On Tuesday evening, ESPN reported that Bill Belichick will not be a part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026, as the six-time Super Bowl winning head coach will not be selected in his first year on the ballot.
Belichick was a part of a specific five-person group of nominees for this year’s PFHOF class that is separate from the modern era candidates. For the second time ever, this five-person group includes one coaching candidate in Belichick, one contributor candidate in Robert Kraft, and three senior player candidates in Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and LC Greenwood. Of those five names, voters must vote for three of the five. If any of those candidates appears on at least 80% of the 50 ballots, they receive entry into football’s most exclusive fraternity.
To both football fans here and New England and around the country, this was stunning news. In addition to his six rings as Patriots head coach from 2001 to 2018, Belichick had previously collected two additional rings as defensive coordinator of the Giants in 1986 and 1990. He’s third all-time in regular season wins (302) behind George Halas (318) and Don Shula (328), and second all-time in combined wins between the regular season and postseason (333) behind Shula (347). He’s a three-time AP Coach of the Year (2003, 2007, 2010), one time Executive of the Year (2021) and is the record holder in each of the following categories:
- Most Super Bowl wins: 8
- Most Super Bowl wins as a head coach: 6
- Most Super Bowl appearances: 12
- Most Super Bowl appearances as a head coach: 9
- Most playoff wins as a head coach: 31
- Most playoff appearances as a head coach: 19 (tied)
- Most divisional championships as a head coach: 17
Add in the fact that he’s a member of the NFL 100th Anniversary Team, 2000s All-Decade Team and 2010s All-Decade Team, along with every iteration of decade/franchise team available from the Patriots, and his resume is unassailable.
As you can probably imagine, two-time Super Bowl champion Rob Ninkovich was outraged by the PFHOF voting body’s decision to exclude his former head coach from this year’s class.
“If anyone feels that he is not a first ballot Hall of Famer, you're a complete moron,” Ninkovich told The Greg Hill Show on Wednesday. “If you voted ‘no’ to Bill Belichick - if you just look at his resume, he's second all-time in wins! Don Shula, Bill Belichick! Six Super Bowl wins as a head coach, two as a coordinator. If you look at the list - I'm just acting it out, ‘Hall of Fame, Bill Belichick,’ and if you put ‘no,’ you're a moron. Simple.”
“What do you think it’s driven by?” asked WEEI’s Greg Hill.
“Jealousy,” Ninkovich said without skipping a beat. “You know, ‘I was so sick of him in a one word interview, he made fun of me once, he didn't answer my question.’ Because it's media people. Sorry, no offense to the writers out there. Like, are they upset because he would manipulate and not answer questions, or didn't want to give you more than he wanted to give you for a story? I don't know. “But if you don't vote him in first ballot, you look stupid.”
“To play Devil's Advocate, do they have any kind of an argument when it comes to cheating and those allegations?” Hill followed up.
“No,” Ninkovich quickly fired back. “I wasn't there [during Spygate]. I don't know anything about it. The thing I was involved in, the pressure thing. I think after halftime, they filled [the balls] up. We scored like 48 more points. I don't think it was a problem with the whole ball thing. So, it's just - I feel that it's more of a power trip thing. ‘Oh, we're finally above, and we can finally direct where he's going,’ where before he would direct every move he made.”
With this voting body keeping Belichick despite his very obvious first ballot-resume, Ninkovich believes they’re starting to turn the once hallowed halls in Canton, OH into an unserious thing, akin to what’s happened to another former institution of greatness for the NFL.
“You know what it’s turned into? The Pro Bowl,” said Ninkovich. “Shedeur Sanders [is] in the Pro Bowl right now, he had 7 interceptions and 10 touchdowns. So that's what it's gonna be. If you don't keep it official and you don't keep it legit, people look at it and they're like, ‘That's stupid, I'm not watching that.’ So it turns into that. It turns into a popularity contest.”
As of publishing, there’s been no reporting on whether or not Kraft was selected as one of the five from this special sub-group of nominees.
15 modern era players remain as finalists for the Class of 2026. Included in that list is second-ballot nominee Adam Vinatieri, a four-time Super Bowl champion (three with New England) and the game’s all-time leading scorer. Also in that group is Boston College legend and second-ballot nominee Luke Kuechly, who played his entire career with the Panthers (2012-19).
The entire class will be officially announced during the NFL Honors show on February 5 as a part of Super Bowl Week.
You can hear Kevin Harlan and Kurt Warner on the national radio call of Super Bowl LX on Westwood One. We’ll have that broadcast for you right here on 93.7 WEEI-FM in Boston, and across the WEEI Sports Radio Network in New England.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.