SEATTLE – The Hall of Fame wait continues for former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren.
Holmgren, his family and the fan bases and hundreds of former players and co-workers with the Seahawks and Packers hoped this would be the year his decades of football accomplishments would merit the sport’s biggest long-term honor – election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But Holmgren, who coached Seattle from 1999-2008 and led the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl appearance following the 2005 season, fell short and was not one of the four who will make up the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
The class was revealed during the NFL Honors awards show Thursday night held in New Orleans, site of Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Holmgren undoubtedly wasn’t helped by some changes to the voting process made this year that the Hall said were designed to “help ensure that membership in the Hall of Fame remains elite.”
The changes came in the wake of 32 people being elected over the past four years.
Among those changes was limiting the total number of possible selections to eight (up to nine had been allowed the past three years when a senior nominee was voted on separately), and lumping the coach nominee into a group that also included the contributor nominee and three senior candidates, all of whom had to receive at least 80% of the vote to make it (or be the highest vote-getter if none got 80%).
That was a change from past years when coaches were voted on separately as simply a yes or no vote, which it was perceived made it easier for coaches to get in.
Ultimately, only four made it in – the smallest Hall class since 2005.
That included Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe, who played with the team from 1988-94, overlapping with Holmgren for three years, who was the only one of the five from the senior/coach/contributor class to make it.
Others elected were modern-era players tight end Antonio Gates (Chargers), cornerback Eric Allen (Eagles, Saints, Raiders) and defensive end Jared Allen (Chiefs, Vikings, Bears, Panthers)
During his weekly radio appearance Wednesday , Holmgren said he would live with whatever decision happened.
“If it doesn’t work, if I don’t get in, life still goes on,” he said.
This was Holmgren’s first time on the ballot as the finalist in the coach category.
Some of his supporters worry it will be hard for him to make it through the process to get to this point again, especially with a number of other coaches who have also been waiting to get in such as Tom Coughlin, Mike Shanahan and George Seifert – who all have two Super Bowls wins to Holmgren’s one – as well as the looming presence of Bill Belichick, who under new rules could be considered next year.
Longtime NFL writer Mike Sando of The Athletic, who represents Seattle on the Hall of Fame voting committee, wrote on the social media platform X that the new format could indeed make it more difficult for Holmgren to again reach the finalist stage.
“4/5 of the coaches/contributors/seniors getting shut out shows challenges of the new HOF math,” Sando wrote. “Next year, Belichick could enter the picture as HC candidate, which would seemingly push back Holmgren, Shanahan, Coughlin further.”
In its official announcement of the class, the Hall of Fame appeared to defend the new, stricter voting format.
“While a class of four is the smallest since 2005,” the Hall’s announcement read “that number has not been uncommon. This is the 19th time in the Hall of Fame’s history a class has been composed of three or four enshrinees since the first four-person class was chosen in 1970.”
Holmgren, 76, was the only person with Seahawks ties on the ballot this year. Safety Earl Thomas, who was in his first year of eligibility, and running back Ricky Watters, did not make it past the semifinalist stage.
Holmgren earned the fourth-most wins of any coach in Green Bay history during his career there from 1992-98 at 75-37, a 67% winning percentage that is second only to Vince Lombardi (89-29-4, 75.4%) while he is the second-winning coach in Seahawks history at 86-74 behind only Pete Carroll (137-89-1). He has the third-best winning percentage in Seahawks history of any coach who coached more than one season at 53.8 behind the 60.6% of Carroll and the 55.9% of Chuck Knox (who was 80-63).
A handful of other awards were also announced Thursday.
Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams finished 14th in voting for The Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year voting, receiving one fourth-place vote and two fifth-place votes, for four votes overall.