Eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
In voting earlier this month, Belichick fell 40 votes short of the 50 needed for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility, four sources with direct knowledge of the outcome told ESPN. Belichick received a call from a Hall representative last Friday afternoon with the news that he would not be inducted into the Hall this summer in Canton, Ohio.
Multiple sources who spoke to the coach over the weekend described Belichick as “upset” and “frustrated” by his inability to receive support from at least 80% of the Hall committee members.
“Six Super Bowls not enough?” Belichick asked a colleague, referring to the championships he won as head coach new England Patriots. He won two more as a defensive coordinator. New York Giants. To another colleague he said, “What’s a man got to do?”
Another source familiar with Belichick’s thinking said, “Politics kept him out. He doesn’t feel it’s a reflection of his accomplishments.”
Belichick declined to comment to ESPN. A spokesperson for the Hall provided a statement: “The Pro Football Hall of Fame does not comment on the selection committee’s voting and looks forward to unveiling the Class of 2026 at ‘NFL Honors’ on Feb. 5 in San Francisco.”
The inductees will be announced during Super Bowl activities next week.
With an NFL coaching record of 333–178, including playoffs – career wins second only to Don Shula’s 347 – Belichick was considered a first-ballot lock by most fans and Hall voters.
The Hall’s voting committee is composed mostly of experienced NFL journalists, but also includes football personalities 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 along with Robert Kraft, his fellow co-architect of the NFL dynasty in New England. It is the first time that the 84-year-old Kraft became a Hall finalist after 14 years of campaigning on his behalf by his team’s longtime PR person and other supporters. Kraft and Belichick have become bitter rivals since parting ways in January 2024.
It is unknown whether Craft, or any other finalists, received the necessary votes for induction.
On January 13, voters met from 10 am to 6 pm to discuss and debate the qualifications of this year’s finalists, including three “seniors”: East cincinnati bengals Quarterback Ken Anderson, san francisco 49ers Running back Roger Craig and the late LC Greenwood, who was a defensive end for pittsburgh steelers.
Spygate and Deflategate, the twin fraud scandals during the Patriots’ championship run, came to the fore in discussions among voters, multiple sources told ESPN. One voter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Polian, an ardent Kraft supporter and former general manager of buffalo bill And indianapolis colts – a prominent Patriots rival during their dynasty – told some voters that he believed Belichick should “wait a year” before joining as atonement for Spygate, the 2007 cheating scandal that led to the team depriving it of a first-round draft pick. Commissioner Roger Goodell also fined the Patriots $500,000 and Belichick $250,000.
“The only explanation [for the outcome] “There was this fraud thing,” a veteran Hall voter told ESPN on Tuesday. “It really upset some people.”
In an interview with ESPN on Tuesday night, Polian refused to tell fellow voters that Belichick should face a year of penance for Spygate. But he said he has heard his fellow voters “expressing this view”, but insisted he did not agree or disagree with the proposal. Polian said that he voted for Kraft and even spoke on his behalf during the deliberations, saying that Kraft had no knowledge of the Spygate plan. Polian said he could not remember with 100% certainty whether he voted for Belichick, saying he was 95% sure he voted for the coach and one player, “most likely” LC Greenwood.
“I was surprised to find out that the bill didn’t come in,” Polian said. “He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”
When told that Belichick was not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Hall of Fame voter Peter King, 32, now retired from the committee, said: “Oh my God! … I’m very, very surprised.
King said, “A lot of things happen in that room that are unexpected. And it’s certainly a big surprise to me.”
Kraft and Belichick were competing against each other for immortality in Canton in the same year, which was made even richer by their complicated, bitter relationship after a remarkable 24 years in New England. The animosity has played out publicly since their split on the Gillette Stadium podium in January 2024, and has grown worse since Belichick took over the coaching job. North Carolinawhere it finished 4–8 in its inaugural season.
Kraft’s Patriots will play under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel. Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 8 at Super Bowl LX.
For the second year, Belichick and Kraft, finalists in the coach and contributor categories, are competing against three senior nominees. Because each voter can select only three finalists, several sources among the voters predicted that it was possible – perhaps even probable – that Kraft could be selected 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 the majority of his career for the 49ers, is one of only three NFL players to have 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season. Greenwood was a member of the Steelers’ iconic “Steel Curtain” defense that won four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
Belichick left New England with a record that will be nearly impossible for any current or future coach to match. He won 17 division titles, the most by any 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 time spent as an assistant with the Giants, and his 21 winning seasons as a head coach trail only George Halas (40), Shula (33), Curly Lambeau (33) and Tom Landry (29).
The eight other semi-finalists 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’s passing this year means three other major coaching favorites will have to wait at least a year for their turns: Shanahan, Coughlin and last year’s coaching finalist, Holmgren, who passed up.
“It pushes all three of these coaches back a year,” King said. “You have to ask yourself: What does the coaching committee do next year? Are they going to move Belichick again? Wouldn’t it be a shame if they didn’t? … This decision will have ramifications for more than just one year.”
