CANTON, OHIO — The NFL season is officially back, and it looks exactly the way everyone wanted it to: a mostly empty stadium, a handful of backups, and the league’s biggest stars standing on the sideline in sweatshirts.

The Hall of Fame Game kicked off the 2026 preseason Thursday night, with the Arizona Cardinals facing the Carolina Panthers in the annual celebration of football’s greatest legends. And in a tradition as American as the forward pass, those legends were honored by being given the night off. Not just the legends — the starters. All of them.

“Resting our starters for the Hall of Fame Game is the highest honor we can pay the Hall of Fame,” Panthers coach Dave Canales explained, confirming quarterback Bryce Young would not play. “Those guys deserve to watch football, not play it. That’s what the Hall of Fame is about: watching.”

The game honors the 2026 Hall of Fame class — including Cardinals legend Larry Fitzgerald and Panthers legend Luke Kuechly — by having their teams play the game without them. It is a beautiful tribute: the sport’s greatest names, sitting on a bench in street clothes, while rookies throw passes in their honor.

The actual quarterbacking duties fell to Carson Beck, Kenny Pickett, Gardner Minshew, and Haynes King — four men who may one day be Hall of Famers, but who, for now, are simply the four most famous people actually playing. Carson Beck started for Arizona, a rookie so eager to play that he reportedly had to be reminded that the game did not count.

"I've been waiting eight months for football," said Tom Gallagher, a fan who paid $200 for a ticket. "I got eight months of waiting plus Kenny Pickett. That's the season right there. I'm not saying I'm satisfied. I'm saying I'm watching."

The players themselves understand the stakes better than anyone. “This is my Super Bowl,” said a backup offensive lineman who asked to remain a backup. “My actual Super Bowl is in February, when I’ll be inactive. But this — this is my moment. Two snaps. Both run plays. I blocked a guy, maybe. I’ll see it on the tape.”

There is also, as any fan knows, the great strategic question of the Hall of Fame Game: do you want to win it? Winning the game means an extra preseason game. Losing it means going home early. It is the only game in professional sports where the smart play is a graceful, well-blocked defeat — a paradox the NFL has spent decades perfecting.

STARTERS SPOTTED: PREGAME ACTIVITIES

  • Stretching: 0.
  • Waving from the tunnel: 4.
  • Holding coffee: 6.
  • Signing autographs for each other: 2.
  • Playing the actual game: 0.
  • Being inducted into the Hall of Fame during the game: 2 (both declined to play, citing rest).

So the NFL is back, and it is glorious. The stands were partially full, the football was partially played, and the stars were partially present — which, in Canton, is the whole point. The Hall of Fame Game is not about the game. It never has been. It is about remembering why we love football, by watching the people who were too important to play it.

At press time, the NFL had announced that next year’s Hall of Fame Game would be played entirely by cardboard cutouts, to preserve the health of the league’s biggest stars for a game that matters.