Leaders and champions.

Those are the defining characteristics of the six men who will enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame today.

Record-setting quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Warren Moon. Super Bowl-winning coach and television icon John Madden. Impregnable blocker Rayfield Wright. Versatile linebacker Harry Carson.

And Reggie White, the Minister of Defense.

Quite a class.

White will be inducted posthumously. The career sacks leader when he retired in 2000, White, who suffered from sleep apnea and sarcoidosis, died a little more than 18 months ago at age 43. His wife, Sara, said of White’s election in his first-year of eligibility: “I know Reggie would be thrilled and honored to be in the company of such great players and people.”

White, Aikman and Moon got in on their first attempts. The two quarterbacks often felt the sting of a hit by White, who had 198 sacks and was a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

“Reggie was someone you always had to account for on the field,” Aikman said.

But White’s influence extended far beyond the game. An ordained minister, White was very active in the community, making frequent visits to inner city churches and schools and campaigning for the homeless.

“He ministered to everybody, but his first ministry was to his teammates,” Packers teammate LeRoy Butler said. “Because he knew that if he could get you to live right, the team was better off.”

The Eagles, Packers and Panthers were better off with White on the roster. His move from Philadelphia to Green Bay in 1993 as a free agent delivered a strong message, too: northern Wisconsin was a desirable destination. White’s signing sparked the Packers’ development into champions in the mid-1990s, and they won the 1997 Super Bowl.

“If he hadn’t have come over, we never would have gotten Bruce Wilkerson, Sean Jones, Ron Cox, Andre Rison, Desmond Howard, all these guys we won a championship with,” Butler said. “He changed us from a place nobody wanted to go to a place where, by the mid ’90s, we had to turn free agents away.”

Aikman, Wright and Carson never became free agents and never left their original teams, a rarity nowadays in the NFL.

Aikman was the first quarterback to guide his team to three Super Bowl wins in four years (1993, ’94, ’96). His 90 victories in the 1990s are the most for a quarterback in any decade.

The first of Dallas’ Triplets (Emmitt Smith, the career rushing leader, and receiver Michael Irvin) to enter the Hall, Aikman was the consummate team man.

“After a career of really putting team accomplishment ahead of personal achievement, I’m being bestowed with one of the greatest individual honors you could ever be given,” said Aikman, the top overall pick in the 1989 draft. “I’m very proud of that. And I think in there somewhere is a lesson for young kids.”

Unlike the younger Cowboy, Wright waited “forever” to get into the Hall. He was chosen by the seniors committee 27 years after his last game.

The offensive tackle made the Pro Bowl six times and was an All-Pro four times. Wright was a key blocker for the first five 1,000-yard rushers in team history. In his 13 seasons, his teams won seven division titles and played in five Super Bowls, winning twice.

“In the 1970s, he was the standard,” said Calvin Hill, whose four Pro Bowl appearances were earned running behind Wright. “When you thought about offensive linemen, he was the guy that you automatically thought of.”

And when you thought about inside linebackers in a 3-4 defense, Carson was the man. The first player from the position elected to the Hall, Carson led the renaissance of the New York Giants in the 1980s. Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks were in the spotlight, but Carson was the guy the Giants rallied around.

“He wasn’t flashy like Lawrence Taylor and didn’t grab the headlines,” Giants center Bart Oates said. “He was the guy in the middle who did his job exceptionally well, and he inspired other guys to do their jobs well.”

Moon, the first black quarterback to make the Hall, is the only one of the six inductees not to win an NFL title. But he captured five straight Grey Cups for the Edmonton Eskimos – and this is the Pro Football Hall of Fame, of course.

Undrafted out of the University of Washington in part because he insisted on sticking to quarterbacking rather than switching positions, Moon came back as a free agent in 1984 and spent 10 seasons in the Houston Oilers’ run-and-shoot offense. He also played for Minnesota, Seattle and Kansas City in 17 NFL seasons and ranked fourth in TD passes, third in attempts, completions, yards passing and total offense when he retired.

“This just makes me feel like I worked hard to get to where I am right now,” he said. “I took a very unconventional route to get to the National Football League first, and re-establish myself and have a pretty productive career.”

Madden’s short coaching career, 10 seasons, produced a 103-32-7 record and a win in the 1977 Super Bowl. Only George Halas and Curly Lambeau, both Hall of Famers, reached 100 wins quicker than Madden, who became Raiders coach when he was 32 in 1969.

A fear of flying and opportunities in broadcasting led Madden to quit in 1978. He has since become a pitchman for a popular video game.