Canton, Ohio ? Dan Marino took the long, straight road to the Hall of Fame. Steve Young traversed a long and winding route.

Both reached the football shrine this weekend thanks to often dominant performances that few NFL quarterbacks could match and few defenses could handle.

Marino was the most prolific passer in league history, and Young brought an exciting brand of uninhibited play to the game.

They will join yet another quarterback, Benny Friedman, and Fritz Pollard as the Class of 2005. Friedman and Pollard were NFL pioneers.

“I don’t know that there’s much difference in playing the quarterback position, other than Steve was more mobile and ran more and probably didn’t go downfield that much,” Marino says. “The idea is the same: You got to get the ball to the receivers and not throw interceptions.

“Look at Steve’s career, and I am proud to be able to go in the Class of ’05 with him.”

For Young, naturally, the feeling is mutual.

“It’s kind of fun, because we’re bookends, right?” he said. “Dan is the epitome of one side and I’m the epitome of one side, our style. I think that there was a style that Dan had that was very much more traditional at the time. And I think that my style, while it wasn’t traditional when I started playing, I look around the league today, and absolutely, the quarterback can move around.”

Marino and Young both benefited from playing under Hall of Fame coaches. Indeed, while Marino probably would have succeeded in any situation, his working relationship with Don Shula catapulted him to his arm’s length worth of records.

“Coach Shula has been such a big part of my career and experiences,” Marino says. “When you spend 13 years for a coach, it’s not just Sunday at 1 o’clock for a game.

“It’s spending time in meetings and off the field. He has been a big part of my life and has been a close friend.”

Before drafting Marino with the 27th – yes, 27th – choice of the first round in 1983, when five quarterbacks went ahead of the Pittsburgh product, Shula preferred a run-oriented offense and conservative play-calling. That all changed when Marino showed up in Miami.

“It was amazing how everybody tried to defense Dan,” Shula recalls. “As a young quarterback, they tried to give him all kinds of looks and blitzes. But he had such a quick release, so they discovered blitzing was not the thing to do.”

When Marino left the Dolphins after the 1999 season, he had NFL bests of 4,967 completions, 8,358 passes, 61,361 yards and 420 touchdowns.

Although he never won a Super Bowl, Marino was the 1984 league MVP, made three All-Pro teams and nine Pro Bowls. When he retired, he owned 21 NFL marks, including most seasons with 3,000 yards or more passing (13); most yards passing in one season (5,084 in ’84, the only year he won a conference championship); and most games with 300 yards or more passing (63).

“Dan Marino brought the excitement and the feeling you were never out of a game, no matter what the score,” Shula said.

Young sat behind Joe Montana from 1987-90, but replaced the future Canton inductee when Montana was injured in 1991. He kept the job for most of the rest of the decade, leading the Niners to the 1994 NFL championship – their last title.

Young was the league’s most valuable player in 1992 and ’94.