to Pace (literally) watching his back:

"

It was just such a comfort for a quarterback in the system we were in where we were throwing caution into the wind, dropping back and holding the ball, sending everyone out deep. I don’t know if we’re able to do all that stuff if we don’t have Orlando Pace on the left side shutting down the other team’s best pass rusher.

"

Rams wideout Isaac Bruce agreed:

"

Orlando was the MVP of what we had going, because he was the one player we couldn’t play without. We could have probably supplemented a few other guys, but to have Orlando Pace missing for an extended period of time — it would have been too detrimental to what we were trying to accomplish.

"

Pace anchored the offensive line of a Rams team that finished in the top 10 offensively seven times over his career. From 1999-2001, the Rams led the NFL in total yards, passing yards and points scored.

One star from that GSoT Rams team (Marshall Faulk) is already in Canton. As many as three more (Bruce, Torry Holt and Warner) may one day join them.

You can argue that none of them would be there were it not for the skills of The Pancake Man.

Kevin Greene, OLB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

In the history of the National Football League (or at least since sacks became a recorded statistic), four men have recorded more than 150 sacks. Three of those men (Reggie White, Bruce Smith and Chris Doleman) were already in Canton.

This year, the last member of the quartet joins them.

Over 15 seasons with four NFL teams, Kevin Greene tallied 160 sacks, good for third place. Ten times over those 15 seasons, Greene rolled up double digits in the category—including his last NFL season with the Carolina Panthers in 1999.

In many respects, Greene aged like a fine wine. He's the oldest player in NFL history to lead the league in sacks, and four of his double-digit sack seasons came after his 34th birthday.

Like his career, Greene's induction has been a long time coming. Despite the most sacks by a linebacker in NFL history, the third-most forced fumbles (23), five Pro Bowl trips, three All-Pro nods, inclusion on the All-1990s team and a partridge in a pear tree (one of those may be made up), it took Greene a decade to get the requisite number of votes for the Hall of Fame.

Greene got around quite a bit in his career. Los Angeles, then Pittsburgh, then Carolina, then San Francisco, then back to Carolina. But despite eight seasons with the Rams, Greene told Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he'll be receiving his Super Bowl ring in Pittsburgh:

"

Yes, I've been approached by the Ram organization to do something similar, but I think at this point it is expressly understood that I'm really gonna receive my ring there at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

Really that was the pinnacle of my career there in Pittsburgh. We had the right attitude on defense. We had great weapons all-around. I played with Hall of Famers. . . .Just really the time of my life. Once a Steeler, always a Steeler.

"

As Greene told Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer, playing as a pass-rusher in the NFL's golden age of quarterbacks was enough to make his head spin:

"

It was crazy because one week you’re looking at Joe Montana and the next week you’re looking at John Elway. And the next week it was Dan Marino. And the next week it was Warren Moon and Troy Aikman, Brett Favre. My job was to hunt them and they paid me to do it.

"

Hunt them he did. And by the time his career ended, more than a few quarterbacks' heads were left spinning, too.

Dick Stanfel, OG, Detroit Lions

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Dick Stanfel isn't known to many modern football fans. That may be because his eight-season playing career ended in 1958.

However, what an eight seasons it was. After missing all of the 1951 season with an injury, Stanfel would go on to make five All-NFL teams in seven years with Detroit and Washington. In each of his first two seasons on the field, Stanfel and the Lions won the NFL Championship, and he was named team MVP in 1953.

Lions coach Aldo Forte talked up his young guard after that season while speaking to the Detroit Free Press (via newspapers.com): "I think he is the best offensive guard who has played in the National League. I'll even top that by saying that he is a better player at his guard spot than any other gridder in the league at his particular position."

Yes, "gridder." It was the '50s. What are you going to do?

Stanfel also spent more than three decades as an offensive line coach in both college and the NFL, winning a Super Bowl in that capacity with the Chicago Bears. He served as the interim head coach of the 1980 New Orleans Saints for four games, leading the team to their only win that season.

At stops at both Cal and in Philadelphia with the Eagles, Stanfel coached under Marv Levy, who will introduce Stanfel for enshrinement. As ESPN.com's Michael Rothsteain wrote, Stanfel's son Rich said it was Levy who has championed his father's cause:

"

Marv Levy was always the guy pounding the table [with the senior committee] and going "you’ve got to consider Stanfel again." Dick, his career, what he did in his short stay. He said very few people did more than him, particularly with the body of work he’s had. Marv was the hugest proponent of getting, if I had to pick one single person, Marv Levy sort of carried the banner for dad.

"

Stanfel, who was a member of the NFL's All-1950s team, was twice a finalist for the Hall of Fame (1993 and 2012). Like Stabler, he died last year.

Tony Dungy, HC, Indianapolis Colts

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

In his day, Tony Dungy was hardly a Hall of Fame player. Yes, he did win a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but his four-year playing career was mostly forgettable.

As a coach, it's a whole other story.

In 13 seasons at the helm of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts, Dungy won more than twice as many games as he lost. But his impact on the game of football goes well beyond wins and losses. Beyond his victory with the Colts in Super Bowl XLI.

When Dungy took the reins in Tampa in 1996, the Buccaneers were a perennial punching bag. A doormat. Not only did Dungy turn that around, but (along with Monte Kiffin) he installed the Tampa 2 defense—a scheme whose concepts are still widely used around the NFL over two decades later.

Dungy took a Buccaneers team that had finished with a losing record in 14 straight seasons prior to his arrival and had them in the playoffs by his second year on the job. Four times in five seasons from 1997-2001 the Bucs made the postseason, making it as far as the NFC title game in 1999.

When Jon Gruden's Buccaneers wrecked an Oakland team Gruden built in Super Bowl XXXVII, there was more than a bit of irony involved, since it was Dungy who built the wrecking ball Gruden used.

Dungy wasn't out of work long after being let go by Tampa. He was quickly snatched up by the Colts, where he and Manning would go on a run of regular-season dominance like few the NFL has ever seen. From 2002-08 (when Dungy retired), the Colts made the playoffs each season. Only once did they fail to win 12 games. In 2005, the team won 12 games in which it led wire to wire.

It was the following season, though, when Dungy finally reached the summit. After getting past the New England Patriots, 38-34, in one of the most thrilling AFC title games ever, Dungy and Manning downed the Bears, 26-17, to win both player and coach their first Super Bowl.

Dungy told Zak Keefer of the Indy Star that while the 2005 team may have been his most talented, it's that 2006 iteration (not surprisingly) that holds a special place in his heart.

"That group was special," he said. "It wasn’t our most talented team but it was the team that went through adversity, stuck together...and for that, it’s probably my favorite team. That’ll always be a special group in my heart."

Dungy's regular-season record in Indianapolis was an absolutely filthy 92-33, which got him the nod as the second-team head coach of the All-2000s team.

Yes, his career playoff record (9-10) wasn't great. But you'd be hard-pressed to find a player or coach, be he a friend or foe, who wouldn't say Dungy is great, both for his acumen on the field and his activism off it. As former Colts president Bill Polian said, per Keefer, Dungy is "the conscience of the NFL," whether it's by ministering to prison inmates or advocating for minority hires in the NFL's coaching ranks.

In the latter regard, the "Dungy tree" has had an impact on the NFL. Four black assistants under Dungy (Mike Tomlin, Leslie Frazier, Lovie Smith and Jim Caldwell) went on to become head coaches. Tomlin won a Super Bowl with Pittsburgh, where Dungy's career began so many years ago.

But Dungy was the first. The first African-American head coach to win the biggest game in sports. And now the first African-American coach to be inducted into the Hall.

Ed DeBartolo Jr., Owner, San Francisco 49ers

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

OK, so we might as well get this out of the way. No one has ever called former San Francisco 49ers owner Ed "Eddie" DeBartolo, "the conscience of the NFL."

In fact, during his heyday in the Bay Area, other NFL owners called DeBartolo a lot of things that can't be printed here.

DeBartolo's tenure as owner of the team was often controversial, and he ceded control of the team to his sister back in 2000 amid his involvement in a corruption scandal including Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and allegations that Edwards demanded a bribe from DeBartolo over a gaming license that DeBartolo never reported.

The Edwards brouhaha resulted in DeBartolo being suspended from running the 49ers for one year in addition to huge fines. However, as Patrick Holloway of SB Nation reported, DeBartolo disputes that the team was "taken" from him:

"

I think it's been a misnomer for many many years. Commissioner Tagliabue did obviously suspend me, but as I was going through negotiations with my family and we went through these negotiations and we went through them with lawyers, obviously and with a judge in Akron, Ohio. It did not come down to that team being taken, it came down to a decision that had to be made whether or not I wanted the 49ers or whether or not I wanted to take the other part of the company. And I figured at that time, and my sister Denise [49ers owner Denise York] was involved totally as was her family. I decided in that meeting in Akron Ohio, that I thought it would be best that I took the other side and my tenure with the 49ers would end then and end there. I don't know if that story has ever been told, it may have been, it may have not been. But, it really was a choice.

"

Things may not have ended like he wanted, but that was just about the only part of DeBartolo's tenure that wasn't a rousing success.

When DeBartolo bought the team in 1977 for $17 million, the 49ers were a laughingstock. By the time he left two-plus decades later, they had won five Super Bowls, produced a fistful of Hall of Fame players and coaches and won more games over a 10-year period than any club before or since.

As former team executive Vince Cerrato told Tom Oates in an ESPN.com special: "His attitude was, 'Don't fool around. Go get the best guys.'"

To say DeBartolo was a free-spender is the understatement of the century. He overpaid for free agents. Lavished his players with gifts. The arms race between DeBartolo's 49ers and Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys in the early 1990s helped bring about the installation of the salary cap.

With the installation of that cap for the 1994 season came the beginning of the end of DeBartolo's dynasty. The team was constantly mortgaging the future to contend in the present, and while the 49ers won their fifth Super Bowl in 1994, by the time he sold them to Denise York, they had all but bottomed out. In 2000, the Niners were fined by the NFL for essentially cheating the cap over a period of several years.

Things haven't been the same since.

The 49ers are not the powerhouse they once were, but as Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz (whose Bengals lost to San Francisco in Super Bowl XVI and Super Bowl XXIII) told Ira Miller of the Sports XChange, the fierce loyalty DeBartolo engendered in his players and fans has not—as he saw while playing in a flag football game at the closing of Candlestick Park:

"

The final touchdown pass, there were probably 30,000 people in that stadium viewing a bunch of old guys playing a flag football game, but to see (Montana) throw to (DeBartolo) for the final touchdown there and to hear the fans go crazy and to see the admiration from these former players like Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana; that to me was impressive ... to me, that's what it's all about.

"

And if that loyalty (and a handful of Super Bowl rings) isn't a Hall of Fame legacy, what is?