The Pro Football Hall of Fame will get an early start to honor nine of its newest inductees during the NFL draft weekend.
Enshrinement ceremonies are set for Aug. 5-9 for the 2020 and 2021 classes and the Centennial class — Hall of Famers chosen as part of the league’s 100th anniversary. The ceremonies for the Class of 2020 and the Centennial class were canceled last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
But eight members of the 20-person Centennial class — Bobby Dillon, Winston Hill, Alex Karras, Steve Sabol, Duke Slater, Mac Speedie, Ed Sprinkle and George Young — and Bill Nunn from the Class of 2021 will be honored posthumously April 28 at the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
The bronze busts for those nine enshrinees will be placed in the Hall by family members. The ceremony will air as part of a 90-minute show May 1 on NFL Network and May 4 on ESPN2.
“Honoring the legacies of these newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in conjunction with the NFL Draft reminds us that the players of today stand on the shoulders of those who came before them,” Hall of Fame president David Baker said in a statement. “Every player chosen on draft weekend can look to these nine men — legends who form a line reaching back to the NFL’s earliest years — and learn important lessons about commitment, courage and excellence to help him in his own journey.”
The eight members of the Centennial class will be honored again Aug. 7 with the rest of the class during the enshrinement weekend. Nunn, one of the most influential personnel executives in league history in his long career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, will also be part of the Class of 2021’s enshrinement ceremony Aug. 8.