Five former players have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 following the selection committee’s final vote in January.

The Class of 2026 was announced during the annual NFL Honours event as part of the build-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl, and comprises three offensive player, one defender and, in a moment of rarity, a special teams expert.

Leading the way is quarterback Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints legend being given the news by Dan Fouts, who shares history at the San Diego Chargers with the record-breaking QB. Running back Roger Craig was welcomed to the hall by former San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl-winning team-mates Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley, while Adam Vinatieri learned that he had realised his ambition via Morten Andersen, who held the NFL scoring record until the Colts kicker surpassed his numbers.

The two other newcomers, former Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald and Carolina Panthers LB Luke Kuechly, got their nod via a ‘reverse knock’ where, instead of someone coming to their home or hotel room, they showed up at a site where a Hall-of-Famer was waiting to deliver the news. In this case, those delivering the announcement were Randy Moss, an early influence on a young Fitzgerald as a member of the Vikings, and Julius Peppers, a former team-mate of Kuechly’s at the Panthers.

The annual selection meeting capped a lengthy 2026 selection process. The newly elected Hall-of-Famers were chosen from a list of 20 finalists that had been determined over the past several months by the selection committee. Three smaller committees narrowed the respective lists in the separate Coach, Contributor and Seniors categories, in a process that had begun with two screening committees initially paring down a massive list of nominees in the Modern Era and Seniors categories.

The Hall of Fame’s membership, including the newly elected class, now stands at 387, with the latest quintet due to be enshrined on Saturday 8th August in Canton. The selection process had earlier made headlines when eight-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick was passed over the by the committee.

Brees, Fitzgerald, Kuechly and Vinatieri were all elected from the Modern Era pool that began with 128 nominees who last played professional football in the 2020 season. The other finalists this year were Willie Anderson, Jahri Evans, Frank Gore, Torry Holt, Eli Manning, Terrell Suggs, Reggie Wayne, Kevin Williams, Jason Witten, Darren Woodson and Marshal Yanda.

During the ultimate selection meeting, the list of 15 finalists was cut to 10, then to seven before the final vote, in which any potential inductee needed to gain 80 per cent approval. A maximum of five and minimum of three names could have been elected to the new class, with each selector able to cast a ballot for five of the remaining seven players. By reaching the final seven, but not getting elected, Anderson, Suggs and Yanda automatically advance to the finalist stage for the Class of 2027.

Craig was elected from a second pool of five candidates that included the finalists chosen by the Seniors Blue Ribbon Committee. Alongside the former 49ers favourite as players were Ken Anderson and L.C. Greenwood, while Belichick was up for election in the Coach and his erstwhile New England Patriots employer, Robert Kraft, likewise found himself left out by voting in Contributor section as only Craig reached the required voting threshold.