The Pro Football Hall of Fame recently changed the voting process to make it harder for candidates to get into Canton, creating more exclusivity for enshrinement because current Hall of Famers complained it was too easy to get in.
Well, the unforeseen outcomes of those changes are here, with the embarrassment of one of the greatest coaches ever to work in the league, Bill Belichick, not making the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, according to a report by ESPN.
Belichick won an unprecedented eight Super Bowls — six as a head coach of the New England Patriots and two as a defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. His 333 wins are 14 shy of the winningest coach in the league (Don Shula, 347). His 31 postseason wins are also the most ever for any coach, and he’s a three-time NFL.
So, Belichick should be a shoo-in for Canton, right? But that was not the case this year.
Why? Some have pointed to Belichick’s involvement in the Patriots’ Spygate cheating scandal in 2007. New England lost a first-round draft pick, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also fined Belichick $500,000 and the Patriots $250,000.
Deflategate also occurred under Belichick’s watch in New England in 2015, with some thinking that also hurt his chances to make it into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. That was when the Patriots were found illegally using underinflated footballs, which a league investigation claimed that Tom Brady helped orchestrate. The Patriots were fined $1 million, lost first and fourth round picks and Brady was suspended for four games after a lengthy investigation by the league.
While the Hall does not have a formal morality clause, the Pro Football Hall of Fame states that it celebrates five core values — commitment, integrity, courage, respect, and excellence — necessary to achieve greatness on the football field. Did Belichick uphold those values while serving as head coach of the Patriots? One could argue he fell short of that high bar.
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick achieved an unprecedented amount of success together in New England, but that wasn’t enough for the former Patriots head coach to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Getty Images)
However, as one of the voters on the Hall of Fame selection committee, for me, Belichick’s unprecedented success on the field outweighed the blemishes of Spygate and Deflategate. And the Hall of Fame’s bylaws state that only on-field performance should be considered when voting for candidates.
But what also worked against Belichick were more restrictive rules recently introduced by the Hall, pitting candidates against each other. The fact that Belichick was eligible after being out of the league for one year also worked against him, as there’s a possible scenario where he could return to coach in the NFL after being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Stricter rules were created by the Hall in 2024 to ensure exclusivity of membership to the Hall of Fame, allowing at least four, but no more than eight, people to be inducted from the 20 finalists selected. The Hall also reduced the waiting period for coaches to become eligible from five years to one, creating the opportunity for Belichick to become eligible this year.
Modern-day candidates are cut from 10 to seven. Voters are then asked to vote for up to five of those candidates, with 80% still the standard and the minimum set at three.
If three do not get 80%, then the top vote-getters move on. So, the new voting structure has led to a splintering of the vote from the selection committee, making it harder for players to get into the Hall.
Belichick was among five finalists across three categories put forth for the Hall’s 2026 class. Belichick was the lone selection for the coach contributor category, while Patriots owner Robert Kraft was the lone selection for the contributor category.
Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood were the three other finalists who were advanced by the senior committee. Voters were tasked with selecting three of these five candidates for enshrinement, splitting the 50-person selection committee’s votes among the five candidates and creating the possibility of Belichick not reaching the required 40 votes.
Jimmy Johnson on Bill Belichick not making the Hall of Fame, Miami
Previously, all candidates were just required to receive 80% of the vote and voters could vote for all candidates put forward, meaning the vote was essentially a rubber stamp of the subcommittee’s vote.
The same thing occurred for the final five modern-day candidates. Voters could vote for all five, and candidates needed 80% of the 50-person selection committee for enshrinement. With the new rules in place for the first time last year, the 2025 four-person class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame of Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe was the smallest since 2005.
Belichick now joins an exclusive group of first-ballot worthy candidates who have failed to make the cut in their first year of eligibility, like Terrell Owens, Bill Parcells, Michael Strahan and Antonio Gates.
And just like those guys, Belichick not getting in this year is only delaying the inevitable. He’s deserving, and he’s going to get into the Hall of Fame.
