Hall of Fame plans a massive celebration for NFL’s 100th anniversary

Posted by Mike Florio on April 14, 2019, 6:13 PM EDT
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This season will be the NFL’s 100th. But the 100th anniversary of the NFL comes in 2020. September 17, 2020, to be exact.

That’s one hundred years to the day after the day the NFL began, in Canton, Ohio. On that day, football will return to Canton, in a big way.

According to Susan Glaser of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Pro Football Hall of Fame will host a multi-day Centennial Celebration on and around September 17, 2020, with every former NFL player invited to attend. Among other things, the event will include an Olympics-style opening ceremony, with the players in a parade organized by one of the teams for which they played.

“The entire celebration is not only a tribute to the NFL’s first 100 years, but a kickoff to the league’s next century in the city where it was born,” Hall of Fame chief of staff and communications director Pete Fierle said, via Glaser.

The celebration is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, September 16, and it will run through Saturday, September 20 or Sunday, September 21.

If the event will continue through Sunday, September 21, why not stage a regular-season game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium?

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20 responses to “Hall of Fame plans a massive celebration for NFL’s 100th anniversary”

  4. Among other things, the event will include an Olympics-style opening ceremony, with the players in a parade organized by one of the teams for which they played.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Is this going to be the “look at me” olympics? Some of these kinds of events sound like a good idea on paper but when put in motion–not so much. It would be a nice thing to do if all goes according to plan. It is easy to say all former players are invited but what will they do if some of those former players actually showing up would upstage the event? I’m not talking about T.O. or Kaepernick although they could easily cause some social media drama. I’m talking about guys like OJ Simpson or Ray Carruth or an organized group of disgruntled players that could use the platform to bring attention to their cause and/or litigation. Granted, these scenarios would be extreme. I’m wondering why they wouldn’t just schedule it for the week leading up to the Hall of Fame game and induction ceremony.

  5. Let’s throw the world’s largest celebration, 5 days after we mourn the USA’s worst tragedy.

    Signed,

    A WTC survivor who watches football to escape politics, everyday life and BS events like this.

  8. Well if Roger Craig isn’t invited and doesn’t get in, there’s no reason to tune in. One of the All-time snubs of the HOF.

  9. u4iadman says:
    April 14, 2019 at 6:31 pm

    Cheaters should be left out. Sorry Brady.

    __________________________________________________________

    When was Brady ever caught doing anything? No one cared about air pressure until it concerned the greatest quarterback of all time. There was not a word from the league when the Panthers and Vikings were heating footballs on the sidelines or when the Giants and Steelers had footballs below 12 PSI in their games. How wonderfully convenient. It’s not like they haven’t won three super bowls since that story broke.

  11. I don’t get your complaints about it being 5 days after 9/11. This is a celebration of the 100th year of the nfl which happens to be on 9/17. Is the whole world supposed to cease living because it might offend someone who lived thru 9/11? If you are a wtc survivor like you said is it ok to celebrate in October? November? How you turned an nfl anniversary into an insult of 9/11 survivors is ridiculous. And you brought it up so enough with the watching football to forget politics nonsense

  13. I look forward to former players suffering from concussion aftereffects being censored that weekend.

  14. I find it hard to see it as the NFL before the Superbowl. Before that the NFL was essentiall just the NFC and the AFC was a separate thing. The NFL and AFL championships were more akin to our conference finals of today. Teams did not compete for a true championship of US football, just of their league. The Superbowl was a significant change because thats when a one true champion started getting determined.

  16. I have an idea. Why not represent, have memorabilia and history for all the teams. The hall just basically only has exhibits of maybe the top 10 popular teams and little of anything else. Heck if your team even wins a super bowl and not in the top 1/3 of sales then your out of luck. Other than the busts of hof players the place is a ripoff….

  19. It would be the perfect opportunity for the NFL to apologize to TB12 for punishing him because they didn’t understand cold weather causes footballs to lose pressure. Better late than never.

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