With Emmitt Smith going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday night, Dallas Cowboys fans are all over the place inside and outside the Hall. So naturally, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — who is presenting Smith tonight — was a popular figure when he arrived.

There certainly is no shortage of Cowboys fans in Canton. An early estimation has the Cowboys fans dominating all others, including the 49ers, by a large margin. There are so many Cowboys fans here, you would think that they were America’s Team or something.

NFL.com’s Gil Brandt has always been an early-riser. On Enshrinement Day in Canton, he’s not alone. Brandt showed up outside the Pro Football Hall of Fame at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and the place was already buzzing with fans wearing the team colors of all seven men being inducted into the Hall – even though the ceremony wasn’t set to begin for another 10-plus hours.

The seven newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame will be enshrined Saturday night in ceremonies that begin at 7 p.m. ET. But the enshrinement is just the centerpiece of what is a week-long celebration for the good people of the Canton/Akron region.

Listening to Hall of Famers talk about Emmitt Smith, you hear the same stories — it was his heart and desire that pushed him to great heights. Franco Harris, who might have had the best comparison.

There are more than 80 returning members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame here to take part in this weekend’s Enshrinement Festival. Most are staying at the McKinley Grand Hotel, where NFL Auction has a room set up. By Friday afternoon, 64 Hall of Famers had already passed through the Jackson Room and signed footballs and helmets that will be auctioned off — with proceeds going to the Hall of Fame’s Enshrinees Assistance Program.

There a couple of to-dos that are a must every time that you travel to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One of them is to visit Munson’s in North Canton. The other is to talk to Hall of Fame person Tommy McDonald.

CANTON, Ohio — The folks at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who do such a terrific job every year organizing Enshrinement Weekend, usually wait until late in the game to finalize the order in which the Class of 2010 will be inducted in Saturday night’s ceremony. That list became set Friday afternoon. So here’s the official order: 1. Dick LeBeau 2. John Randle 3. Russ Grimm 4. Rickey Jackson 5. Jerry Rice 6. Floyd Little 7. Emmitt Smith

Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin may be hobbled (turns out he was injured during the EA Sports flag football game) but he remains larger than life.

CANTON, OHIO — We’ve already had 41 players stop by to sign helmets and footballs since Wednesday afternoon, with more coming in. The list of players is pretty impressive: Elvin Bethea, Bob St. Clair and Jim Taylor to just name a few. Honestly, if you are a geek for football history, this is truly the place to be. This room reminds me of those lines from Field of Dreams, “Is this heaven? No it’s Iowa.” Of course, this is Canton. And it’s football. And, well, let’s just forget that I said anything. I have to admit, I have entertained the idea of scooping up a bunch of the helmets and running out the door. Sure it would be my last [...]

Barely 9 a.m. in the morning, and already we’ve run into two-thirds of the famed “Triplets” of the 1990s Cowboys — Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.