By Mark Eckel – RANT SPORTS
Mike Holmgren, the one-time head coach of the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks, is a coach finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.
Holmgren will need 40 votes (80 percent) from the 50-member voting committee to make it to Canton.
The bigger story is how the heck is Holmgren not already in the Hall of Fame.
Holmgren is among a quartet of men who brought relevance and credibility back to Green Bay in the early ‘90s. The head coach along with general manager Ron Wolf, who hired him, quarterback Brett Favre and finally defensive end Reggie White turned the Packers from a perennial doormat through the ‘70s and ‘80s to back to back Super Bowl appearances. And relevance that still remains 30 years later.
Holmgren Changes Packers Fortunes
From 1 year AL (After Lombardi) to 1 year BH (Before Holmgren) a span of 24 seasons, the Packers had five winning records and just two playoff appearances (one in the strike-shortened season of 1982). Holmgren, who took over the team in 1992, never had a losing season and made the playoffs six of his seven years.
Wolf, Favre and White have all been enshrined in Canton. How have the people who vote missed on the man who may be the most responsible of the four for the Packers resurgence?
Yes, Wolf hired him and built the roster. And Favre ad White were dominant players on each side of the ball. But it was Holmgren who installed a winning culture to a team that had never won; that turned what appeared to be an uncoachable Favre into a Hall of Famer and was instrumental in getting White to come to Green Bay. Who will ever forget the message the coach left on the player’s answering machine? “Reggie, this is God, go to Green Bay.’’
Holmgren Compared to Other Coaches in HOF
Holmgren’s numbers are also Hall of Fame worthy, especially when compared to two other coaches already in Canton.
In 17 years with the Packers and Seahawks, Holmgren went to three Super Bowls and won one. His regular-season record was 161-111 (.591) and his playoff record was 13-11 (.541). His teams made the playoffs 12 times in his 17 years and he won at least one playoff game in eight of those 12 years.
Now let’s look at current Hall of Fame coaches Don Coryell (Cardinals and Chargers) and Dick Vermeil (Eagles, Rams, Chiefs).
Coryell coached 14 years and never went to a Super Bowl, or even a Conference Championship Game. His regular-season record was 111-83-1 (.572) and his playoff record was 3-6 (.333). He made the playoffs six times in 14 years and only advanced three times.
Vermeil coached 15 years went to two Super Bowls and won one. His regular-season record was 120-109 (.524) and his playoff record was 6-5 (.541). His teams made the playoffs six times in 15 years and advanced three times.
Look at those numbers again. Go ahead I’ll wait.
It’s not even close.
Better record.
More Super Bowl appearances; more playoff appearances; more playoff wins.
And then you add in the fact that he brought football back to the league’s smallest yet most iconic city and it’s mind-boggling that Mike Holmgren is not a Hall of Famer.
Well 40 voters can change that this year.