Bill Belichick not getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a joke

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Bill Belichick not getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a joke

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Wed, Jan 28, 2026 ·

4 min read

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Imagine being a Hall of Fame voter, looking at a resume that includes the most Super Bowl victories of any coach ever and 333 victories, the second most ever, and thinking:

“Nah, that guy doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame.”

At least 11 clowns who vote to determine who does and doesn’t belong in the Football Hall of Fame came to that exact conclusion as Bill Belichick was not selected as a Hall of Famer in his first year of eligibility.

One of those clowns, according to ESPN is Bill Polian. The former NFL executive who spent much of his career watching his teams lose to Patriots teams coached by Bill Belichick , would have been a first-ballot inductee to the Sanctimonious Hall of Fame if such a place existed.

Polian reportedly lobbied voters to make Belichick wait as a punishment for Deflategate and Spygate. Deflategate, of course, was a suspect scandal that ignored scientific law.

Polian first claimed it wasn’t him, and then said he’s 95 percent sure he voted for Belichick, but couldn’t remember. This is the same Polian, who decades after the fact, tried to convince people that he gave Tom Brady a first-round draft grade coming out of Michigan.

Putting aside the fact that Canton already has plenty of busts of accused cheaters, should the Hall of Fame really be in the embarrassment business?

If Polian or any of the other voters, who get to stay safely anonymous, truly believe Belichick doesn’t belong in, that’s one thing. But a one-year penalty for an infraction that he’s already been penalized for? That’s small.

Part of the problem is the process. The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s overly convoluted voting procedures and stubborn desire to keep its induction classes small all but guarantee that worthy candidates will be left out. It’s created a massive backlog of worthy candidates.

The limited pool of electors gives every voter far too much power, which opens the door for politics, pettiness and favoritism. The fact that voters can give speeches in favor or apparently against candidates only adds to the potential for political shenanigans. If someone is deemed worthy enough to be a voter, why do they need Polian giving a speech to influence their vote?

Plus, because of the small enshrinement classes, voters aren’t really asked to say yes or no to a candidate’s worthiness as much as how one finalist stacks up against another. In any given year they could be choosing between players, owners, coaches, commissioners, officials or general managers.

This should be a wake-up call to fix the process.

Bill Belichick rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He was a grudge-holding, arrogant, petty curmudgeon. But he was a terrific pro football coach with the resume to match.

The voters undoubtedly succeeded in embarrassing Belichick, who cares deeply about football history and his place in it. Although given his rift with the Patriots , they saved him from having to be at a Super Bowl that the Patriots reached without him.

But they really embarrassed the Pro Hall of Fame. It’s not a good look for something that’s supposed to represent the best of the sport, when Patrick Mahomes and J.J. Watt , two of the sport’s most recognizable and well-liked future Hall of Famers, openly mocked the voting on social media.

Mahomes tweeted:

“Insane… don’t even understand how this could be possible."

While Watt posted :

“I can’t be reading this right. This has to be some knock-off Hall of Fame or something, it can’t be the actual NFL Hall of Fame. There is not a single world whatsoever in which Bill Belichick should not be a First-Ballot Hall of Famer.”

It’s also not fair to the yet-to-be-announced people who did get voted in. When the class is announced, the inductees should be celebrated. Instead, their individual worthiness will be measured against the most successful coach of all time.

And if being the most successful coach of all time doesn’t make Belichick a Hall of Famer, what’s the point of having a Hall of Fame?

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