This excerpt was taken from Seahawks.com publisher John Boyle's weekly Mailbag and I think it really hits home how absurd it is that former Seahawks Head Coach Mike Holmgren is still waiting for his invitation to Canton.
Daisy from Tyndall, Florida asks, "Which eligible former Seahawks do you want to see inducted next into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?"
A: The world "eligible" is an important disclaimer here, because we're a couple years removed from a lot of interesting Hall of Fame discussions as players from last decade's Super Bowl teams become eligible. But we'll save those debates for later and focus on those who are currently eligible.
And for me, the first person that comes up isn't a player, but rather former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who once again is a semifinalist for the 2024 class in the coach/contributor category. Holmgren has been eligible prior to this year, and somewhat inexplicably when you consider his resumé, has been passed over. It's long past time for Holmgren to be enshrined in Canton.
In recent years, coaches with fewer wins, less playoff success and, arguably, less of a long-term impact on the game, have gone into the Hall of Fame ahead of Holmgren, and while I'm not arguing against those coaches' inclusion, it's hard to understand why Holmgren is still waiting.
In 17 years as a head coach of the Packers and Seahawks, Holmgren compiled a 161-111 regular-season record, and won 13 more playoffs games against 11 losses, taking his teams to three Super Bowls, winning one in Green Bay. In all, Holmgren took his teams to the playoffs 12 times, winning eight division championships.
Those numbers alone are Hall of Fame worthy if we ended the discussion right there, but there's even more to Holmgren's candidacy than that. While NFL fans now think of Seattle and Green Bay as two of the league's top franchises, but go back and look at where they were before Holmgren took over in each city. Actually, I'll save you the trouble of looking…
Before the Packers went 9-7 in 1992, Holmgren's first year in Green Bay, they had recorded just five winning seasons, one of them a strike-shortened 1982 campaign, since winning the Super Bowl in 1968. And before Holmgren took the Packers to the playoffs for six straight seasons from 1993-1998, they had been to the playoffs only twice since that 1968 season, and again, one of those was the strike-shortened 1982 season.
After Holmgren led Green Bay to all of that success, including back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, Paul Allen made a franchise altering move not long after buying the Seahawks, bringing Holmgren to Seattle. And just as he did in Green Bay, Holmgren changed the fates of a long-struggling franchise after coming to Seattle.
In his 10 seasons with the Seahawks, Holmgren led his teams to six playoff appearances, five division titles, including four straight from 2004-2007, and the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Prior to Holmgren's arrival in Seattle, the Seahawks had reached the playoffs just four times, winning one division title, and hadn't had a winning record since 1990, or reached the postseason since 1988.
But wait, there's more.
If, somehow, all those wins and playoff appearances and division titles and Super Bowl appearances and a Lombardi Trophy aren't enough for you, and if turning around two long-struggling franchises doesn't do it for you, how about his role in modernizing NFL offenses with his version of the West Coast offense? Or maybe his coaching tree, which features numerous head coaches and multiple Super Bowl winners, including Kansas City's Andy Reid, is that enough to convince you? No, still need more? OK, how about the way he helped develop multiple Hall of Fame and Pro Bowl quarterbacks like Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre and Matt Hasselbeck.
In a letter to the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee supporting his former coach's candidacy, Favre wrote, "I know without a doubt I would not be where I am today without him. The three MVPs I was fortunate to win are a direct result of his coaching and leadership. He taught me how to play the QB position."
Young, who had Holmgren as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in San Francisco, wrote, "Mike Holmgren really reflects all these great quarterback whisperers that are around the NFL today. They all come from that Mike Holmgren tree and the way he approached and coached the position."
Even Montana, who was already an established star before playing under Holmgren, saw his game elevate to a higher level under Holmgren, winning both of his MVP awards after Holmgren became the 49ers' offensive coordinator.
"Mike Holmgren is one of the greatest coaches in NFL history, who belongs in the Hall of Fame," Montana wrote to the selection committee. "… Mike was like Bill Walsh in many ways, especially the way he demanded perfection."
So yeah, let's get Holmgren in the Hall of Fame already.
