2024 Hall of Fame Game, Ceremony: How to Watch, Inductees & More

The Chicago Bears and Houston Texans will face off in the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on Thursday, August 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes.

The game kicks off Enshrinement Week in Canton, Ohio, where seven players are inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Read more about each Hall of Fame member below.

Dwight Freeney, Defensive End

Indianapolis Colts, 2002-12; San Diego Chargers, 2013-14; Arizona Cardinals, 2015; Atlanta Falcons, 2016; Detroit Lions, 2017; Seattle Seahawks, 2017

While some initially questioned whether Freeney was too small to play as a defensive end (6-foot-1), he was selected to the Pro Bowl seven times and first-team All-Pro three times during his 11 years with the Colts. Freeney was the 11th pick in the 2002 draft and made an immediate impact for the Colts — recording 13 sacks as a rookie and finishing second in the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year voting — en route to becoming one of the most consistent, impactful pass rushers of the Super Bowl era.

Freeney, an All-Decade selection for the 2000s, finished 18th in career sacks (it officially became a statistic in 1982) with 125.5. His spin move was routinely cited by opposing players as one of the most difficult pass-rush moves to deal with against any player. His 47 forced fumbles, including an astonishing league-leading nine as a rookie, reportedly ranked him third in the Super Bowl era. Freeney had seven seasons with at least 10 sacks, and he forced at least four fumbles in eight seasons.

Randy Gradishar, linebacker

Denver Broncos, 1974-83

Gradishar is the first player from the legendary Orange Crush defense to fail in Canton. In an era of Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain, Dallas’ Doomsday and Minnesota’s Purple People Eaters, Gradishar was the anchor of the Broncos’ legendary group. In the decade of Gradishar’s career, the Broncos ranked in the top 10 in rushing defense, pass defense, total defense, scoring defense and interceptions. From 1977 to 1981, the Broncos ranked first in fewest yards allowed and fewest passing touchdowns allowed.

Gradishar, credited with a franchise-record 2,049 tackles, was perhaps the most decorated player in the Hall’s senior pool. He never missed a game and was named to seven Pro Bowls and to the first or second All-Pro teams four times. He was the first inside linebacker in a 3-4 defense to finish in the top three in voting for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award (1977) and then the first inside linebacker in a 3-4 to win DPOY (1978).

Devin Hester, wide receiver, kick returner, punt returner

Chicago Bears, 2006-13; Atlanta Falcons, 2014-15; Baltimore Ravens, 2016; Seattle Seahawks, 2016

Hester’s 19 career regular-season touchdown returns are a league record — 14 punt return scores, five kickoff returns — and he returned the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI for a touchdown. That was despite most opposing teams trying to keep the ball from him after he returned three punts and two kickoffs for touchdowns in his rookie season. Hester was a rare selection to two all-decade teams — the 2000s and 2010s — and was selected as one of the returners for the NFL’s all-century team as part of the league’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Many personnel executives, former opponents and teammates consider him the greatest returner who ever played the game. Before kickoffs were taken from the 35-yard line, teams often chose to return kickoffs out of bounds — giving the Bears the ball at the 40-yard line — rather than putting them in Hester’s hands. He once returned a kickoff for a touchdown when Chicago had the hands team on the field instead of the usual assignment of blockers. He is the only player in history to have at least five special teams touchdowns in a season — and he did so twice. He is also the only returner to lead the league in both kickoff and punt returns twice. At age 34, in the final game of his career, he set a career high in postseason kickoff return yards (194).

Andre Johnson, wide receiver

Houston Texans, 2003-14; Indianapolis Colts, 2015; Tennessee Titans, 2016

Johnson’s combination of size, strength, speed and fearlessness made him that rarest of receivers. Before the 2003 draft, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Johnson ran a 4.41 40-yard dash at the University of Miami’s pro day, with a 41-inch vertical jump. It was just a taste of the seven-time Pro Bowler’s career: 14,185 receiving yards and 70 receiving touchdowns. He played 12 of his 14 NFL seasons with the expansion Texans, who drafted him at No. 3 overall.

Johnson twice led the league in both receptions and receiving yards. He had 21 career games with at least 10 receptions and at least 100 yards receiving — the most of all time — and his eight career games with at least 10 receptions, 150 yards receiving and one touchdown are also the most of all time. Johnson and Hall of Famer Jerry Rice are also the only players to have multiple 1,400-yard seasons after age 30.

Steve McMichael, defensive tackle

New England Patriots, 1980; Chicago Bears, 1981-93; Green Bay Packers, 1994

McMichael, who has ALS, didn’t burst onto the NFL scene the way some do en route to Canton. He was cut by the Patriots after a back injury limited him to six games as a rookie. He didn’t play all 16 games in a season until his fourth season with the Bears. But he carved out a Gold Jacket career there as part of one of the best defenses in league history. From 1983 to 1993, McMichael was a foundational player who became one of the league’s leading interior pass rushers with 95 career sacks.

McMichael had seven seasons with at least eight sacks. Only four defensive tackles since sacks became an official statistic have had more seasons with at least eight: Hall of Famers John Randle, Alan Page and Alex Karras, along with current Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald. In the 11-year span, McMichael was a starting defensive tackle for the Bears, as Chicago allowed the second-fewest rushing yards and led the league in sacks. He had 53 sacks over a six-season span — 1983-88 — when the Bears defense was at its peak. He was named first-team All-Pro twice, second-team All-Pro once and made two Pro Bowls in those six years.

Julius Peppers, Defensive Ender

Carolina Panthers, 2002-09, 2017-18; Chicago Bears, 2010-13; Green Bay Packers, 2014-16

At 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds at the 2002 NFL scouting combine, Peppers intrigued talent evaluators as a potential pass rusher given his football resume at North Carolina. But he also had played in 56 games over two seasons for the Tar Heels basketball team, averaging 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. That propelled Peppers to a career as one of the league’s all-time leading pass rushers. He ranks fourth on the official sack list with 159.5, one of four players on the list to finish his career with more than 155. He also scored six career touchdowns: four interception returns and two fumble returns.

Only Jim Marshall and Hall of Famer Bruce Smith played more games as a defensive end than Peppers’ 266. Though he never led the league in sacks in a season, he finished with at least 10 sacks 10 times in 17 seasons and had at least 12 sacks three times. He also had 11 career interceptions, forced 52 fumbles and picked off 82 passes. At age 38, he finished the 2018 season with five sacks and picked off six passes. He was selected to the Pro Bowl nine times, was named first-team All-Pro three times and was named to the all-decade team for the 2000s.

Patrick Willis, linebacker

San Francisco 49ers, 2007-14

Willis packed more quality into his eight-year career than almost any other player could. He retired, like Hall of Famer Jack Lambert, because of a painful toe injury that wouldn’t heal and severely limited his mobility. He played six games in his final season, had surgery, and retired the following spring. But a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and a five-time first-team All-Pro selection give him the rarest of resumes. He was also named to the 2010s All-Decade Team, despite playing in only half of the decade in question.

Willis was elite from the moment he stepped onto an NFL field. He led the league in tackles in his rookie season with 174 en route to being named Defensive Rookie of the Year, first-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowl selection. He was the first rookie inside linebacker to be named first-team All-Pro since Dick Butkus. He led the league in tackles again in 2009, had six 100-tackle seasons and five 120-tackle seasons in the middle of the 49ers’ defense. In his eight seasons, he tied for the league in forced fumbles during that span, was second in pass knockdowns and made the most solo tackles.