Quarterback Peyton Manning added the last, and perhaps only missing, entry to his NFL résumé Saturday night when he was named as one of eight new enshrinees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Manning, who was in his first year of eligibility, played on two Super Bowl-winning teams, was a five-time MVP, a 14-time Pro Bowl selection, a former Offensive Rookie of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year.
Joining Manning from the modern-era finalists in the Hall’s Class of 2021 will be former Raiders and Green Bay Packers defensive back Charles Woodson, former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, current San Francisco 49ers general manager and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos defensive back John Lynch, and former Pittsburgh Steelers guard Alan Faneca.
Manning, Woodson and Johnson were all in their first year of eligibility. They combined for 29 Pro Bowl selections, and Woodson was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2009.
Among the modern-era finalists, Lynch, who had been a finalist eight times, had waited the longest for enshrinement.
Also included in the Class of 2021 is former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Drew Pearson, who was elected as a senior inductee, and former Steelers scout/personnel executive Bill Nunn, who will be posthumously enshrined in the contributor category. Former Raiders and Seattle Seahawks coach Tom Flores, the lone finalist in the coach category, is also bound for Canton.
This marks the third time in the past four years that three first-time eligible players have been selected for enshrinement in the same year. Champ Bailey, Tony Gonazalez and Ed Reed were enshrined in 2019 as first-time eligible finalists, as were Ray Lewis, Randy Moss and Brian Urlacher in 2018.
The Class of 2021 was chosen Jan. 19 by the Hall’s board of selectors during a virtual meeting. The eight new Hall of Famers will be enshrined during a multiday event Aug. 5-9 in Canton. The extended enshrinement weekend will also include ceremonies for the Hall’s Class of 2020, as well and the Centennial class of Hall of Famers selected as part of the league’s 100th anniversary. Both were canceled last year because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Hall’s Class of 2020 includes Steve Atwater, Isaac Bruce, Steve Hutchinson, Edgerrin James and Troy Polamalu. The Centennial class includes Harold Carmichael, Jim Covert, Bill Cowher, Bobby Dillon, Cliff Harris, Winston Hill, Jimmy Johnson, Alex Karras, Steve Sabol, Donnie Shell, Duke Slater, Mac Speedie, Ed Sprinkle, Paul Tagliabue and George Young.
After 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, Manning signed with the Broncos in 2012 — making him one of the most accomplished players to change teams in the free-agency era. The Colts had 11 10-win seasons with Manning at quarterback and won Super Bowl XLI, with Manning earning MVP honors.
The Broncos won Super Bowl 50 to close out the 2015 season — the last game of Manning’s career — and complete a four-year run in Denver that saw the team win 50 games and four consecutive AFC West titles. Manning retired with numerous single-season and career records, including his 5,477 yards passing and 55 touchdowns in 2013.
Woodson was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and finished his 18-year career tied for fifth in interceptions, with Ken Riley, with 65. He led the league in interceptions with nine for the Packers in 2009, and earned a Super Bowl ring with Green Bay the following season.
The cornerback-turned-safety also forced 33 fumbles in his career, recorded 20 sacks and had three 90-tackle seasons, including 113 tackles with the Raiders at age 38.
Johnson played nine seasons for the Lions before abruptly retiring following the 2015 season, when he had 88 catches for 1,214 yards and nine touchdowns. He retired in part due to injuries that plagued him throughout his career — fingers bent in different directions and an ankle injury so bad and that lingered for so long it almost forced him from the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ competition in 2016.
Because of the Lions’ struggles — something he later said contributed to his retirement — Johnson played in only two postseasons. He finished with 211 receiving yards and two touchdowns in his first postseason appearance, a 45-28 loss to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC wild-card round that followed the 2011 season.
Johnson recorded five 1,200-yard receiving seasons and ranks 31st in career receiving yards. He finished his career as Detroit’s leader in targets (1,312), receptions (731), yards (11,619) and receiving touchdowns (83). His 84 total touchdowns are second in Lions history behind Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders (109).
“The culmination of all the work, all the grind, all the ups-and-downs that you’ve been through, just to be able to excel at the level and be able to have the opportunity to be among such greats, I’m sleeping with a smile tonight,” Johnson said on the NFL Honors broadcast when told of his election.
Lynch, a versatile, smart and punishing player over the course of his career, was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection, including his last four years in the league — all with the Broncos. He had eight 80-tackle seasons, including 84 tackles in 2006 at age 35, to go with three seasons with over 100 tackles.
Faneca was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and is one of 12 guards in NFL history to be named first-team All Pro six or more times — he was first-team All Pro six times, a streak that was only broken when the Steelers needed him to move to left tackle for much of the 2003 season because of injuries to other players. In 10 seasons with Pittsburgh, two with the New York Jets and one more in Arizona, Faneca missed a grand total of one game. His best days came with the Steelers, who had a top-10 rushing attack in all but one of his seasons there, and won the Super Bowl in 2006.
Pearson was the only first-team selection to the All-Decade team of the 1970s who had not previously been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. A former college quarterback who made the Cowboys’ roster as an undrafted rookie wide receiver, Pearson was one of the elite of his era. His career was shortened by a liver injury he suffered in a car accident at age 33.
Nunn was a scouting pioneer, who began advising NFL teams on players from the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities he had evaluated as a sports writer. Nunn later spent more than four decades with the Steelers, and was a key figure in the team’s dynastic run in the 1970s and return to the Super Bowl in the decades that followed. He died in 2014.
Flores won Super Bowl rings as a player, assistant coach and head coach to go with an AFL championship as a player. Flores and Hall of Famer Mike Ditka are the only people in NFL history who have been Super Bowl winners as players, assistant coaches and head coaches. His nine seasons as Raiders coach included two Super Bowl victories, an 8-3 postseason record and a playoff winning percentage of .727, which ranks behind only Vince Lombardi.
ESPN’s Michael Rothstein and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
