Never gets old.
The 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted their newest members last night in a ceremony honoring this year’s class, which included Drew Brees (Who Dat!), Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri, and Roger Craig.
While the event is always emotional for the inductees, Vinatieri took the opportunity to lighten the mood a little bit with his speech – and take a shot at his former coach.
Vinatieri is one of the greatest kickers in NFL history, the league’s all-time leading scorer and a four-time Super Bowl winner. Three of those rings came during his time with the New England Patriots: He spent ten seasons with the team, from 1996-2005, before ultimately finishing the final 14 years of his career with the Indianapolis Colts.
One person who wasn’t there to honor Vinatieri though, was his former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
Now, Belichick has a lot on his plate right now as the head coach of the University of North Carolina, with the program seemingly imploding before the season even begins: A couple weeks ago the university placed Tar Heels football general manager Michael Lombardi on administrative leave, and just this week it was announced that defensive coordinator Steve Belichick – the son of the legendary head coach – is on indefinite medical leave.
Vinatieri, though, joked during his speech about the real reason for Bill Belichick’s absence last night:
“Unfortunately, Bill couldn’t make it here today. There’s a lot going on at UNC right now. He may be on a recruiting trip right now, looking for the next Lawrence Taylor. I thought it was because training camp had already started.
But in truth, it’s because he’s judging his girlfriend’s cheerleading competition.”
Brutal.
Vinatieri was, of course, referring to the 74-year-old coach’s relationship with 25-year-old professional cheerleader Jordon Hudson, a relationship that’s made plenty of headlines – and resulted in plenty of jokes – since it became public back in 2024.
Of course, Belichick may have also been upset that he wasn’t being inducted to the Hall of Fame himself. And honestly, I couldn’t blame him for that.
This year was the first year that Belichick was eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame, yet he inexplicably was snubbed from this year’s class, reportedly due to his involvement in the Spygate and Deflategate controversies during his career.
Belichick is one of the most decorated NFL coaches of all time. He holds the record for the most Super Bowl rings as a head coach, winning six titles during his 24 seasons with the New England Patriots. But not only that, he also won two Super Bowls as an assistant with the New York Giants, giving him the overall record for most Super Bowl wins as a coach in general.
During his time with the Patriots he was named AP Coach of the Year three times, and he racked up more playoff wins than any head coach in NFL history with 31, and more Super Bowl appearances with 9 as a head coach. That means that Belichick made the Super Bowl, on average, every 3 seasons.
Not good enough for the Hall of Fame though.
Of course Vinatieri had plenty of nice things to say about his former coach, calling Belichick “the greatest coach of all time.” And Belichick was far from the only one on the receiving end of the Hall of Fame kicker’s jokes: While speaking to Pat McAfee, the former Colts punter who was also the holder for Vinatieri during his time in Indianapolis, the kicker joked:
“Hey, Pat McAfee is here in the crowd today. Great to see you, brother. The only person who enjoyed holding my balls more than my wife.”
And he also joked about his quarterback, and fellow Hall of Famer, Peyton Manning:
“Peyton, thank you for generously donating your forehead for today’s teleprompter.”
Sounds like this guy would have been a blast to have on the team.
