Pro Football Hall of Fame voters won’t have it easy this year. The NFL unveiled the 2026 Hall of Fame finalists Tuesday, and some major names are among the 15 players still up for induction.
Those names include first-timers like Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald, and long-time candidates such as Torry Holt and Eli Manning.
Two other first-time candidates, Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten and San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore, also remained on the ballot as it was whittled down from 26 players.
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Notably, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers was removed from the list of semifinalists after the 44-year-old came out of retirement to join the Colts in December. Rivers was no longer eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame once he joined the Colts’ active roster. He’ll need to wait five more years before he’s eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame again.
While the 15 players revealed by the league Tuesday are called “finalists,” the list will get pared down even more as the Super Bowl approaches. Next, voters will shorten the list to just 10 players. Eventually, it will drop to seven, and those are the players who could actually make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026.
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Once that final seven players are determined, those players need 80 percent of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame, though there are some weird quirks to the league’s voting rules, per the Hall of Fame’s website.
“Those who receive at least 80% favorable votes will be elected, with a maximum of five and no fewer than three. (Should fewer than three Finalists receive 80% favorable voting, the Finalist(s) closest to that figure would be elected.)”
Given the amount of talent still in consideration, some legendary players are sure to be left waiting at least one more season before they are inducted into the Hall of Fame. There’s a case to be made that all 15 of the finalists should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Whittling down the list to just seven of them is an impossible task for the voters.
