I don’t expect that a lot of Hoot readers are huge sports fans. After all, this school doesn’t even have a football team. Those of you who do pay attention to the National Football League (NFL) are probably focused on Super Bowl LX (Go Pats!). So many of you may have missed the biggest sports news of the past few weeks: The greatest head coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick, was not selected to join the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026!
How is this possible? It shouldn’t be. Belichick has the most playoff wins and the second-most wins of all time. He has eight Super Bowl wins, six as the head coach of the New England Patriots and two as the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants. This was Belichick’s first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame. Only three coaches have been selected on their first ballot in NFL history (Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and Don Shula). Those coaches have eight Super Bowl wins combined. Belichick is also one of only two coaches to have an undefeated regular season (Shula is the other) and the only one to do it in the 16-game era of the NFL.
Critics of Belichick argue that quarterback Tom Brady was the reason for the Patriots’ two-decade dynasty, rather than the coach. However, Brady was a sixth-round draft pick coming out of college and began his career as a backup. It was Belichick’s coaching that turned Brady into a superstar. Belichick was also the one who recognized Brady’s talent and chose to keep him as the starter even once Drew Bledsoe returned from his injury. The fact that Belichick coached the greatest quarterback of all time should be seen as an accomplishment on his Hall of Fame resume, not a negative.
The idea that Belichick should be denied entry to the Hall of Fame, or even just “wait a year,” due to the Spygate and Deflategate scandals, is ridiculous. One of the scandals, Deflategate, has been completely debunked, including by a federal court. Anyone who paid attention during high school chemistry could have told you that air pressure decreases in cold weather, and the Patriots scored more points in the second half, after the deflated balls were discovered, than they did in the first half. The other scandal attached to the Patriots, Spygate, occurred when one of the Patriots’ assistant coaches was caught taping signals from the New York Jets coaching staff during a game. Unlike Deflategate, this actually happened. However, Belichick has already been punished for it; the league fined him $500,000 and the team lost its first-round draft pick in 2008. Even after Spygate was uncovered by the league and teams switched to wristband communication signals that couldn’t be filmed, Belichick went on to win three more Super Bowls.
Keeping Belichick out of the Hall of Fame does far more damage to the reputation of the Hall of Fame than it does to Belichick’s. Since this decision was leaked, the Hall of Fame has been under heavy scrutiny regarding who the voters are, what rules they operate under and the process for how finalists are chosen. Next time the voters make a questionable decision, people will remember that these were the same people who kept out the greatest coach in the history of professional football.
