The 2007 NFL preseason kicks off at Pro Football Hall of Fame Field at Fawcett Stadium. The venue is home to the annual AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game with this year’s contest being played on August 5.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints will kick off the 2007 preseason schedule in the annual AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game in Canton on Sunday August 5. NFL Network will televise the preseason classic. It marks the first time that NFL Network will carry the game.
The game announcement came during the press conference on February 3, 2007 revealing the Class of 2007. The Hall of the Fame’s Board of Selectors elected Gene Hickerson, Michael Irvin, Bruce Matthews, Charlie Sanders, Thurman Thomas, and Roger Wehrli. The class will be formally enshrined during ceremonies at Fawcett Stadium in Canton on Saturday August 4th. The NFL Network and ESPN will also broadcast the enshrinement.
Tickets for the game, which went on sale May 2, are sold out.
Hall of Fame Game Series: The Hall of Fame Game series began in 1962, one year before the museum opened. A National Football League preseason game has been played at Fawcett Stadium each year but one since that inaugural game. No game was played in 1966 as the preseason schedule was not set in time to include Canton for a neutral site game.
Beginning in 1971, following the AFL-NFL merger, an AFC vs. NFC format was adopted for the Hall of Fame series. Preset schedules were created that called for each team to make a visit to Canton over 14- and 15-year periods through 1994. In 1995, the NFL selected the Hall of Fame Game to showcase the debut of the league’s newest expansion teams – the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. Since that time, the NFL designates the teams for the Hall of Fame Game on a season-by-season basis. The game normally includes teams with significant milestones (such as the return of the Cleveland Browns in 1999 and the Houston Texans inaugural game in 2002) or a connection to the Hall’s most recent class.
In 2006, the Hall of Fame Game returned to Sunday. The Hall of Fame games were played on Sunday afternoons from 1963 to 1965. The inaugural game and those played from 1967 through 1997 were played on Saturday afternoons. Then, in 1998, the Hall of Fame game was switched to primetime with kickoff moved to Saturday evening. One year later, the game moved to Monday night.
The Hall of Fame Game was televised nationally by ABC from 1971-2005 and broadcast by NBC in 2006. NFL Network will televise the 2007 AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game as the Pittsburgh Steelers kick off their 75th anniversary season against the New Orleans Saints.