By Field Level Media
Nov 05 (Field Level Media) – Six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick leads the five coaching nominees still under consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2027.
The Hall of Fame announced Thursday that Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan were chosen by the coach subcommittee from an original list of 14 nominees.
The subcommittee members will meet virtually on Nov. 17 to select one candidate from those finalists to present to the full selection committee for possible enshrinement in Canton, Ohio.
Belichick was selected over the same four candidates in last year’s coaches category. Under the previous voting format, however, one coach, one contributor and three senior candidates competed for between one to three slots. Former San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig earned enshrinement as a senior candidate, while Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft fell short.
Controversy and confusion over Belichick’s snub led to an overhaul of the selection process. This time, voters will meet ahead of Super Bowl LXLI and choose between three and seven candidates from a 15-person pool of 13 modern- era players, one coach and one contributor.
Belichick, 74, won six Super Bowls during his 24 seasons as head coach with the New England Patriots from 2000-23. He won 333 games, including the playoffs and his time with the Cleveland Browns (1991-95). He won two other rings as an assistant coach.
Coughlin, 80, spent 20 years as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars (1995-2002) and New York Giants (2004-15), winning a pair of championships with the Giants — against Belichick’s Patriots — in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
Holmgren, 78, coached the Green Bay Packers (1992-98) and Seattle Seahawks (1999-2008), winning a Lombardi Trophy with Green Bay at Super Bowl XXXI and taking Seattle to Super Bowl XL.
Reeves, who died in 2022 at age 77, was head coach of the Denver Broncos (1981-92), Giants (1993-96) and Atlanta Falcons (1997-2003), reaching the Super Bowl four times and registering 201 wins, including playoffs.
Shanahan, 74, won back-to-back Super Bowls during his tenure with the Denver Broncos (1995-2008) and also coached the Los Angeles Raiders (1988-89) and Washington (2010-13).
(–Field Level Media)
