We’ll begin by acknowledging the counterarguments:
- Tom Brady won a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick as head coach; Belichick never won a Super Bowl as head coach without Brady. (Although he won two Super Bowls as the Giants’ defensive coordinator.)
- Yes, the spectacle of his teenybopper girlfriend is a weird look for a 73-year-old, no-nonsense head coach.
- Going 4-8 at the lowly University of North Carolina screams, “The game passed him by.”
All of the above are true. (Especially #1: In the NFL, Willies and Joes matter FAR more than X’s and O’s — and if you don’t believe me, consider the fact that Barry freaking Switzer has more Super Bowl rings than Hall of Fame head coaches Bud Grant and Marv Levy — or Hall of Very Good head coaches Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Allen, and Chuck Knox.) Tom Brady, who played at an elite level for 20+ years, mattered more for the Pats/Bucs success than any of their coaches, Belichick included.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Bill Belichick was one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game.
Consider:
- As a defensive coordinator and head coach, he won Super Bowls in the 1980s (1), 1990s (1), 2000s (3), and 2010s (3). That’s more Super Bowls — over more decades! — than anyone else who’s ever coached in the league.
- He has nine Super Bowl appearances as a head coach, which is the most in NFL history, plus three more as defensive coordinator and/or Pats’ assistant head coach (all under Bill Parcells). Which means, of the 38 Super Bowls since 1987, Belichick coached in 12 of the games!
- Most postseason wins in NFL history (31). From 2011 through 2018, he reached the Super Bowl or AFC Championship Game every single year!
- Most divisional titles (17).
- Most consecutive 10-win seasons (16).
- Most AFC championships games (14), including 13 as head coach (9-4 record).
- Three-time NFL coach of the year (2003, 2007, 2010).
- Selected to the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time team. (As well as the NFL’s 2000s All-Decade Team AND the NFL’s 2010s All Decade Team.)
- Second all-time winningest head coach in NFL history (333 wins, trailing Don Shula by just 14 wins).
- For 20+ years was the undisputed leader of the Patriots when it redefined the standard of excellence in the NFL.
Despite these accomplishments, Belichick was allegedly snubbed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Mike Florio of NBC Sports and ProFootballTalk.com was outraged:
The failure to put Belichick in on the first try strips the Hall of Fame and its voting process of all legitimacy and credibility. It’s a joke that he didn’t make it. Anyone who voted against his enshrinement should be stripped of the privilege, immediately.
[…]
So congratulations to those who didn’t want [Belichick] in. You got your pound of flesh. At the expense of the integrity of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Tom Landry (2 rings), Don Shula (2 rings), and Chuck Noll (4 rings) all made it into the Hall of Fame in their first years of eligibility. Bill Belichick, alas, won’t be joining them.
Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson (2 rings) shared his disgust (NSFW):
This is just WRONG ..#2 winning ALL TIME…more Super Bowls than anyone unimaginable # of division championships…lot of small jealous voters https://t.co/Q4H5Qnz2L2
— Jimmy Johnson (@JimmyJohnson) January 27, 2026
I would like to know the names of the assholes who did not vote for him..they are too cowardly to identify themselves… https://t.co/pCVV4Xeqpb
— Jimmy Johnson (@JimmyJohnson) January 27, 2026
As Johnson alluded, we’ll probably never learn the real story why Belichick was snubbed, because Hall of Fame voting is done via secret ballots:
PLEASE…If you did not vote for BB identify yourselves!!! Probably too much of a coward..Hide behind your SECRET BALLOT!!! https://t.co/mApEhMNg1K
— Jimmy Johnson (@JimmyJohnson) January 27, 2026
Among the rumors why he was snubbed:
- Bill Belichick was a meanspirited, arrogant jerk to lots of the Hall of Fame voters (many of whom he competed against).
- Three scandals (Spygate I, Spygate II, Deflategate) tainted his image.
- Belichick’s archenemy and the man who fired him, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, is also a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. With the Pats returning to the Super Bowl this year, perhaps Kraft made it in at Belichick’s expense.
But very respectfully, none of these three reasons hold water.
So what if Belichick was a jerk? He was still one of the greatest coaching minds of all time.
The “science” behind Deflategate was always problematic (and that was more of a Tom Brady scandal than a Bill Belichick scandal anyway), and most of the Spygate allegations have never been definitively proven (largely because the NFL opted to destroy all the evidence).
And folks, if we’re debating Belichick versus Kraft, we’ve totally lost the plot: Just like Tom Brady was more important than Belichick, Belichick was infinitely more important than Kraft — who’s primary contribution was cutting checks and getting the hell out of Belichick’s way.
Is Robert Kraft a Hall of Fame owner? Sure, why not? Kraft “deserves” it as much as any other owner, I suppose, but snubbing Belichick in order to induct the guy who paid him millions to lead his team for 24 years is flippin’ insane.
Kraft needed Belichick far more than Belichick needed Kraft!
Of course, recency bias is a very real thing. In a what-have-you-done-for-me-recently world, Robert Kraft’s Patriots are about to play in another Super Bowl. Tom Brady went to Tampa and collected another Super Bowl ring.
Meanwhile, Bill Belichick couldn’t land a single job interview during the past few NFL coaching cycles, so he took a gig at a basketball college — the University of North Carolina — and lost twice as many games as he won.
(Not to mention the weirdness of his relationship with 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, who’s trademarked the phrase “Gold Digger.”)
No matter. If any head coach earned the right to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, it was Bill Belichick.
Snubbing him doesn’t diminish Belichick. Instead, it diminished the Hall of Fame.
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