CANTON, Ohio — The concept of legacy is inherent to the experience of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

You create one on the field, but before you're enshrined, you have to be deliberate about how you want to be remembered. And then, when you arrive, you're immersed in the memories.

For Julius Peppers, his long journey came together Sunday morning, when — wearing his new gold jacket — he placed his bust on the wall in the Gallery of the museum, where it now sits as one of the 378 members of the Hall.

There's a sign outside that declares it "football heaven," and Peppers said moments after putting his bust in place that's what it felt like.

"It is, and you know, the guys that are already here, they made us feel like that," he said. "They made us feel like this is it, this is the ultimate team.

"Football heaven is what they call it. So it really feels like this is the top of the top and you really can't go any higher than this."

Throughout the weekend, Peppers stayed immersed in the history of the game.

He specifically chose to have legendary Steelers defensive lineman Joe Greene put his new blazer on him at the Gold Jacket Dinner, connecting the modern model of line play next to the standard of another era.

"It's hard to keep my own emotions intact, to be honest," Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said of Peppers' selection of Greene. "It gave me chills when I heard it and read it, it gave me chills.

"It is so great to see the younger generation appreciate how this game was built and the men who built it. It was built on the guys' shoulders who are in this Hall, and Julius recognized that. I thought it was absolutely awesome."

And when Peppers sat down Friday at the Hall-of-Famers-only Ray Nitschke Luncheon, he was next to legendary Vikings defensive lineman Carl Eller, a Winston-Salem native whose legacy Peppers was well familiar with. When Peppers was with the Bears, defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli would often replace reviewing practice tape with historical footage, making sure his guys knew how the game used to be played.

"We would put on a tape with the Fearsome Foursome or the Purple People Eaters and we would just sit there and watch Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen and Carl Eller. So, I appreciate Rod for educating us on the history of the game because it's important to know your history. Because these guys are the ones that laid the foundation for you."

Peppers laughed and said while rules changes prevented him from incorporating Jones' head-slap maneuver, there were definitely teachable moments in those tapes.

"Not necessarily football stuff, but more so how they treated their teammates, how they were brothers together off of the field, and how they took care of each other," he said. "The head slap, I couldn't take that. But yeah, Deacon, he was a bad guy, so I tried to sometimes go into that mindset."

The undercurrent of history was evident from his speech to the moment he walked into his party Saturday night to be surrounded by former coaches, teammates, co-workers, friends, and family. He admitted a bit of surprise when he walked in and saw former UNC basketball legend and his old assistant coach, Phil Ford, the Rocky Mount product he grew up idolizing from nearby Bailey.

And even those classmates he got to meet for the first time this weekend underscored the theme for Peppers.

Packers linebacker Dave Robinson, who won three championships as part of Vince Lombardi's great Packers defenses of the 1960s, said that Peppers was one of the rare modern players who would have fit perfectly in his era.

"He could have played with us," Robinson said. "Some of the newcomers in the league couldn't play in the old days. Julius Peppers, he could. Julius could do it."

"I don't know, those guys were tough back then, man, those guys were tough," Peppers said with a laugh on Sunday morning. "They didn't have all the comforts that we had all the equipment and stuff that we have now. But I appreciate Dave saying that. I got a chance to shake his hand and hear him speak the other night about playing in Super Bowl I. So it's been cool to be around him and all of the other guys that I mentioned.

"But I don't know, those guys were tough, man."

When the legends talk to newcomers like Peppers, they tell them about the responsibility that comes with the position, and the importance of sharing the history of the game with future generations. And Peppers wants to bring that home with him, knowing that some of his former teammates including Luke Kuechly and Steve Smith could end up here as well.

"I think it's really important, being that I'm the first drafted Panther to make it into the Hall," he said. "I want to be a part of that going forward."

He admitted that it's all still sinking in, but the idea that he is finally here and that he absolutely belongs is something he's slowly coming to grips with.

But he's been humble through this entire process, to the moment when he carefully cradled the bronze bust and put it on its shelf in the quiet of the room.

The bust itself is also emblematic of the way he's approached his induction — thoughtfully and with intention.

Enshrinees can choose how they're represented in bronze. Sid Gillman's bust includes his trademark bow tie, Troy Polamalu's features his long, flowing locks, and players can decide what facial hair they want, if any.

And for Peppers, that represented a bit of a quandary.

When he met with sculptor Blair Buswell in February in Las Vegas for his first set of measurements, Peppers was surprised to see some of the variations. "You can do dreads?" he asked Buswell that day. "I can do anything you want," the artist replied.

And Peppers liked the idea of having his bust cast with the hairstyle he wore later in his career, or possibly braids, but he ultimately decided on the short and traditional cut he had in his early years with the Panthers.

That was a choice, and he made it on purpose.

"Yeah, I had to take it back," he said. "I took it back to the early days. When I think about my career and what made me a Hall of Fame player, it was those first eight years in Carolina. So that was the hairstyle I was wearing then. You know, the dreads and the cornrows and all that stuff came later.

"So I wanted to just be represented by the play that put me in here."

And now it's in place, where it will remain. And moments after he was finishing putting it on the wall — just two panels down from his old coachand inspiration Sam Mills — fans in Peppers 90 jerseys were already streaming by, taking pictures, and reliving the memories.

And even though this is now another home for Peppers, he wants his legacy to be about more than his football career, as he said in his speech Saturday afternoon.

"It's ongoing, because this is the pinnacle of the football, my football life, but the legacy is still going," he said. "It's going to be continued through my kids, not necessarily in sports or anything like that, but just the things that I want to try to instill in them, the things that my mom instilled in me.

"So yeah, the legacy is going to keep going."