Bill Belichick won six Lombardi Trophies as a head coach with the Patriots, two as an assistant with the Giants, and has more Super Bowl rings than anyone else in NFL history.
However, he is somehow not a first-ballot member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Belichick did not receive the required votes in his first year of eligibility, according to a report from ESPN on Tuesday citing four anonymous sources.
Belichick needed 40 votes from the 50-person media committee and other Hall of Famers.
News of the rejection stunned players, coaches, fans and anyone who watched football. Patrick Mahomes called him “crazy.” “It’s impossible, it’s terrible, and it’s frankly disrespectful,” LeBron James said.
If Belichick’s resume isn’t worthy of a gold jacket and a bronze statue, what constitutes a Hall of Fame career?
The Hall of Famer declined to comment before announcing its class of 2026 at NFL Honors in San Francisco on February 5. Many voters immediately revealed that they voted for Belichick and some called out those who didn’t say so publicly.
It was Armando Salguero, OutKick’s senior NFL writer and Hall of Fame voter, who introduced Belichick at the Hall subcommittee meeting that selected him to advance to the full 50-member selection body. Salguero then presented Belichick to the full selection committee at a meeting on January 13.
He is among the voters who chose Belichick and is urging others to reveal themselves.
“They should identify themselves as the people who kept Belichick out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year,” Salguero wrote in his column. “I’m saying it here, and I’ll say it to their faces. Their votes have undermined Belichick’s chances and embarrassed the Hall of Famer in the process.
“They make all selectmen look bad, and they shouldn’t hide behind a minority vote to protect themselves at the expense of the broader group. I know it’s a broader group because I’ve spoken with a lot of selectmen since our meeting, and they agreed with my vote for Belichick.”
Salguero, a longtime voter for the AP All-Pro Team and AP NFL Awards, said the “Spygate” scandal kept Belichick out of the Hall.
Belichick was involved in a sign-stealing scheme during the 2007 season and was fined $500,000 after New England was caught filming New York Jets defensive signs during a game.
“Spygate was the reason many selectmen were unable to vote for Belichick, because they felt it tainted his records,” Salguero wrote.
In his presentation, Salguero said he noted that Belichick had a higher winning percentage (0.693 to 0.580) after “Spygate” and won three Super Bowls and six conference titles. He had 14 seasons of double-digit wins and won more post-“Spygate” regular season games than 22 of the 28 Hall of Fame coaches.
“These facts may have changed some opinions about Belichick,” Salguero wrote. “But they didn’t change them enough.”
Belichick was one of five finalists among coaches, contributors and top players who last appeared in a game in 2000 or earlier. Patriots owner Robert Kraft was the finalist contributor, along with players Roger Craig, Ken Anderson and L.C. Greenwood.
Between one and three of these finalists will be inducted into the Hall along with between three and five modern-era players from a pool of 15 finalists.
The selection process changed in 2025. Each fifty voters now chooses three of the five, and between one and three succeed if they receive at least 40 votes. The new rule also made coaches eligible after one year of retirement instead of five.
Belichick sat out the season after his 24-year tenure with the Patriots ended in 2023. He returned to coaching at North Carolina State and finished 4-8 in his first season.
Mike Sandow, an NFL writer for The Athletic, said he voted for Belichick and explained the process that could have led to the snub.
“Be that as it may, I will take this as a rejection of the new voting rules implemented for 2025, not a rejection of Belichick or any candidate who has not done so,” Sandow wrote on X.
Belichick, 73, was one of the best defensive assistant coaches with the Giants under Bill Parcells. He left New York to coach Cleveland from 1991-95, joined the Patriots as an assistant in 1996, spent three seasons with the Jets and was hired by New England in 2000.
He led the Patriots with Tom Brady to six Super Bowl victories in nine games and had a 16-0 regular season. Belichick’s 333 regular-season and playoff victories with New England and Cleveland are second-most behind Don Shula’s 347. He has won the AP NFL Coach of the Year award three times.
“Just for the record: I voted for Belichick and I am stunned — and embarrassed by our selection committee,” USA Today NFL columnist Jarrett Bell wrote on
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