CANTON, Ohio — Jerseys and cleats and helmets are standard elements in a Hall of Fame exhibit, important markers of a players careers and their achievements.

But when Luke Kuechly was putting his exhibit together, he included several items that spoke to why he was able to achieve what he was able to achieve.

Among the items in the exhibit he unveiled Saturday morning at the Pro Football Hall of Fame were one of his legendary notebooks and a printout of his offseason workout plan.

Luke Kuechly's in the Hall of Fame because he was good at football. And he was good at football because he put in the work.

"One of my favorite parts of the game was the preparation side of it, so we prepared," he told the crowd who gathered around him for a closer look. "Obviously, you get done with the game Sunday, you come in on Monday, you hit your lift, you look at the tape from the previous game, and then boom, your preparation starts on Monday."

Those notebooks are detailed and handwritten. The one he chose was from the 2019 season, since it was at the top of the pile in his home. It features plays and defensive concepts, game plans, and little reminders to himself.

In the upper right-hand corner, he inscribed "Stud TE #87." That wasn't a reference to a star player or a guy who caught a lot of passes. In their language, the Stud tight end was the blocker on the strong side, and the one he signaled to the defensive front to align themselves to. In the case of the 2019 Saints, that was Jared Cook, a veteran blocker.

Just inside that designation was a list of six reminders to himself:

1. Body Language
2. PMA
3. Effort to ball
4. Stay Relaxed
5. Aggressive @ ball
6. Play ahead of play — i.e., Jaws from practice

He laughed that No. 2 stood for "positive mental attitude, yeah, because I needed that sometimes."

They're an example of his level of detail, and how he built the encyclopedic knowledge that can allow him to call out plays from a decade ago chapter-and-verse — like he did with fellow Hall of Famer and Saints quarterback Drew Brees on Friday.

One notebook would last an estimated five or six games, so he'd plow through three or four a year, and he's kept them all.

"The notebook allowed me to write everything down," Kuechly said. "If I write stuff down, I remember it way better. And sometimes I write it down multiple times, so in some of those notebooks you'll see the same thing written multiple times because if I write it down once, I'll forget, so I've got to write it down multiple times.

"So this notebook, I think it's taped on the spine because it would go everywhere with me, but I liked that notebook."

Luke, did you take notes like that in U.S. History at St. Xavier High School?

"No," he laughed. "Not even close."

His locker exhibit also included an offseason workout plan that detailed the daily work he and close friend Greg Olsen went through. That one's also filled with handwritten notes scribbled in the margins.

"Those were some of the most fun times of my career," he said of those summer lifting and running sessions.

The exhibit also included one of his Q-Collars, the protective device he started wearing after suffering concussions during the 2015 and 2016 seasons (which was researched at his hometown Cincinnati Children's Hospital).

As with most things, Kuechly can explain how it works in microscopic detail, explaining that the technology is based on woodpecker anatomy.

Yes, woodpeckers.

"They have their beak, and they bang on the tree and go inside to find they're looking for grubs and food, they're going inside the tree," he began explaing to a crowd. "The concussive force that goes into those woodpeckers' brains is big."

But they have the ability to restrict the blood flow out of their brain cavity, which keeps the skull full and prevents it from sloshing around in a less-full cavity. Kuechly wore the collars for his final three seasons before his retirement after eight years.

Off to the side of the locker exhibit is a smaller case, which includes his combine jersey (something the Hall doesn't have a lot of, according to Jon Kendle, the vice president of museum and archives), and a small glass jar of soil.

That was a gift from former defensive coordinator Sean McDermott, courtesy of the grounds crew.

"It was just a symbolic thing that he always said we have to defend our dirt," he said. "So when we're at home, we've got to win our home games, we've got to play well on defense. It's our job to set the tone, the tempo, and the attitude of that game on that Sunday. So he handed one to us every year, so I've got five or six jars from McD.

"But I always kept one of them in my locker, and it's just something that when you're having a day, and you look up and say, oh, here. It just comes back and centers you. And I had a ton of respect for Sean McDermott and how he called defenses, how he coached the thoughts, his thought process, preparing for games. So, I had that in my locker. It was just like a little bit of a token that helped you re-center, before practice, during games, or just during the week in general."

These are the things that matter to Luke Kuechly. The work, the gear, the preparation, the dirt.

And that's why he's here.

And that's worth celebrating, along with the fact he's turning 35 on Monday, and the crowd at the Hall sang for him and had cake around the corner. They have cake every Saturday at the Hall to celebrate the birthdays of the guys who have gold jackets and bronze busts on the wall.

Kuechly did have to share space on the cake with former Steelers safety Troy Polamalu (who turns 45 on Sunday), but that was OK, since he was the only one being serenaded.

Kuechly stood and waved to the crowd to thank them for that, a little embarrassed. He's still getting used to the attention that comes with being Hall of Famer No. 386, but talking about taking notes or how he got himself ready to play football is something he could do all day.