CANTON -- The Pro Football Hall of Fame is that rare museum that almost every guest visits because he or she really wants to. Nobody goes there for erudition or culture or status or because some professor announced that the modern condition really can't be understood without pondering some specific artifact found in the vast galleries.

Most visitors to the Hall of Fame are fans, many of them big, big fans. And professional football is a big, big game -- the biggest, in fact, at least in the United States. Perhaps that does say something about the modern condition. But we'll leave that to the professors.