Philadelphia is a football town.
Sure, our other three major sports teams have their dedicated fans. Phillies fans have made an especially wide impact, making Citizens Bank Park one of the most raucous environments in professional sports.
However, you’ll never hear a Phillies chant at an Eagles game, but you will always hear an Eagles chant at a Phillies game.
Football is carved into the DNA of the city, which made it incredibly easy to pique the interest of my 10-year-old self.
The History
Fast forward to 2025, and I now recognize that a lot of places on the northeast seaboard love to claim themselves as the birthplace of football. In my home state of Pennsylvania, the Allegheny Athletic Association paid the first football player in a game against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. In 1892, professional football was born.
But across the river in New Jersey, over 20 years earlier, Princeton and Rutgers played the first-ever college football game. Pennsylvania and New Jersey both lay claim to some important historical foundations to the game, so why is the Pro Football Hall of Fame six hours away in the middle of nowhere, Ohio?
The quick answer is that the American Professional Football Association (now known as the NFL) was founded in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. Canton’s team, the Bulldogs, was an early NFL powerhouse and rostered the biggest name of the game at the time, Jim Thorpe. The locals organized a well-run campaign for the city, and by 1963, the Hall was open for business.
The “Cathedral of Professional Football,” as Joe Namath puts it, is a nickname befitting its grandeur. I spent nearly six hours in what is probably the most comprehensive museum I’ve ever stepped in. It began with the ground-floor historical exhibit, which takes you through the first century of the league’s history.
The Museum
The Hall keeps all sorts of artifacts, from old player jackets and uniforms, ancient footballs, and so many documents. One of the employees even told me that they have over 40 million pages of documents.
On top of that, there are 40,000 three-dimensional artifacts that they rotate in and out of the museum every six months to keep the experience fresh. In the center of the room is a seven-foot-tall statue of Thorpe, which takes a noticeable command of the room.
Next, I went upstairs, where the first-century exhibit continued. We saw more relics from Hall of Famers and record breakers, like 1972 Dolphins coach Don Shula’s perfect season jacket or Eric Dickerson’s signature glasses.
You could even measure up to some of the biggest NFL players. They had casts of Jerome Bettis’ leg that I could fit inside of, and a replica of Willie McGinest’s hand, which had a whole knuckle on mine.
I was then ushered to the courage exhibit, which had items from Walter Payton Man of the Year winners and legends who were taken from the game too young. Brandon Burlsworth and Pat Tillman were among the more well-known names who received some recognition.
Crowning Achievements
Then we headed to the crown jewel of the whole museum, the Hall of Fame Gallery. The bronze bust of every Hall of Famer is immortalized in this room, and it’s truly a sight to behold. I made sure to take pictures of some of the players, including some Eagles legends like Chuck Bednarik and Brian Dawkins (bottom left of photo).
As a middle-schooler just getting into football, I used to be very fond of the Detroit Lions, so I made sure to see some of their guys like Barry Sanders and my personal favorite, Calvin Johnson.
After taking a quick peek in the Lamar Hunt Trophy Room with the real Lombardi Trophy on display, we had to swing over to the Eagles’ Super Bowl exhibit. In all honesty, it was a bit smaller than I expected, but of course, I didn’t mind.
The Hall made the first exhibit just for the Super Bowl winners, and it’s supposed to turn into an annual event. Some workers joked with us that they were happy to skip two full years of a Chiefs exhibit.
In this iteration, they had stuff from both of the Eagles’ Super Bowl wins and a few other historical items as well. Among my favorites were Cooper DeJean’s game-worn Super Bowl cleats, Chuck Bednarik’s 1960 NFL Championship jacket, and Nick Foles’ game-worn Super Bowl jersey with the football from the Philly Special.
As a football fan, you simply must make a trip to Canton at least once in your life. To have the chance to watch football history unfold in front of you is a gift I’ve never taken for granted, and I don’t think it will be long until I’m back.
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