NFL kicks off Hall of Fame game

Like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its cocoon, we have finally made it to the backside of the football offseason.

No more finding random sports at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday, no more forcing ourselves to “enjoy” baseball, and no more following every word our favorite team’s beat writer has to say about the draft class, acquisitions, and training camp fights.

It’s here. The preseason kicked off (pun intended) with the Pro Football Hall of Fame game on Thursday, when the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears faced off in Canton, Ohio.

That game means a little more to me than some every year, especially the older I get. It was 13 years ago this October that I played my final snap of football right there, at Tom Benson Stadium.

Not many people get that opportunity, but myself, my classmates, and many other people that have donned the purple and gray of the Triway Titans (as well as the other schools in the PAC-7 Conference) had the opportunity to play on one of the most prestigious fields in football history.

I watched my brother play his final game there, too. And if you catch me out-and-about, ask me about my eighth-grade hijinx at the stadium during that game.

While the school that shared that field is no longer a part of the conference, thus meaning the member schools no longer get that honor, it is a memory that will hopefully never leave me.

In fact, during the game last Thursday, I paused the TV and showed my daughter a picture of me standing next to the end zone where one of the teams just scored.

She didn’t share the same excitement that rushes over me every year around this same time, but I know that she doesn’t understand how cool that truly is. To this day, I still think of the fumble that I recovered in nearly the exact same spot that my brother did just four years prior, with each of us having our plays highlighted on the screen of one of the biggest stages in our favorite sport.

It wasn’t just the game, though, that took place on Thursday. Seven more people were enshrined in the halls of history, the greatest honor in my favorite game.

I would venture to say that a very large majority of players, who truly love the sport, dream of making it to Canton some day. And these men just did that.

Dwight Freeney, Randy Gradishar, Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Steve McMichael, Julius Peppers, and Patrick Willis all earned their gold jackets — more coveted, to me at least, than the green jacket that is earned by winning the Masters golf tournament.

One storyline overshadowed the rest — Steve McMichael, who is battling ALS, was unable to attend. Instead, his wife was there to accept his honors in person, while he was at home and virtually accepted it from there.

It was heartbreaking, yet somehow heartwarming to watch. An embodiment of the “Monsters of the Midway” moniker that the Chicago Bears had earned years prior, McMichael carried it through a Super Bowl with the notorious 46 Bear defense, and even a stint as a professional wrestler.

To see the person that fellow Hall of Fame inductee Mike Ditka named the “toughest player he ever coached” sitting there, crippled by that disease, hurt. But the fact that he has powered through his diagnosis and treatments, and was able to appear — even if just on camera — to see his bronze bust for his enshrinement, was a true testament to the perseverance of football players.

The other six have their stories to tell, too, so they should not be any sort of background story. I watched Freeney play the Steelers in a playoff game upset that led to Clinton’s own Willie Parker setting the record for the longest touchdown run in Super Bowl history.

Gradishar played under Buckeye legend Woody Hayes.

Hester was a human highlight reel on every return.

Johnson had one of my favorite clips in NFL history, a fight against Tennessee’s Courtland Finnegan, and that was just a testament to who Johnson was: a tenacious player.

Julius Peppers helped kickstart my love for the defensive side of the ball.

Patrick Willis was Patrick Willis; he told his own story and it was great.

The Hall of Fame game is often overlooked, as not many starters play in it. It’s the first game of the preseason and nobody wants to get hurt. But to me, it means a yearly reminder that I, too, played on that field, and it makes for a fun time reminiscing.

Fun fact of the week: Matt Ryan, who famously quarterbacked the Atlanta Falcons in their 28-3 blown lead over the Patriots in the Super Bowl, had game ball #283 enshrined in the Hall of Fame after he used it to eclipse 60,000 passing yards.