Field Gulls
The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 will not include former Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren.
Coach Holmgren was not advanced as a finalist for the Hall of Fame in the Coach wing. This comes as zero surprise given this was Bill Belichick’s first year of eligibility, so he’s about as much of a lock for Canton as you can possibly get.
Unfortunately, last year felt like a golden chance for Holmgren to make the Hall of Fame. He was announced as a finalist, only to not hit the minimum 80 percent vote from the Selection Committee to get that gold jacket and achieve gridiron immortality. Recent changes to the Hall of Fame selection process could make classes smaller and therefore harder for HOF worthy figures to get in.
Holmgren is one of just seven head coaches to take two teams to the Super Bowl, although we’re still waiting for the first head coach to hoist the Lombardi Trophy with multiple teams. After a decorated career and a title with the Green Bay Packers, Holmgren was hired as Seahawks coach in 1999, winning five division titles and sending Seattle to a first ever Super Bowl appearance.
We’ve written about Holmgren’s repeated snubs a million times, so let’s just repeat this opinion: if the Seahawks had beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers on Feb. 5, 2006, Holmgren would’ve already been in Canton and Bill Cowher would have no case for inclusion.
And it’s also worth noting that Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin, who’ve won multiple Super Bowls (including one at Holmgren’s expense in the case of Shanahan’s Denver Broncos), also miss out on Canton for another year.
