A look at how the NFL Hall of Fame collects, rotates exhibits

NEW ORLEANS — When the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams kick off their game under the Thursday night lights (8:15 p.m ET, Prime Video), it will happen under the watchful eyes of a team in Canton, Ohio.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is constantly on the lookout for milestones, records and unique events coming out of each game.

When the Hall of Fame feels something reaches that threshold, it often reaches out to the team or player involved to request items from the game to display it as part of their «Pro Football Today» gallery at the museum.

When Rams rookie wideout Puka Nacua set the record in Week 5 for the most receptions in the first five games of a career, the team sent his jersey to the Hall.

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Jon Kendle, the vice president of museum and archives at the Hall of Fame, said the idea behind the gallery is to display artifacts that relate to the current themes of the season. There are six cases with items that change about every three weeks, depending on what’s going on during the season.

«Those six cases kind of highlight the 2023 season as it’s happening, but then ultimately could go back on display in a more permanent fashion, depending on the story and the significance of the milestone,» Kendle said.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick shipped up a visor that he wore when he won his 300th regular season game, and when Saints quarterback Taysom Hill became the fifth player in NFL history to run, catch and pass for at least 10 touchdowns in each category in his career this season, the Hall of Fame got his game-worn wristband, cleats and jersey.

«It’s a flattering thing,» Hill told ESPN shortly after he hit the milestone. «Definitely no doubt about it. So I’m incredibly grateful. It’s been a fun career so far.»

Each season begins with a spreadsheet compiled by the Hall of Fame that looks for any potential milestone coming up across the league.

«We’re creating a master document on our end, kind of plucking those things and keeping an eye on them, trying to target when these career milestones might take place during the season, that way we’re somewhat prepared,» Kendle said. «We know that things can change and shift, so we try to be adaptable that way.»

Sometimes it all goes to plan. When Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning’s passing yards record in 2018, the game was stopped so that a representative from the Hall of Fame could personally take the ball to Canton.

Others don’t always come to pass. Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams were both considered possibilities to become the first NFL wide receiver to have 1,500 receiving yards in three consecutive seasons.

Adams would have to average 177.3 yards in his final three games to hit that record, while Jefferson missed a significant portion of the season on injured reserve.

Some milestones are just plain unexpected, such as Alvin Kamara’s six-touchdown game against the Minnesota Vikings, a feat only three other players had accomplished. Kamara, who romped to the end zone on Christmas in red and green cleats, kept the shoes but sent the game ball to Ohio.

Kamara was the last Saints player to be highlighted prior to Hill’s accomplishment, but he’s far from the only one. Kendle estimates the Hall of Fame has collected around 50 items from the Saints since Brees and former coach Sean Payton arrived in 2006.

The Hall of Fame received tight end Josh Hill’s gloves and the game ball after Hill caught Brees’ record-breaking 504th touchdown pass in 2019. Wide receiver Michael Thomas sent a jersey when he set the single-season receptions record the same year.

There are contributions from many other Saints over the years, including Joe Horn, Deuce McAllister, Darren Sproles, Mark Ingram and Marques Colston, among others.

Saints quarterback Jameis Winston also had a jersey sent to the Hall of Fame after he threw five touchdowns in a game as a rookie with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2015.

When a milestone is reached, the Hall of Fame reaches out to the team to see if they’d be willing to send anything for the gallery.

Once the item is shipped, it might be on display in a matter of days.

«I’ve been here at the Hall of Fame for 18 years, and it’s always been this fun part of the job as the season rolls around,» Kendle said. «Because it is not uncommon for a record to be broken on Sunday or Monday and then be on display Tuesday or Wednesday.»

An article is written up for the Pro Football Hall of Fame website and pictures of the new display are put on social media so that a wider audience beyond visitors to the physical museum can witness it as well.

«Seeing that [social media] post and having people be like, ‘your jersey’s in the Hall of Fame,’ it doesn’t sound like it should be happening in Year 1,» Nacua said. «It’s super cool, and [I’m] just blessed that it’s up there.»

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The displays aren’t just constructed for Hall of Fame enthusiasts to know what happened in that particular season. When Hill hit the 10/10/10 milestone, he became the first player since Hall of Fame halfback Frank Gifford achieved it in 1957, and only the fifth player in NFL history to do it.

«When it doesn’t happen for an extended period of time, you got to go back to Frank Gifford right? That’s a long time ago, you know what I mean?» Saints coach Dennis Allen said. «So for somebody to accomplish something that hadn’t been accomplished in that many years, I think that’s pretty cool.»

Hill’s unique accomplishment gave the Hall of Fame a chance to tie together the past and present and educate fans about Gifford, who went into the Hall of Fame in 1977.

«We’re looking at, where do our Pro Football Hall of Famers fit into this because that’s one of our core tenets of our mission: Honor the greatest in the game,» Kendle said. «Any time we can highlight a Hall of Famer while also highlighting this current record or this current player, we like to do that. That connection with Taysom Hill and Frank Gifford, that’s a great thing for us.»

Kendle said a similar situation was when San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey tied Lenny Moore’s 59-year-old record of 17 consecutive games with a touchdown.

«It was a great way not only to get Christian in the news cycle … but a great way to rekindle the legacy of Lenny Moore,» Kendle said.

When the season has concluded, the team at the museum sifts through everything collected that fall and pulls out the most notable items to create a Season in Review gallery.

Once the items rotate out of the exhibits permanently, they are carefully preserved out of sight in the museum archives, which currently holds more than 40 million documents and six million photos. An underground storage area holds 25,000 artifacts such as jerseys, helmets, cleats and footballs.

At that point it’s a waiting game to see what will come back out. One particular thing Kendle loves is to be able to make returning players and coaches feel special, whether that’s allowing them to see their original selection card from their draft year (the Hall keeps every card), or something more unique.

When Brees brought his family to Canton for a visit a few years ago, the Hall of Fame assembled a special exhibit full of some of the items he’d sent over the years.

«We were able to set up a Drew Brees exhibit to showcase to his family just the type of player he was,» Kendle said. «We had quite a few things pulled out. … W had a newspaper article when the Saints won the Super Bowl, and he’s on the front page.»

And if a player in the future happens to reach Hill’s recent milestone, the team at the Hall of Fame can now go back in, pull out his jersey and construct a new exhibit to once again link the past and the present.

«That’s always fun to me, that we’re always kind of looking 20, 30 years, sometimes 50 years in the future,» Kendle said. «What are researchers, journalists going to want to know about this sport 50 years from today, and are we collecting the right stuff? There’s certainly a lot of thought and a lot of strategy put behind what we collect and preserve from pro football’s history.»

Los Angeles Rams reporter Sarah Barshop contributed to this report.