Team will tour HoF in Canton, Ohio, on Wednesday
Josh McDaniels is taking his team to his hometown and he’s excited to show them the centerpiece of the town.
The Raiders are flying to Canton, Ohio, on Tuesday for Thursday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The team will tour the Hall of Fame on Wednesday, three days before Raiders’ legendary wide receiver Cliff Branch and defensive lineman Richard Seymour (who played the final final season of his career with the team) are enshrined.
Many Raiders’ players haven’t been to Canton before and are fired up for the experience to tour the Hall of Fame.
“I’ve never been to the Hall of Fame. I’m kind of like a sneaky museum guy, so I’m looking forward to just going into the Hall of Fame,” Las Vegas punter A.J. Cole said. “I think we are going to go a day early and kind of tour around, so see if I can find Ray Guy’s cleat or something like that. See if they got some cool artifacts in there, but yeah it will be cool to see that, the history of that and see all the guys that get inducted. We have two Raiders going in this year, so that’s going to be really exciting. I’m looking forward to that game. It’s obviously the first preseason game so the whole league is watching it. It kind of sets the tone for the preseason and for the whole year really.”
Las Vegas running back Ameer Abdullah is excited to learn more about the history of the people enshrined in Canton.
“It’ll be my second time actually going to the Hall of Fame. Never played in the Hall of Fame game before,” he said. “Just seeing all of the guys who’ve cemented their legacy on the different statues and everything that are up in Canton. I think it’ll be good for a lot of young guys, and it’s good for guys who also are later in their career, like myself, to kind of start setting goals. Start setting expectations for yourself. No better way to do it than to play in the game.”
Count Raiders’ kicker Daniel Carlson in on getting an NFL history lesson as well this week.
“I’ve actually gotten to meet a couple of them [kickers who are in the Hall of Fame], so it’s really cool that we are going to get to find out a little more about the history,” Carlson said. “I’ve heard we get to tour the facilities and stuff at the Hall of Fame and just learn about what stage we get to play on. All those guys helped build that stuff, so it’s going to be really special to be a part of that week and get to see all those sights and read about those records and all the things they’ve done to kind of pave a way for us.”
Have fun, guys, and take plenty of photos.