Drew Brees overcame questions about his height, injury history and ability to become one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.
The New Orleans Saints legend was acknowledged for his spectacular career when he highlighted this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class, which also includes wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, linebacker Luke Kuechly, placekicker Adam Vinatieri and running back Roger Craig, which was forever immortalized in a ceremony on Saturday in Canton, Ohio.
Brees was benched not once or twice but three times during his career. The second-round draft pick by the San Diego Chargers found a second life with the Saints in 2006 and made the most of it, retiring at the time as the NFL’s all-time passing yards leader (80,358) and leading New Orleans to the franchise’s first Super Bowl championship in the 2009 season.
“The Who Dat Nation is real,” Brees said of the large assembly of Saints fans that made the trip for his induction ceremony.
Although his yardage record was broken shortly after he retired by Tom Brady in 2021, Brees still stands as No. 2 on the NFL’s all-time leaderboard in passing yards and touchdowns (571).
He’s just the fifth quarterback since 1980 to play 20 NFL seasons and made a perennial winner of a franchise without that track record of success. The Saints won double-digit games nine times in his 15 seasons and never won less than seven games while he was there.
“I often ask myself how in the world did I play 20 years in the NFL,” Brees said. “Yes, it was for the love of the game. Yes, it was a relentless attempt to master my craft. Yes, it was the grind and challenge of preparation and the thrill of game day.
“But you want to know what it really was: for the love of my teammates. I would wake up every day with a burning desire to commit, sacrifice and command in a way that would give them everything they deserved.”
Fitzgerald, a first-ballot Hall of Famer like Brees, reflected on his football journey which began as a ball boy for the Minnesota Vikings, which gave him an up-close view of now-fellow Hall of Fame wideouts Randy Moss and Cris Carter.
“I grew up watching legends being built right in front of me,” Fitzgerald said. “Hall of Fame players like John Randle, Chris Doleman, Randall McDaniel and Warren Moon, who taught me what it means to demand more of yourself than anyone else ever would.”
The No. 3 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, Fitzgerald played his entire 17-year career for the Arizona Cardinals, making 11 Pro Bowl appearances and retiring behind only Jerry Rice on the NFL’s all-time receiving yards list (17,492).
He praised former Cardinals quarterback and Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, citing that he “dragged me into the winner’s circle.” He also offered up an emotional message for his father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr., who passed away on June 1 at 71.
“My dad, who I lost recently, is also here in spirit. I can feel his presence. He was the foundation of our family and the standard that I measured myself against,” Fitzgerald said. “Dad, I know there were times where it must have felt like you were carrying the weight of the world, but you always showed up, and your willingness to love and sacrifice with consistency was the blueprint that I used to raise your grandsons.”
Kuechly became the second-youngest Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee at 35 years old and is the first inductee who played his entire career with the Carolina Panthers.
He retired after eight seasons in January 2020, in part because of concerns about his brain health after sustaining multiple concussions. While the career was brief by Hall of Fame standards, it was exceptionally productive. Kuechly was the 2012 Defensive Rookie of the Year, the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year and a five-time first-team All-Pro linebacker.
“There’s no way to measure what the game of football has given to me, the joy it’s provided, and more than anything, the people that I’ve been so blessed to be around as a result of this game,” Kuechly said.
Vinatieri, a four-time Super Bowl champion for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, delivered the funniest speech of the ceremony.
No one who ran in his NFL orbit was free from a roast as Vinatieri jokingly prodded his former Patriots coach Bill Belichick (“I thought (he couldn’t be here) because training camp had already started, but in truth, it’s because he’s judging his girlfriend’s cheerleading competition.”); quarterback Tom Brady (“I was lucky enough to play with the greatest quarterback in Patriots history. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it here today … Drew Bledsoe.”); and Peyton Manning (“Thank you for generously donating your forehead for today’s teleprompter.”)
Amidst the jokes, however, the man who has made more NFL field goals (599) than anyone else over his 24-year career made it crystal clear how much it means to reach the “pinnacle of greatness” that is becoming just the third pure placekicker to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I gave you 38 years of my life, and in return, you gave me a lifetime of memories,” Vinatieri said in an ode to football. ” … I gave you everything I had, and somehow you gave me even more in return. Thank you for the life you gave me.”
Craig, who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders and Vikings from 1983-93, is the oldest member of the 2026 class at 66 years old.
The first player in NFL history to amass 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in the same season — something just two players have done since — used a pre-recorded message at the ceremony to announce that he has been diagnosed with vascular dementia.
The belief is that concussions sustained during his career contributed to this diagnosis, and he hopes his story can be an example for the current and future generations of football players to take their brain health seriously.
“Two things can be true: Football gave me opportunities beyond anything I could imagine. It helped shape the man I became,” Craig said. “At the same time, we know more today about brain health than when I played. And I hope sharing my story encourages people to pay attention to their health and seek help when something doesn’t feel right.
” … If sharing my story helps even one family or one former player, then it’s worth it. Football gave me everything: opportunity, discipline, lifelong friends and a platform to grow as a man.”