Former Patriots linebacker and soon-to-be Hall of Famer André Tippett signs autographs for enthusiastic fans during his brief visit to Gillette Stadium yesterday afternoon.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

FOXBORO — Andre Tippett Night at Gillette Stadium isn’t until Oct. 20, but yesterday was certainly Andre Tippett Day at Gillete Stadium.

Tippett and his family left this morning for Canton, Ohio, where the career-long New England Patriot will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. Before that, though, he felt the love from the current New England players and coaches, as well as the fans.

It began with a phone call, when Tippett was summoned into the Patriots’ meeting room in the morning. At the close of the meeting, Bill Belichick and the players honored Tippett, who had a franchise-record 100 sacks in his 11-year career and was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 1980s.

Though he wouldn’t share much of what happened, Tippett called the send-off “intimate” and “awesome,” and it left him choked up.

If what Belichick said in that room was anything like what he said to the media about Tippett, it’s easy to see why he was so taken with the moment. During Tippett’s heyday, Belichick was coaching the New York Giants, and coached his own group of outstanding linebackers.

But Tippett was just as good.

“We didn’t play the Patriots that often, but we saw a lot of him on film. He was a guy we all learned from and admired,” Belichick said. “I learned a lot from him as a coach. I came here (to New England) in 2000 and … he’s been a great friend, a great asset to bounce things off of and talk to, and a great ambassador for the organization.”

Belichick’s feelings for the great Lawrence Taylor are well documented, but yesterday he said Tippett belongs in a similar category.

“I just remember seeing Andre as a guy that was dominant. Tight ends couldn’t block him, couldn’t run outside to his side and couldn’t run off tackle to his side. He was a very powerful pass rusher but he was fast and athletic,” Belichick said. “He used great technique and he used his hands well. He had a couple of years (1984-85) where he had 35 or 35 sacks. That’s unheard of.

“He, along with other players of that era, like Taylor, really defined that position of outside linebacker the way we see it in the National Football League today.”

In large part due to his martial arts background and the way Tippett used his hand movements to shed blockers, Belichick would pull film of him and show Taylor, Carl Banks and other Giants linebackers Tippett’s technique.

For Tippett, hearing that a coach he holds in such high esteem, as Belichick, would speak of him that way means a great deal.

“I have seen so many highlights and top-linebacker lists. I have been on a few lists; I haven’t been on a few lists. But when a guy like coach Belichick says the things that he said, that is all I need,” he said.

But Belichick didn’t just use film of Tippett. He actually began integrating martial-arts instruction into workouts for Giants’ linemen and when he got to Cleveland.

“When you watched Andre play, you could really see it. You could see how fast his hands were and how he was able to swat people off or knock the blocker’s hands down to create better leverage situation for himself to rush the passer. That was something that the Giants, over the course of my career there, started to work on. We started to incorporate hand drills into the off-season program,” Belichick said.

“When I got to Cleveland, I hired a martial arts instructor and he worked with the team. As it turned out, it didn’t only help with the hand quickness and defensive attacking moves but also the flexibility training that the martial arts people use we put some of that in our football program.”

At the close of yesterday’s training camp session, the players and coaching staff made a semi-circle around Tippett, and the fans applauded him several times. Robert Kraft called him “the greatest defensive player in Patriots’ history” in his introduction, and Tippett had the chance to thank those New England supporters — some of whom he now interacts with as the team’s director of community affairs.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be shown live on ESPN and NFL Network beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

smanza@projo.com