Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin Among Coach Semifinalists for Pro Football HOF 2026 Class

Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick and two-time winner Tom Coughlin are among the nine semifinalists in the coach category for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class.

Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert and Mike Shanahan are the others. One finalist from the group will be selected for consideration by the Hall's selection committee:

These exercises are often subjective, and multiple semifinalists should be Hall of Famers on the merits.

Shanahan won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998, and his impact on the game stretched well beyond his own coaching career thanks to the zone-blocking scheme he popularized.

Seifert probably doesn't get his just due because he built on the foundations laid by Bill Walsh. But the San Francisco 49ers' two Super Bowl wins — particularly the second one with Steve Young at quarterback in 1994 — and a 98-30 record can't be chalked up purely to Seifert following in the footsteps of a legend.

Schottenheimer and Reeves rank in the top 10 all time in wins, with Knox narrowly missing the cut in 12th.

Still, Belichick is far and away the clear choice from the semifinalists.

The 73-year-old is the greatest NFL coach of the modern era. He won 302 games in the regular season and another 31 in the playoffs.

The end of Belichick's tenure with the New England Patriots and his disastrous start with North Carolina have led some to reassess his contributions to the Patriots' dynasty.

But apportioning more credit to Tom Brady at the expense of Belichick overly simplifies things.

Sure, having Brady obviously helped, but the Patriots won 11 games when Matt Cassel started almost the entire season in 2008.

And great quarterbacks need great coaches as much as the opposite is true. Otherwise, Aaron Rodgers would have more than one than one Super Bowl ring to this point.

Belichick's biggest mistake is sticking around too long. Much like athletes, coaches can lose their edge as a sport evolves tactically, and that's what happened here.

By pretty much any metric, Belichick should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.