I am posting all the pictures from the trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the pictures section of the blog, because I realized that it was sort of a special event that I am not going to do again anytime soon. That is, after all, why I have that part of the page. There are over 100 pictures, and honestly I think that most of them are worth keeping. That way I can be more selective for this post and just post the pictures that I really like.

Adam and I went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday, but I do not really remember when we decided to go. Adam is here for the week and I know that we had planned on going to Cedar Point as his birthday present, but this was really more of a spur of the moment thing. I remember we were online Monday night looking at the specials Cedar Point had running for tickets and we ended up looking up the hours and directions for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When you sit on the internet you end up going to all sorts of places.

We figured out that it was definitely open and the hours were long enough that if we slept in we could still wander in after noon and still have hours to enjoy the place. I was kind of surprised to find out that the Pro Football Hall of Fame is actually open just about all year round. Honestly, I wanted to go anyway, and I have always said that I would end up going, but there is something about when people visit from out of town you always end up going and doing the things you never would do on your own.

After a 20 minute drive we were there and it was time to take a picture outside of the building. The outside is not really all that interesting, so we went in and purchased our tickets. We ended up getting a discount, because if you live in area you actually get $4.50 off the ticket price. That is kind of cool. When you purchase your tickets they hand you a map of the layout of the place, and while the building is fairly linear and you would not necessarily miss anything without this brochure it was still sort of neat to know what was ahead.

You begin your journey through the hall of fame by climbing up a spiral ramp. At the top you enter into a room that has memorabilia complimented by video and audio of important games and interviews with people. There are a lot of interesting trivia type things to be found in this room. Such as who the first professional football player was and why a football field is sometimes called a “gridiron”. I think we spent quite a while in this room. It was amazing just to take in all the history.

That section takes you from the mid to late 19th century and just into the beginning of the early 20th century where there still is not an NFL like the one we have today. It is interesting how things are sort of recognizable, but still so foreign. Pictures of jerseys, uniforms, pads, and clothing. The next section is every team in the AFC and NFC displayed on a large stand with the teams helmet in a case. In the middle is the AFC and NFC trophy for winning the conference. We made sure to get our picture next to the Cleveland Browns one.

We continued through the hall of fame and ended up in the room with all the busts of all the individuals who have been inducted throughout the years. Seeing as how we are both fans of the Cleveland Browns we went around and looked through all the names for not only people who we remember seeing throughout the years, but also everyone that ever played for the Browns. One of the interesting things we found was that there were a great deal of players who played a season or two for the Browns, but did not end their season in Cleveland. They played and became big stars some place else.

We skipped the theater, because the video is a recap of the last Super Bowl, and neither one of us wanted to sit through a game where the Steelers won. The last two exhibits that we spent some time with was the “modern NFL”, which is a room devoted to all the star players of recent years with NFL highlight reals playing on televisions, and the John Madden exhibit, which celebrates the 20 years that they have been making John Madden NFL games. This exhibit was personally satisfying, because it carried the Xbox name, and that happens to be my console of choice.

There were other exhibits and things that we saw while we were there that I am probably forgetting to mention. The fact is there is a lot to see and take in while you are there. We spent nearly 4 hours wandering around the place, and while we probably saw everything, you could not possibly hope to remember even half of it. It is a good thing that I took as many pictures as I did for that very reason. The last place that we ended up was in the gift shop. It is interesting, because typically in a gift shop you get something to remember the fact that you went to a certain place, but they had so much Cleveland Browns stuff that we ended up getting some of that. I do not think either one of us got something that just says “Pro Football Hall of Fame” on it.