ATLANTA -- It was appropriate that Champ Bailey's football path wound through his home state once more.

A trek that began in Folkston, Georgia, a city of 4,788 near the Florida border, saw its final leg begin with the knock at his hotel-room door from Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker, to tell Bailey about the next and ultimate trip: to Canton, Ohio, this summer to join the game's immortals.

"I always believe that things just come full circle," Bailey said. "To go in with [Owner] Pat Bowlen, to go in at home -- this is what made me who I am. My state. Representing Georgia with a lot of pride. And then to be able to do it with the Broncos, to go in with the owner -- you couldn't ask for a better story."

Moments after the press conference announcing the 2019 Hall of Fame class, the emotion of the honor "still hadn't sunk in," he said.

But when you earn more Pro Bowl selections than any other cornerback in NFL history, your wait for the Pro Football Hall of Fame shouldn't be long. Bailey not only became the second first-ballot enshrinee selected primarily for his Broncos accomplishments to join the Hall -- following 2004 inductee John Elway -- but the sixth first-ballot cornerback in Hall annals.

"It's amazing to think about that -- and also to be the first defensive player for the Broncos to make it," he said.