From the day he stepped into the NFL until a foot injury forced him into retirement after eight brilliant seasons as a do-everything linebacker, Patrick Willis succeeded at the highest level.

Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2007. Five first-team All-Pro selections. Seven Pro Bowl nods. A member of the All-Decade team for the 2010s.

None of those lofty honors will match the one coming to Willis today when he, along with Dwight Freeney, Randy Gradishar, Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Steve McMichael and Julius Peppers will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“I can take that deep breath now and say it’s done,” Willis said back in February when he was announced as a Hall of Famer after his fifth time on the ballot and third as a finalist.

Willis declined interview requests leading up to the induction on Saturday night, preferring to let his play on the field during his career do the talking.

That play delivered a clear message that few linebackers ever reached the consistent level of high-impact play that Willis achieved during his brief but impactful NFL career.

Willis overcame a childhood of abject poverty and tragedy with the death of an influential uncle at age 16 and his brother before Willis’ senior year of college to star in the NFL.

He was picked 11th overall out of Mississippi by the 49ers in 2007 and spent his first four seasons as one of the few bright spots on a mediocre team.

He led the NFL with 174 tackles in his debut season when he was selected as the top defensive rookie and a first-team All-Pro and never slowed down until the foot injury early in 2014 sidelined him for the rest of that season and sent him into retirement.

“He just came to work every single day,” said NaVorro Bowman, who was Willis’ running mate at linebacker in San Francisco after being drafted in 2010. “He didn’t just want to learn his job, he wanted to learn everybody’s job. He approached it the right way. He was a great example to follow when I came in as a rookie. There was a never a letdown. ... He just moved the right way, approached it the right way and just was a student of the game. That’s what made him a Hall of Famer.”

Willis had played through a litany of injuries throughout his career but he couldn’t continue once the injuries hit his feet and deprived him of the speed that allowed him to roam from sideline to sideline as a sure tackler in the running game and an elite coverage linebacker.

He was a first-team All-Pro five times, a second-teamer once and an all-decade player, earning the respect from teammates and opponents.

“One of the best to ever do it,” 49ers All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner said. “When you talk about linebacker play, you’re always going to talk about the way the game is supposed to be played at that position. He did it through and through, with the tenacity, the speed, the violence. ... He did it at such a high level here. That’s what I’m always chasing. I’m so happy for him getting that gold jacket. Super well deserved.”

• McMichael always had that big and boisterous persona and a willingness to say whatever was on his mind, so it’s no stretch to think the Bears great’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech would have been one to remember.

“He would cut a scorcher,” his wife Misty McMichael said. “He would have been amazing.”

McMichael is in the advanced stages of ALS and won’t be able to make the trip from Homer Glen, Illinois, to Canton, Ohio, for his induction. He lost his ability to move and speak, though he will deliver a brief and heartfelt message he put together through an eye-gaze device: “Hello Chicago. Thank you, Chicago.”

McMichael was one of the most feared players on what might be the greatest defense ever assembled. With Hall of Famers Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary, Richard Dent and McMichael, the 1985 Bears demolished just about everyone in their path on the way to the franchise’s lone Super Bowl championship.

The two-time All-Pro played 15 years in the NFL — 13 with Chicago. Soon after his career ended, McMichael started getting involved with professional wrestling.

McMichael’s brash personality and willingness to say whatever was on his mind made him a natural for professional wrestling.

Now, McMichael gets one more moment of glory.

• Hester, who spent the first eight of his 11 seasons in the NFL with the Bears, is the first player inducted primarily as a return specialist. The NFL had never seen someone like Hester when the Bears drafted him in the second round in 2006. And the league still has not.

Hester was one of the most feared players in the NFL despite standing just 5-foot-11 and weighing 190 pounds. He returned a league-record 14 punts for touchdowns and ran back five more kickoffs for scores during an 11-year career spent mostly with the Bears.

Hester’s most memorable moment came at the end of his rookie season in Super Bowl 41 in Miami. He became the only player to date to return the opening kickoff in a Super Bowl for a touchdown when he ran it back 92 yards against Indianapolis.

He earned the nickname “Anytime” because he could break off a touchdown return at, well, you know.

• As the first Houston Texan to become a member of the esteemed group, Johnson is representing so much more.

Johnson didn’t join the expansion team until its second year, when he was taken with the third overall pick in the 2003 draft. But he quickly became the star — and face of the fledging franchise.

He spent 12 seasons in Houston, where he remains atop the team’s receiving records. He had 1,012 receptions for 13,597 yards and 64 touchdowns and notched 51 100-yard games while with the Texans.