CANTON – After months of anticipation and countless hours on the road, Zoneblitz.com finally arrived in Canton, Ohio for the centerpiece of this week-long road trip.

It coincided with the opening of a new Lamar Hunt Super Bowl exhibit and the celebration of the 50 year anniversary of the American Football League.

I loved the new Lamar Hunt Super Bowl gallery, which included video clips from all the games, a Super Bowl trophy located behind glass that was a popular photo opportunity for the thousands of fans milling about the building and other keepsakes.

I also always remain impressed with the photo galleries located in the hallway between the entrance to the hall and the Hall of Fame gift shop.  Among the photos this year was a great shot of NFL Referee Garth DeFelice inadvertently punching St. Louis Ram Kenneth Darby–and as we walked by the picture, we realized that DeFelice himself was there taking it in.

Incidentally, a shout out to Trey Wingo, who was spotted smiling and granting photographs to fans in the gift shop. Athletes and television personalities are often panned when they act like big shots. So it’s only fair that they are acknowledged for doing right.

Whether Wingo was bothered or not by the requests he was gracious for several minutes as fans approached him for handshakes, photos and autographs.

Dropping a couple other names, we saw Master of Ceremonies Rich Eisen walking down the hall by the gift shop, apparently tweeting, and Adam Schefter signing books.  We also saw Andre Reed, Darryl Talley, Joey Browner, Jethro Pugh, and a handful of other players milling around the hall before the ceremony. We also heard as we were parking in a guy’s yard that Bills kicker Scott Norwood was in the neighbor’s bathroom brushing his teeth after parking at their place – which fair or not, led to several wide right jokes.

The pre-enshrinement activities looked interesting, though we hadn’t purchased the necessary tickets to attend. The activities are clearly targeted at the folks willing and able to pay more for the full experience. But the $18 each we paid to enter the Hall, as always, was well worth the price.

The ceremony itself was entertaining, though long. We have to remember these guys are, for the most part, athletes and not entertainers or public speakers. When keeping that in mind, it’s easier to find the nuggets worth taking (Rod Woodson’s focus on gratitude and Randall McDaniel’s emphasis on education and making a difference in the lives of children, for example, as opposed to the repetitiveness of most of the speeches).

Buffalo Bills fans definitely represented themselves well. They were clearly the loudest and most prominent fan base, followed by the Steeler Nation there celebrating Woodson. I was a bit surprised by the empty seats throughout Fawcett Stadium, though there was still a good crowd. It has become a much bigger affair in the dozen years since I saw the 1997 class inducted.

Disappointingly, we had to leave a bit early, heading out before the final speech, in order to not be up all night on the drive to Pittsburgh. I had hoped to hear his speech and the accompanying noise from the Buffalo faithful.

It’s always interesting hearing from the star athletes and those who introduce them. I do think it should start a bit earlier. And the introductions were unnecessarily long, with long taped interviews preceding the introducers’ actual speech at the induction.

A lot of the information was redundant, as they would often repeat in their speeches what was said on tape.

But all in all, the centerpiece of the Zoneblitz.com road trip was worthwhile and one we will most likely repeat. Though given as anti-social as we tend to get around large crowds, it’s something we probably won’t do every year.