Bill Belichick’s first ballot hall of fame snub has gotten the attention of the President of the United States.
In case you missed the news, one of the most decorated NFL coaches of all time found out earlier this week that he won’t be a first ballot hall of famer. How did that happen? That’s what sports fans are still trying to figure out. Analysts and fans (and the POTUS) alike are all banding together to condemn the voters for not letting Bill Belichick into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
If you just look at the numbers behind his career, it makes no sense that Belichick wouldn’t be voted into the hall of fame immediately. When it comes to Super Bowls, he has the most of any other head coach in the history of the NFL. He won six titles during his 24 seasons with the New England Patriots, and also won two Super Bowls as an assistant with the New York Giants (those two give him the overall record for most Super Bowl wins as a coach).
And his time as the leader of the Patriots Dynasty couldn’t have gone much better (maybe except for the end). Belichick got AP Coach of the Year honors three times, and his 31 playoff wins are the most of any NFL coach in the history of the sport. He made nine Super Bowl appearances with New England, and won six of those. If you are looking for a Hall of Fame resume, that’s it right there.
So why didn’t Bill Belichick get voted in during his first year on the ballot?
Some are pointing towards the end of tenure with the Patriots, when Belichick went 4-13 in his final season back in 2023. Many also said Bill might have leaned heavily on Tom Brady, because after TB12 left New England to play for Tampa Bay, Belichick all of the sudden wasn’t the powerhouse, winning coach that we all knew him to be.
But still… he boasts a 333-178 record as a head coach in the NFL, even with a couple of losing seasons there at the end. That kind of win-loss percentage alone should get Hall of Fame consideration, and yet Belichick was informed this past weekend that he fell short of the 80% threshold needed to get elected into the Hall of Fame (according to ESPN).
Belichick’s response to being snubbed was short and effective:
“Six Super Bowls isn’t enough?”
Yeah… not really sure what else you can do as an NFL head coach.
There are some sports analysts speculating that Bill’s Spygate and Deflategate scandals were to blame for him not reaching the 80% voting threshold. Others have guessed that his most recent coaching job at North Carolina – and all of the noise that’s come from Belichick dating 24-year old cheerleader Jordon Hudson – hasn’t help his image, and led to voters keeping him out.
Though all of that is admittedly a bit of a stain on Belichick’s reputation, there’s no world where it should have kept him out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There’s probably never been a coach more deserving to be voted in as a first ballot hall of famer, and President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account earlier this morning to call out Belichick’s snub.
Trump used the post to also take a shot at the NFL’s “sissy” kickoff rules, and claimed that both the rules change and Bill Belichick not being voted into the hall of fame should be overturned:
“It is the same mindset that gave pro football the new and unwatchable ‘Sissy’ kickoff rule, that made it possible for Bill Belichick to not be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both are ridiculous and should be overturned!”
Belichick famously read a letter from Coach Belichick during a political rally ahead of the 2016 Presidential Election. Bill would later note that the letter wasn’t political, and that Trump was a longtime friend, so perhaps that could’ve weighed into the decision:
Can a President sign an executive order to get an NFL coach into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? I guess we’ll find out.
