2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction: How to Watch the Ceremony, Order of Speeches

Julius Peppers, Andre Johnson, Dwight Freeney, Patrick Willis and Devin Hester are the featured players in the 2024 class of Pro Football Hall of Famers who will be inducted during a ceremony on Saturday in Canton, Ohio.

The five Modern Era nominees won out over 10 other finalists on January 17, following a vote by Halls' 50-member selection committee.

Also honored will be Randy Gradishar, a linebacker for the Denver Broncos in the 1970s and 1980s, and Steve McMichael, a defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears who won the Super Bowl in 1985.

Here's how to watch the ceremony, the order of the speeches, who presents which players, and a breakdown of why each player gets a bust in Canton.

How to watch

When: Saturday, August 3rd.

Time: No ET.

Where: Professional Football Hall of Fame; Canton, Ohio.

Where to watch: ESPN and NFL Network.

The Hall of Fame Class of 2024, listed in order of induction:

BY Dwight Freeney

Team history: Indianapolis Colts, 2002-12; San Diego Chargers, 2013-14; Arizona Cardinals, 2015; Atlanta Falcons, 2016; Detroit Lions, 2017; Seattle Seahawks, 2017.

Presenter: Jim Irsay (owner of the Colts).

Even among NFL immortals, Freeney will stand out. Few players in league history can say they’ve perfected a technique to the point where it’s their own. Freeney’s spin move is one of them.

Largely because of that devastating spin move, Freeney finished his career with 47 forced fumbles and 125 1/2 sacks, which rank third and 18th all-time, respectively. He collected 44 forced fumbles and 107 1/2 sacks as a member of the Colts. Both are the second-most in franchise history, behind only Robert Mathis, who could join Freeney in the Hall of Fame.

Freeney's dominance extended to the biggest stages as well. The three-time first-team All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler ranks sixth all-time with 11 postseason sacks. He was a key part of the Colts' playoff success during the Peyton Manning era, helping the franchise reach two Super Bowls and win it all against the Bears during the 2006 season. James Boyd, Colts beat writer

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DT Steve McMichael

Team history: New England Patriots, 1980; Chicago Bears, 1981-93; Green Bay Packers, 1994.

Presenter: Jarrett Payton (son of Walter Payton).

The defensive tackle was often overlooked in a defense full of stars and personalities, which is why it took him 24 years to be considered for the Hall. Pro Bowl voters often looked past him, too. Opponents didn't.

“He's definitely up there with Howie Long, Dan Hampton, John Randle, Jerry Ball and Reggie White, all the greats I've played against,” former Lions center Kevin Glover said. “He's in that group of guys.

Since sacks became an official stat, McMichael has been equally effective against the pass and the run. In official sack statistics, McMichael ranks fourth all-time among pure defensive tackles. He led the Bears defensive line in tackles seven times, and the Bears allowed the fewest rushing yards in the league over a 10-year period when he was with them. And Pompei, NFL senior writer

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LB Randy Gradishar

Team history: Denver Broncos, 1974-83.

Presenter: Tom Jackson (former Broncos linebacker).

No one scheduled for induction in 2024 waited longer than Gradishar, who last played in 1983 and will be inducted as a senior prospect. Gradishar is the only member of the Orange Crush Broncos defense to be inducted, and many feel his honor is long overdue. For comparison, the Steel Curtain Steelers have five Hall of Famers, the Doomsday Cowboys have four, the 1985 Bears have four and the Purple People Eater Vikings have three.

He’s come close four times before: He was a modern-era finalist in 2003 and 2008, and a senior nominee in 2020, when the Hall had a special expanded Centennial class. In addition to being a seven-time Pro Bowler, Gradishar was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1978. He averaged 16 tackles per game. Pompeii

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KR/PR Devin Hester

Team history: Chicago Bears, 2006-13; Atlanta Falcons, 2014-15; Baltimore Ravens, 2016; Seattle Seahawks, 2016.

Presenter: Juanita Brown (Hester's mother).

The greatest return man in NFL history needed three tries to get into the Hall of Fame, longer than it normally took to reach the end zone. The delay was likely because he was primarily a special teams player, and Hall voters traditionally don’t value special teams players as much as offensive (especially) or defensive players. But he was a special teams player like no other.

He scored once for every 32.1 returns and would have had many more returns if opponents had not tried to punt him after his sophomore season. Hester is the only player named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary Team, and one of two players, along with Peppers, to be named All-Decade twice. Deion Sanders once said the following about Hester: There's no guy more feared with a ball in his hands on special teams than Devin Hester. And that's coming from me. Pompeii

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LB Patrick Willis

Team history: San Francisco 49ers, 2007-14.

Presenter: Ernicka Willis (Willis' sister).

For years, Willis was the best, the only thing to watch on some pretty bad 49ers teams. During his rookie year in 2007, he finished with 18, sometimes 20, tackles in a single game. In retrospect, it was hard to reconcile that this average football player, Willis, 6-foot-1, 242 pounds, had been doing such superhuman things on the field just minutes earlier. It was because of his size that then-coach Mike Nolan and linebackers coach Mike Singletary were initially reluctant to take Willis with the 11th pick.

Willis wasn't the traditional, muscular middle linebacker that Nolan and Singletary were used to. Instead, he used his speed as a defensive back to outpace and chase down opponents, including 2007 Offensive Rookie of the Year Adrian Peterson, who held Willis and the 49ers to 3 yards on 14 carries in a Week 14 win that season. Willis finished with a league-leading 174 tackles and was named Defensive Rookie of the Year.

None of his stops was more impressive than the one in which he downed Arizona Cardinals slot receiver Sean Morey on a 62-yard chase. The game was tied 31-31, the 49ers were caught in broken coverage and the 5-11, 193-pound Morey had a wide-open field in front of him. A touchdown this late in the game would have won it for Arizona. Willis's speed and drive instead forced a field goal attempt that the Cardinals missed, and the 49ers won the game in overtime. Matt Barrows, 49ers Senior Writer

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THE Julius peppers

Team history: Carolina Panthers, 2002-09, 2017-18; Chicago Bears, 2010-13; Green Bay Packers, 2014-16.

Presenter: Carl Carey (Peppers agent).

The game always seemed to come easily to Peppers, or games, plural.

Peppers played two seasons for North Carolina basketball before being drafted second overall by the Panthers in 2002. The towering 6-7 Peppers was named Defensive Rookie of the Year after a 12-sack season. And he never looked back, collecting double-figure sacks in 10 of his 17 seasons, the last at age 37 in 2017 during his second stint in Carolina.

Peppers is fourth on the NFL's career sacks list, and two of the guys ahead of him, Reggie White and Kevin Greene, spent time with the Panthers. But Peppers is the Panthers' first draft pick to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Given his nine Pro Bowls, six All-Pro honors and two NFL all-decade teams, it was almost certain that Peppers would be selected on the first ballot. His induction speech might be a bit short. Never one to talk, Peppers preferred to let his actions do the talking. Boy, did they talk. Joseph Person, Panthers reporter

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WR Andre Johnson

Team history: Houston Texans, 2003-14; Indianapolis Colts, 2015; Tennessee Titans, 2016.

Presenter: Gary Kubiak (former coach of the Texans).

The three-wideout logjam has finally been broken by Johnson. The next one will likely be either Torry Holt or Reggie Wayne. Johnson, who has three years of eligibility, was enormously productive for the Texans without the kind of supporting casts that Holt and Wayne played with. His best quarterback was Matt Schaub (and he played with plenty of others who made Schaub look like Peyton Manning or Kurt Warner), but Johnson had five seasons with at least 100 catches, more than any other wide receiver in the Hall of Fame. He also had three seasons of 1,500 yards receiving, tied for the second-most all time, behind only Jerry Rice. Pompeii

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(Photo: Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)