The coach with the most Super Bowl rings in NFL history is somehow not entering Canton as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
According to an ESPN report, Bill Belichick fell short of the 80 percent vote needed for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Belichick has reportedly been notified of the news in a phone call, per the report.
If true, this is obviously a brutal look for the Hall’s selection committee, which includes a group of 50 voters, comprised mostly of media members. Belichick would’ve needed at least 40 of the 50 votes to be inducted this year.
Belichick’s resume speaks for itself. After drafting Tom Brady in the 2000 NFL Draft as head coach of the New England Patriots, he and his QB went on to reach nine Super Bowls and raise six banners inside Gillette Stadium. His 302 career wins as a head coach trail only Don Shula (328) and George Halas (318) in NFL history.
But NFL writers — among others — clearly aren’t over the video-taping scandal that rocked New England’s dynasty years at the start of the 2007 season, and Belichick’s fading legacy since Brady’s departure to Tampa Bay in 2020 just took another major hit because of it.
Bill Belichick just got blocked from this year's Hall of Fame class due to old grudges
There was a contingent of NFL media members in this year’s selection committee that felt it was best to make Belichick wait a year due to the two big black marks on his resume: Spygate and Deflategate.
The alleged cheerleaders of that movement? None other than Bill Polian and Tony Dungy — two key pillars of the Patriots’ rivalry with the Indianapolis Colts in the early 2000s — according to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham.
“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 the Patriots $500,000 and fined Belichick $250,000.”
So, in the end, pettiness is what’s keeping Belichick from getting the honor he deserved as the greatest coach in NFL history.
Unfortunately for Belichick, he’s distanced himself so far from the Patriots and tarnished his own legacy to the point where few NFL fans will feel sorry for him. Now the head coach at the University of North Carolina, Belichick has reportedly banned Patriots scouts from attending UNC games, and directed his staff not to post anything on social media regarding the Patriots or star Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye. Those “directives” seem to have been lifted at this point (at least the social media stuff), but the damage has been done.
Belichick will still receive a ton of public support in the coming days, and rightfully so. He won six Super Bowls as a head coach and two more as a defensive coordinator. He coached two of the NFL's GOATs in Brady and Lawrence Taylor. His teams won before the scandals and after the scandals. Blocking him from the Hall smells more like sour grapes than sweet justice.
But to steal one from the man himself, it is what it is.