CANTON, Ohio — From bone-rattling tacklers Troy Polamalu, Steve Atwater and Cliff Harris to hard-charging runner Edgerrin James to the pass-catching brilliance of Isaac Bruce and Harold Carmichael, the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2020 has something for everyone.

Add in blocking dynamos Steve Hutchinson and Jim Covert, Steel Curtain stalwart safety Donnie Shell and such as leaders as former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and coaches Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson.

They all entered the hall Saturday night, a year late due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you told me after I graduated from the University of Michigan that I’d be excited standing in Ohio in the middle of August,” Hutchinson joked, “...to me, there’s no place better than Canton, Ohio.”

Certainly all 12 men enshrined felt that way.

Polamalu had a 12-season career filled with spectacular performances, leadership and, well, winning with the Steelers. The 16th overall draft pick in 2003 from Southern California, he played in three Super Bowls, winning two, and made the NFL’s 2000s Team of the Decade.

“I love football. It was my entire life as long as I can remember,” said Polamalu, who missed festivities earlier this week after testing positive for COVID-19. The crowd of 18,383 cheered long and loud for him, delaying his speech.

He then talked about the “willingness to push beyond what the brain says is possible for the body. Football challenged me mentally, physically and spiritually. I had to succeed to quench this desire.”

Shell was a linebacker at South Carolina State who went undrafted, was shifted to safety in Pittsburgh and became a tackling machine. With veterans on strike in his rookie year of 1974, Shell made such an impression that coach Chuck Noll inserted him as a starting safety. He spent 14 seasons as a Steeler.

With hundreds of Terrible Towels waving, Shell recognized Steeler Nation and then said of being an undrafted free agent from South Carolina State, “When facts get in the way of your goal, you must go against the grain to achieve your goal.”

It was a big night for Pittsburgh as Shell, Polamalu and Cowher were enshrined as Steelers, and Covert went to Pitt, where he blocked for Dan Marino.

“What a weekend for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Cowher said as Terrible Towels waved throughout the stadium. “It is unbelievable to me to go in the Hall of Fame with two guys you drafted: Troy Polamalu and Alan Faneca. Also with Donnie Shell and the late, great Bill Nunn.”

Cowher also paid tribute to “the only head coach I ever worked for,” the late Marty Schottenheimer, predicting “one day you will be in the Hall of Fame.”