No coach was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last weekend, even though there are several deserving candidates—in addition to the Tom Brady-blessed Bill Belichick.
That got me thinking about the 29 who are in, and those who aren’t but should be.
Lombardi, Shula, Halas, Brown and some others—Landry, Ewbank, Lambeau, Noll and Parcells among them—are no-brainers.
But then the debate begins. Here’s a quiz to make my point.
Following are pairs of coaches. In each, can you tell who IS NOT in the HOF (but maybe deserves to be).
The brief descriptions are intended to help you decide—or make it harder to distinguish one from the other. (Answers below.)
Tom Flores and Chuck Knox—Flores won 10 more regular-season games than he lost in 12 years as head coach of the Seahawks and Raiders but won two Super Bowls after succeeding John Madden as Oakland’s head coach. “Ground Chuck,” as he was called, was an NFL head coach for three teams over 22 years; won a total of 193 games; was voted NFL Coach of the Year three times; and the three franchises he coached reached the postseason a combined 11 times but never won the big one.
Tom Coughlin and George Allen—Coughlin coached Jacksonville for the first eight years of the franchise’s existence—twice leading the Jaguars to within one game of the Super Bowl—then led the New York Giants for 12 years, winning two Super Bowls. Inveterate trader Allen, who made 131 “the future is now” swaps in his 12-year career, never had a losing season as an NFL head coach and ranked 10th all-time in NFL coaching victories at the time of his retirement with a 118-54-5 record.
George Seifert and Bud Grant—Seifert succeeded Bill Walsh as head coach of the 49ers in 1989 and won his first of two Super Bowls that season. Seifert coached San Francisco to a 98-30 record and seven playoff berths in eight years, then later coached Carolina for three seasons. Grant, who won 108 games in 10 seasons in the Canadian League before moving to the NFL, coached Minnesota for 18 seasons, winning 168 games and 11 division titles and advancing to the Super Bowl four times but never winning one.
Marv Levy and Mike Holmgren—Levy guided Buffalo to the postseason eight times in 11 years, including an unprecedented four straight trips to the Super Bowl (where the Bills lost each time). Holmgren had seven straight winning seasons in Green Bay and won a Super Bowl, then spents10 years as head coach in Seattle, where he went to another Super Bowl but lost. His overall head coaching record was 174-122.
Dick Vermeil and Mike Shanahan—Vermeil’s overall NFL head coaching record was 126-114, including a loss with Philadelphia in one Super Bowl and a victory with the St. Louis Rams in another. Shanahan spent 14 seasons as Denver’s head coach, winning two Super Bowls and posting an overall record of 146-91. He also coached the Raiders for two seasons and Washington for four.
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As I hope is obvious, there are five coaches in the comparisons above who are not among the 29 currently in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Those five are Chuck Knox, Tom Coughlin, George Seifert, Mike Holmgren and Denver’s Mike Shanahan
And as I hope is equally obvious, little separates those already inducted from those who are still waiting.
Vermeil, who was inducted in 2022, boycotted the 2026 ceremonies in Canton last weekend as his way of protesting the snubs of Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, and Holmgren, who also won two Super Bowls as 49ers’ offensive coordinator under Bill Walsh.
“When Holmgren and then Belichick don’t get in,” Vermeil said, “all that does is delay the Mike Shanahans and the Tom Coughlins and those type of people from getting in.”
With all due respect to Flores, Allen, Grant, Levy and Vermeil himself, I have a hard time distinguishing them, as Hall of Famers, from the five I’ve identified who are on the outside looking in.
Shanahan should be a leading contender for his coaching tree alone: Gary Kubiak, son Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, brothers Matt and Mike LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, Robert Saleh and Kevin Stefanski—all head coaches.
Here’s hoping The Mastermind gets voted in before any of his proteges.
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Denny Dressman writes a weekly sports column for The Villager. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.