Story by Alison Matas (CantonRep.com)
The “NFL 100 Year Player Recognition Steles” memorial will be built at Centennial Plaza. Every player who’s ever played the game will be memorialized in Canton.
CANTON The name of every person who has played in the NFL will be on display in downtown Canton on decorative pylons.
The “NFL 100 Year Player Recognition Steles” memorial will be built at Centennial Plaza. The attraction is designed to draw people who visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame to downtown to see the monument.
“This is one piece that’s truly unique from the Hall,” city planner Donn Angus said.
New feature
The plan to include the approximately 27,000 names of current and former NFL players as part of Centennial Plaza is not new, but the design is.
The original idea was to build a wall and list the names on it. Instead, the names will be printed on eleven glass-and-stainless-steel pylons that sort players by decade and feature the NFL’s 100-year logo on the bottom.
David Baker, president and CEO of the Hall, said when he mentions to former players their names will be on display in Canton, they’re “blown away.”
“It allows us to broaden our representation from just Hall of Famers who have a bronze bust here to anybody who ever played in the league,” Baker said. “So this is the place for all legacies to come.”