River Dog wrote:If it were up to Seahawk fans like you and me, yes, he'd get in first ballot no problem. I'm just looking at it from an objective POV. How do you admit Pete before you admit Tom Coughlin?
IMO HOF voters don't generally use subjective things like "historically great defense" or "a massacre of a historically great offense", one play away from back-to-back, etc when weighing nominees. Most of them weren't as close to the Hawks as you and I were. They have a tendency to look at number of wins, Lombardi's, post season awards like MVP or Coach of the Year, winning percentages, playoff record, that kind of thing, and unfortunately, Pete comes up short when compared to other coaches in his era.
The other thing is that it depends on who else is nominated with him. If he's in a class with Reid and Belichick, probably not. But if we get a couple of Seahawk fans on the HOF committee 20 years from now, who knows.
Aseahawkfan wrote:[es. It will depend on that. Pete's historically great defense is documented as a historically great defense. I'm not making the comment as a fan. The comment is backed up by statistical history. Not many defenses get a name, much less earn that name. The Purple People Eaters, The Steel Curtain, The Doomsday Defense. Event the Ravens great defense did not earn a name I can recall. The Legion of Boom was one of the few defenses that had a name and made that name legend by being one of the greatest defenses to ever take the field. Pete may have assembled the best secondary in NFL history. It wasn't just Seattle fans that thought this, but the entire NFL knew it. I can't even recall the last time I saw a special on a specific unit with a name, but there is a Legion of Boom NFL special because it wasn't some joke name. It was a real elite secondary unit that fueled one of the greatest defenses in NFL history. Pete put that together. I would think any voter doing their research would find that Pete Carroll put together one of the greatest NFL defenses of all time.
Andy Reid has more rings. So do a lot of coaches. Very few of those coaches put together a defense of the caliber Pete assembled.
Legion of Boom was so good, they have their own Wikipedia entry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Boom_(Seattle_Seahawks)That has to count in the voting. I can't see why it would not.
Catchy nicknames might resonate with fans, but I doubt that those voting for the HOF will take that into consideration.
Whenever they announce nominees or successful selections, with both players and coaches alike, they always talk about measurables: How many rings they have, post season awards, where they rank on all time lists, what their winning percentages were, and so on. None of us know exactly what criteria the HOF committee looks at, but it's a pretty good bet that they look at numbers, awards, etc. Intangibles like team nicknames and whether or not they were innovative likely take a back seat.
A good example is Don Coryell. He never won a SB, his teams had a measly 3-6 playoff record, and his regular season winning percentage was .561, about the same as Pete's .581 (Andy Reid's regular season percentage is .650, Belichick .647). Coryell was one of the most influential innovators of his time whose offenses had a catchy, LOB-like nickname, ie Air Coryell. Many teams adapted his offensive philosophy. But it was only decades in retrospect that they took his intangibles, ie an offensive innovator who changed the game, into consideration. Coryell wasn't elected to the HOF until 2023, 37 years after he coached his last NFL game.
Another thing that could make a difference is how they end their careers. If they ride off into the sunset on top of the world, that's the image they're going to leave with fans and voters alike and could make a difference on a borderline candidate. Ending their career with a belly flop won't hurt someone like Aaron Rodgers or Bill Belichick who are slam dunks, but those that are on the bubble, like Russell Wilson, ending their career with a thud probably seals their fate. Pete needs to at least get the Raiders into a competitive position.
It's extremely hard to predict how the HOF will select their inductees. The committee is composed of two voters from each NFL city in an effort to establish credibility and prevent homerism, but it still occurs. The Seahawks aren't a franchise with a storied history like the Cowboys, Steelers, Niners, or Packers are. I never thought that Kenny Stabler was anywhere close to HOF material, but he played for the Raiders and got voted in.