Bill Belichick, the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach, is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
In voting earlier this month, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility, four sources with firsthand knowledge of the outcome told ESPN. Belichick received a call from a Hall representative Friday afternoon with the news that he won’t be inducted in Canton, Ohio, this summer.
Several sources who spoke with the coach over the weekend described Belichick as “puzzled” and “disappointed” by his inability to secure support from at least 80% of Hall committee members.
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“Six Super Bowls isn’t enough?” Belichick asked an associate, referring to the championships he won as head coach of the New England Patriots. He won two more as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. To another associate, he said, “What does a guy have to do?”
Another source familiar with Belichick’s thinking said, “Politics kept him out. He doesn’t believe this is a reflection on his accomplishments.”
Belichick declined comment to ESPN.
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“The Pro Football Hall of Fame does not comment on the voting of the Selection Committee and awaits the unveiling of the Class of 2026 at ‘NFL Honors’ on Feb. 5 in San Francisco,” a spokesperson for the Hall said in a statement.
With an NFL coaching record of 333-178, including playoffs — career victories second only to Don Shula’s 347 — Belichick was considered by most fans and Hall voters to be a first-ballot lock.
The Hall’s voting committee is composed mostly of veteran NFL reporters but also includes football figures such as former general manager Bill Polian and former coach Tony Dungy, both of whom are Hall of Famers.
This year, Belichick was a finalist with Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner and Belichick’s co-architect of an NFL dynasty in New England. It marked the first time that Kraft, 84, was a Hall finalist after 14 years of campaigning on his behalf by his team’s longtime PR man and other supporters. Kraft and Belichick have become bitter antagonists since parting ways in January 2024.
It’s unknown whether Kraft, or any other finalist, received the necessary votes for induction.
On Jan. 13, voters met from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to discuss and debate the qualifications of this year’s finalists, which also included three senior candidates: former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson, San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig and the late L.C. Greenwood, who was a defensive end for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Multiple sources told ESPN that Spygate and Deflategate, the twin cheating scandals during the Patriots’ championship run, came up in deliberations among voters. A voter who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Polian, an ardent Kraft supporter and former general manager of the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts — a chief Patriots rival during their dynasty — told some voters he believed Belichick should “wait a year” before induction as penance for Spygate, the 2007 cheating scandal that cost the team a first-round draft pick. Commissioner Roger Goodell also fined Belichick $500,000 and the Patriots $250,000.
“The only explanation [for the outcome] was the cheating stuff,” a veteran Hall voter told ESPN on Tuesday. “It really bothered some of the guys.”
In an interview with ESPN on Tuesday night, Polian denied telling fellow voters that Belichick should serve a one-year penance for Spygate. He said he heard his fellow voters “float that idea” but insisted he didn’t agree or disagree with the proposal. Polian said he voted for Kraft and even spoke up on his behalf during the deliberations, saying Kraft had no knowledge of the Spygate scheme. Polian added that he could not remember with 100% certainty if he voted for Belichick, saying he was 95% sure he voted for the coach and a player, “most likely” Greenwood.
“I was shocked to learn Bill didn’t get in,” Polian said. “He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”
On Wednesday, Polian said in a prepared statement on SiriusXM NFL Radio that the Hall of Fame confirmed through the auditors of the selection process that he did vote for Belichick and he again denied that he said Belichick should “wait a year for enshrinement.”
“As a Hall of Fame member and selector, I realize the import of what we do. I’ve always tried as a selector to make these difficult choices with the utmost objectivity,” he said. “I’ve said on SiriusXM radio and numerous other media outlets that I believe Coach Belichick to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. My vote confirms that.”
When told that Belichick isn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Peter King, a 32-year Hall of Fame voter who is now retired from the committee, said: “Holy f—! … I’m very, very surprised.
“A lot of things happen in that room that are unexpected. And of course this is a big surprise to me,” King said.
Kraft and Belichick vying for immortality in Canton against each other in the same year was made even richer by their complicated, embittered relationship after a remarkable 24 years in New England. The animosity has played out publicly since they parted ways on a Gillette Stadium podium in January 2024, and it has gotten even worse since Belichick took the coaching job at North Carolina, where he finished 4-8 in his inaugural season.
Kraft’s Patriots, under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel, will play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8.
For the second year, the finalists in the coaches and contributor categories, Belichick and Kraft, are competing against three senior nominees. Because each voter can select only three finalists, multiple sources among the voters had predicted it was possible — maybe even probable — that Kraft could be elected but not Belichick, or vice versa.
As for the three senior nominees: Anderson is a four-time Pro Bowler for the Bengals who won the NFL MVP award in 1981. Craig, who played most of his career for the 49ers, is one of only three NFL players to amass 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season. Greenwood was a member of the Steelers’ vaunted “Steel Curtain” defense that won four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
Belichick left New England with records that will be nearly impossible for any current or future coach to match. He won 17 division titles, the most by a head coach in NFL history, and nine conference championships, the most by any coach in the Super Bowl era. He made 12 Super Bowl appearances, including his time as an assistant with the Giants, and his 21 winning seasons as a head coach trails only George Halas (40), Shula (33), Curly Lambeau (33) and Tom Landry (29).
The eight other semifinalists in the coaches category this year were Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert and Mike Shanahan.
Belichick falling short this year means that three other head coaching favorites will likely need to wait at least a year for their turn: Shanahan, Coughlin and last year’s coaching finalist who fell short, Holmgren.
“It pushes all three of these coaches back a year,” King said. “You have to ask yourself: What does the coaches committee do next year? Are they going to again advance Belichick? Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if they don’t? … This decision has a major impact beyond just one year.”
