As a committee prepares to select a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist in the coaching category for the 2025 class, Broncos coach Sean Payton had a simple message regarding Mike Shanahan’s candidacy.
“It’s easy,” Payton said Monday. “It’s all there in front of you.”
Shanahan, the winningest coach in Broncos history and back-to-back Super Bowl champion, is one of nine semifinalists slated to be considered Tuesday when the Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee said it was next set to meet.
According to a news release last month announcing the nine semifinalists, the committee, “will discuss the Semifinalists at length … to select one Finalist for the full Selection Committee to consider for possible election with the new class of enshrinees.”
That means whichever of the nine semifinalists is selected as a finalist will be alone on the doorstep of the Hall, with only approval by the full committee remaining before enshrinement.
Shanahan is joined among semifinalists by fellow former Broncos coach Dan Reeves as well as Mike Holmgren, Tom Coughlin, Chuck Knox, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert, Clark Shaughnessy and Bill Arnsparger.
Shanahan, of course, served as Denver’s head coach from 1995-08 and also was the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders (1988-89) and in Washington (2010-13) for a total of 20 seasons. He won 170 regular-season games and finished the 1997 and ’98 seasons as a Super Bowl champion with Denver. His Broncos tenure included a 138-86 mark and postseason appearances in seven of 14 seasons.
Shanahan’s impact is still felt around the NFL today as teams continue to use the zone-based running system he helped popularize in the 1990s. His extensive coaching tree includes several current head coaches like his son Kyle (San Francisco), Sean McVay (L.A. Rams), Matt LaFleur (Green Bay), Mike McDaniel (Miami) and Raheem Morris (Atlanta), along with former coaches like Gary Kubiak and numerous assistants and coordinators.
“I’ve had a long friendship with him,” Payton said of Shanahan. “What he’s accomplished in our game: He has two Super Bowl championships. He’s been behind, I would say, the minds of so many coaches working right now. I’d say almost a third of the league at one point has been impacted by Mike. Not only the coaching tree, I’m talking about the offensive tree.
“When I got into the league, there were two or three teams that you studied and Denver was one of them. We’re sitting here in 2024 and we’re looking at a guy — a candidate — who, quite honestly, has a lot better credentials than maybe some others who have gone before him as coaches. He was one of the guys. Extremely intelligent. And then the Super Bowls, the quarterbacks, the success and all those other things.
“I don’t know when the vote is or how that all unfolds but his candidacy, for someone like myself, it’s easy.”
Shanahan and Payton each attended college at Eastern Illinois, but Payton on Monday was quick to put their shared alma mater aside. Shanahan’s candidacy, he said, is about facts.
“It’s all there right in front of you,” Payton said. “Then go ahead and look back at the last — just take the last six coaches that have gone in. Just use that number and then throw their numbers at Mike and their accomplishments.
“I think that’s a simple way to look at it and arrive at the right decision.”
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Broncos CEO and owner Greg Penner this summer also expressed his belief that Shanahan deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
“We totally respect the process that the Hall of Fame voters have, but we think Coach Shanahan is deserving of a spot there,” Penner said when the club broke ground on its new headquarters and training facility. “When you look at the impact he’s had on the game with — I believe he’s the only coach who has two successive Super Bowls that’s not in the Hall. Then you look at his coaching tree of six former assistants that are current head coaches.
“So, it’s hard to argue with that track record.”
Though the committee is set to narrow down its list to one finalist Tuesday, it’s not clear whether the group will immediately inform the finalist selected or make any kind of immediate public announcement regarding the decision.
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