Why Pete Carroll will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame as soon as 2026

After the Seattle Seahawks fired former head coach Pete Carroll, he practically disappeared from public life. Carroll has been deliberately keeping his distance form his former team this offseason and there was no word at all from him for months. That is, until earlier this week, when Carroll made an appearance on a local radio station and told Seahawks great Doug Baldwin and the other hosts that he'll be teaching a class at USC this fall.

Carroll of course won a national championship with the Trojans and went 97-19 as their coach before coming to Seattle - and he should be considered one of the greatest college coaches of all time. He also had a rare run of success in the NFL, winning "only" one Super Bowl but being no worse than a borderline playoff team 14 years in a row. Carroll was also in charge of the greatest defense in the league four straight years , one that defined how defense was played at this level for almost a decade after their peak.

In other words, Carroll has a pretty strong case to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame some day, and it might come much sooner than we'd anticipated.

According to Nick Shook at NFL.com , on Friday the Hall of Fame announced some new bylaws, including one that allows coaches to be enshrined after just one year being out of the game rather than five. That means both Carroll and six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick will be eligible in 2026, assuming they don't return to the NFL next season for another head coaching gig.

Carroll has since been replaced by Mike Macdonald, who's an early favorite to win Coach of the Year despite being a rookie in his position.