CANTON, Ohio — Canton's Pro Football Hall of Fame has announced several sweeping changes to its selection process, including a reduction of the waiting time for coaches to be inducted from five seasons out of the game to just one.
The change would allow former Patriots and Browns head coach Bill Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl winner in New England, to be inducted as soon as 2026.
In addition, the Hall of Fame is splitting the coach and contributor categories, plus adding two new screening committees to review the full list of nominees in the modern-era group, plus the seniors category.
Each committee will be comprised of 11 people, including previous Hall of Fame enshrinees, former NFL front office personnel, football historians and media members. None of the 22 screening committee members will serve on the Hall of Fame's Selection Committee.
“Forming two Screening Committees will bring added discussion of candidates, with input from more Hall of Famers,” said Pro Football Hall of Fame President and CEO Jim Porter in a statement. “And splitting the Coach and Contributor categories allows for a Finalist from each one. What’s most important is continuing to elect great classes of enshrinees, and these moves help ensure that desired outcome.”
Here's how Pro Football Hall of Fame says the new process will work:
The "Modern-Era Players Screening Committee" and the "Seniors Screening Committee" will reduce the list of nominees to 50 candidates each. The Hall of Fame adds that its partner Ernst & Young LLP will conduct the online voting process and ensure its security.
Once the 50 candidates (plus ties, if any) are determined in the Modern-Era Players category, the names will be sent to the full Selection Committee for the next stages of the process.
The names of the Seniors candidates remaining (50, plus ties) will be sent to the Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee, a panel of nine people who will select three finalists for that year's class.
There will also be a Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee and a Contributor Blue-Ribbon Committee that will each select one finalist for that year's class. The three blue-ribbon committees will be comprised of seven members of the full Selection Committee, plus two "Hall of Famers, football historians or anyone with expansive football knowledge."
There will be a total of 20 finalists for the Class of 2025 that will be voted on by the Selection Committee just prior to the Super Bowl:
- 15 modern-era players
- 3 seniors
- 1 coach
- 1 contributor
The modern-era players will be voted on in their own group, "with no more than five (5) nor fewer than three (3) to be elected." The five finalists from the seniors, coach, and contributor categories will be combined into a second group for voting by selectors. "No more than three (3) nor fewer than one (1) may be elected. Approval from 80% of the Selection Committee is required in order for a candidate to be elected.
“The first pillar of the Mission statement at the Pro Football Hall of Fame states we will ‘Honor the Greatest of the Game.’ One important way to do that is through an annual review of the Selection Process and the people involved in it,” Porter added.