The Raiders in Canton

The only center the Raiders had for their first 15 seasons, and he started all 210 regular season games in them. He signed with a team that did not have a stadium, a coach or a name anyone liked, and he is the reason the franchise had a spine before it had a home.

Arrived at 39 as a kicker who could still play quarterback, then produced the most famous five weeks in team history in 1970, winning or tying a game on the last play each time. He played his final snap at 48, which is still the record.

The bump-and-run corner other teams had to plan around, and the man who ended Super Bowl XI with a 75-yard interception return. He then coached in the building for most of the next four decades, which makes him the rare Hall of Famer who never really left.

Left guard on all three Super Bowl winners, and the only player to start a Super Bowl in three different decades. He pulled on the sweep that defined the offense, and later ran the players' union, which made him the most powerful man in the sport for 25 years.

Slow by the stopwatch and impossible to cover, with stickum on both hands and a route tree nobody else ran that precisely. He was the MVP of Super Bowl XI with four catches for 79 yards, three of which set up touchdowns from inside the 10.

With Upshaw beside him, the left side of the line was the best address in football for a decade. In 1989 the Raiders made him the NFL's first Black head coach of the modern era, which is its own piece of history and happened in this building.

Six foot seven, arms like a drawbridge, and 25 blocked kicks in a career that produced four championship rings. The Mad Stork was allowed to freelance because he was right often enough, which is the most Raiders sentence available.

The Ghost, and the most reliable man in the two strangest plays the franchise owns: the Ghost to the Post in Baltimore and the ball he kicked into the end zone and fell on at the end of the Holy Roller. Four straight Pro Bowls in Oakland.

Left handed, unbothered, and the best fourth-quarter quarterback of his era. The league MVP in 1974, a Super Bowl winner in 1976, and the author of the Sea of Hands and the Holy Roller. Canton took 20 years after his career to agree, and he did not live to see it.

The league MVP in 1985 with 1,759 rushing yards, and the MVP of Super Bowl XVIII, where he reversed his field and ran 74 yards in the other direction. His last years here were spent in a feud with the owner, which is its own kind of Raiders credential.

Eight Pro Bowls and 84 sacks in 13 seasons, all of them here, playing a position that got no protection and taking on double teams so the linebackers behind him did not have to. One team, one city at a time, and no drop-off until the very end.

Three Super Bowl wins and the deep speed that made everything else possible: defenses had to respect him at 40 yards, which is why the intermediate stuff worked. Canton kept him waiting until 2022, three years after he died, and that remains hard to explain.

The only punter ever taken in the first round, and the only one in Canton. He hung the ball long enough for the coverage to arrive, which is the whole job, and he did it for 14 seasons, seven Pro Bowls and a streak of 619 punts before one of them was ever blocked.

More receiving yards than anyone else in franchise history, on teams that often had nothing else. Nine straight 1,000-yard seasons through three coaching eras and two cities, a Heisman before that, and a rookie year spent leading the league in kickoff return yards.

Defensive rookie of the year in 1998, then a decade elsewhere, then back to finish where he started, playing safety at a level nobody his age has any right to. Sixty-five career interceptions, and a Pro Bowl in his final season at 39.

Traded here in 1983 and gave the best defense of the decade a second shutdown corner opposite Lester Hayes. The Raiders won Super Bowl XVIII that season, and Haynes made four more Pro Bowls in silver and black before he was done.

Three seasons in Oakland at the end, and he was named All-Pro for a third different franchise while he was here. The story people still tell is the tackling dummy he broke in half on his first day, which is not the reason he is in Canton but does not hurt.

Came from New England in 2009 for a first-round pick, at a time when good players were not choosing this team, and made two Pro Bowls here anyway. Four seasons of legitimacy in the middle of the worst decade the franchise has had.

A Chargers immortal who came out of retirement for one season in Oakland. He went into Canton in 1979 as a Charger, which is why the Raiders' first Hall of Famer does not feel like one.

One season in Los Angeles near the end of a career built in Anaheim and Indianapolis. He is on the franchise list, which says more about how long the Raiders have been collecting famous names than about 1992.

Two years across the bay from the team he built, and he led the NFL with eight interceptions in 1991. Nobody in Oakland enjoyed watching him in silver and black, and everybody was glad he was on their side.

Two seasons between Green Bay and the Buffalo teams that went to four straight Super Bowls. He came back later as a receivers coach, which is the more Raiders half of the story.

Signed at 37 and led the league with eight interceptions in 2002, then started in Super Bowl XXXVII. He returned twice more as a coach on this staff.

Arrived at 39 and had over 1,200 receiving yards in 2002, which is absurd, then caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl against the team that beat them. Four seasons here, and none of them wasted.

Four seasons in Oakland after the Tampa Bay run, including 10 sacks in 2006 at 33. He arrived the season after his old team won the Super Bowl against this one, which nobody here has forgotten.

Two seasons, mostly miserable, on teams that could not get him the ball, then a trade to New England and the greatest receiving season anyone has had. The Raiders got the wrong two years, which is the story of that decade.

Four seasons at the end of a career made in Philadelphia, where he once returned four interceptions for touchdowns in a single season. Canton called in 2025, 24 years after he stopped playing.

One season in Los Angeles between San Francisco and Minnesota, and the newest name on this list. He went into Canton in August 2026, which is why the Hall's own Raiders page, still stuck on 31, is out of date.

Took over a 1-13 team at 33, coached it, ran it, bought it, ran the league that owned it for a year, and then sued the one that did. Three Super Bowl titles, two moves, and a phrase every fan of every team knows by heart.

Hired at 32 and never had a losing season: 103-32-7, the best winning percentage of any coach with 100 games, and a Super Bowl at the end of it. Then he left the sideline and taught the country how football works.

Ran the drafts that produced most of the names above this one, in two separate stints, and then left and built the Packers team that won Super Bowl XXXI. Canton took him as a contributor in 2015.

The Raiders' first quarterback, then the coach who won Super Bowls XV and XVIII, the first Latino head coach to win one. He waited more than 30 years for Canton, and the argument for him never actually changed.