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Catherine Terrell, ESPN Writer
Heating file From the “Ice Bowl”; the ankle tape from Tom Dempsey’s record-setting 63-yard field goal; the braids of Hall of Fame running back Edgerrin James: These are just a few of the 25,000 artifacts, 40 million documents and 6 million photos preserved in the archives of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
For John Kindle, the NFL Hall of Fame archivist who oversees the Hall of Fame collections, the more unique the item, the better.
“It was a challenge for our team to … start thinking outside the box a little bit when it comes to collecting things. It’s easy to just ask for a jersey or a pair of shoes,” Kindl said. “Let’s think outside the box a little bit, and see what are some unique elements of a player’s uniform that might … help tell a story.”
Telling the story of football is one of the museum’s goals.
“Our mission is to honor the greatest players in the game, preserve its history and its means, professional football and the National Football League, promote its values and celebrate excellence together,” said Kindl.
New chapter The story of this game will begin when the Houston Texans take on the Chicago Bears in Canton on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN, ABC, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes). The Hall of Fame game will not only mark the unofficial start of the season, but it will also kick off the museum’s efforts to document another year of NFL history.
But how does the Hall of Fame choose the items of significance in this history? It’s a sophisticated process that starts with a spreadsheet.
As teams go into training camps in July and August, museum staff consult with each club and the league to get an idea of potential milestones or records that could be reached during the season.
All of this data will be compiled into a master list that will be referenced throughout the year. The Hall of Fame had more than 50 potential inductees to track before the 2023 season began.
“These career records, it’s how they show up on our radar and how we monitor them and move through them as the season progresses,” Kindl said.
This list evolves as players achieve unexpected accomplishments.
“You can’t predict individual match records, they just happen,” said Kendall. “But that’s where building relationships over the years comes in.”
One such unique accomplishment was New Orleans Saints quarterback Taysom Hill when he caught his 10th touchdown in Week 9. Hill became the first player since Hall of Famer Frank Gifford to have at least 10 touchdowns in a career while rushing, receiving and passing.
The Hall of Fame reached out to Hill after he accomplished the feat and received his jersey, shoes and wristband from the game. Within days, it was on display at the museum.
When Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin passed Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells on the all-time wins list in Week 18, the Hall of Famer collected his headphones and game ball for display.
🗣️ New to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Mike Tomlin headset and game ball from When @Steelers The Baltimore team was defeated in Week 18. The win allowed Tomlin to pass Hall of Famer Bill Parcells on the NFL’s all-time wins list. pic.twitter.com/AYWqVcz744
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) January 26, 2024
Sometimes the Hall of Fame doesn’t always get the item you request, like the jersey a player chose to change into after a game. Not every broken record comes with an order, either, as museum staffers try to distribute what they receive from each team.
When a career achievement is achieved during the season and the item is received, it is temporarily displayed in the Pro Football Today Gallery, which documents the season as it unfolds. At the end of the season, some of these items are displayed again as part of the Season in Review Gallery.
Ultimately, these pieces are placed in climate-controlled archives, where they are handled with white gloves and carefully stored for use in future exhibitions.
“When these jerseys come through our doors and are processed into our collection, they are no longer just a football jersey that we wear. They are now an artifact in our eyes, and we treat them as such,” said Kindl. “We treat them as priceless pieces of art. We want to make sure we do everything we can to ensure that these jerseys, footballs and documents are preserved for future generations.”
But the history-making doesn’t stop when the season ends. The Hall of Fame has collected the selection cards of every player selected since 1997, ready to be shown to the player if he chooses to visit the Hall of Fame.
“Those are always fun moments, whether you’re the first pick or the last pick in the draft, my experience has been that every player I’ve shown that card to … their reaction is very similar,” Kindl said. “It’s almost a humbling reaction, it takes them back to that moment, all that hard work through high school and college, the sacrifices to get to the NFL, and it all paid off. And they’re all very impressed by that.”
In 2021, The Hall of Fame has temporarily put on display the leather chair NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell used when he announced his picks in the 2020 draft from his basement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When James was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020, he chose to donate his dreadlocks as a symbol of what it means to be a teammate. The league ruled in 2003 that a player’s hair is considered an extension of the uniform and that pulling hair is considered legal interference.
This rule became apparent in the season opener. James, then playing for the Indianapolis Colts, was knocked to the ground by his dreadlocks in the Colts’ 9-6 win.
James, who rushed for just 67 yards and no touchdowns that day, decided to cut his hair the following week.
“It was a business decision. I’m here to play football. But when they grabbed my hair, it made me rethink. I gave up immediately. I can’t do it all year. So I thought it would be better for me to go on and cut my hair,” he later told reporters.
The following week, James rushed for 120 yards and scored a touchdown.
“Edgerin James wasn’t worried about the pain of having his hair pulled out, but as a great teammate, he thought, ‘If I score a solo goal and someone trips me because my hair is sticking out of my helmet, I’m doing my football team a disservice,’” Kendall said. “… It’s a rare item, it’s the only hair we have in our collection.”
One challenge for the Hall of Fame is managing its space. Unlike other museums that document events that have already ended, football is always reinventing itself. That means teams there have to be discerning in choosing items that best tell the story of the league.
“It’s an ever-changing and ever-growing history. It’s not a one-time event,” Kendall said. “… Here at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, every day, the NFL is making new history.”
The ultimate goal of the museum is to connect the past with the present. So when the next player reaches a major milestone or breaks a record set by a respected Hall of Famer, the museum will be ready to bring out those ancient artifacts to showcase his accomplishments.
“Any time we can connect a current record to someone in the past and help bring their legacy back to light, it’s always an added benefit because that’s what we’re trying to do, is connect these historical dots,” Kindl said.
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