Bill Belichick misses the Hall of Fame: Explaining the voting process that rejected the Patriots legend

Bill Belichick is the NFL’s all-time leader in Super Bowl titles among coaches. He is the NFL’s all-time leader in playoff wins. He is the NFL’s all-time leader in division titles, playoff appearances and conference championships. He is third all-time on the regular-season wins list.

We learned on Tuesday that’s not enough to guarantee you enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Some of football’s biggest names are as shocked as you are.

Overall, Belichick falling short of the Hall of Fame says a lot more about the Hall of Fame than it does about Belichick’s legacy. An often opaque process has resulted in one of the most baffling results in the history of sports halls of fame, in which the coach with the NFL’s most loaded résumé has been told he doesn’t warrant a bust in Canton. At least, not yet.

So, how did this happen? To answer that, let’s dive into how Pro Football Hall of Fame voting actually works. We’ll warn you right now: It’s complicated.

Let’s start with the basics.

Hall of Fame enshrinement is entirely controlled by Canton’s selection committee, a 50-person panel of media members all selected by the Hall’s board of directors and appointed to two-year terms. This year’s group is listed at the bottom of this article.

Every team’s media contingent gets a representative, as does the Pro Football Writers of America organization. The final 17 spots are filled by at-large contributors, often veteran media members and people with actual experience playing and coaching in the NFL such as Tony Dungy, Bill Polian and Dan Fouts. At least by background, it’s a diverse group. Some of the biggest outlets and broadcasters are represented, such as ESPN, but there are also reporters working for newspapers, team sites and independent outlets.

To be enshrined, every candidate must receive at least 80% approval from this voting body, which usually means 40 votes. However, if not enough candidates receive 80% approval, the list is shortened until the Hall has its required four enshrinees.

How are these votes held?

The selection committee meets annually, not long before the Super Bowl, to discuss every candidate and put them up to a vote. All Hall of Fame cases, including Belichick’s, come down to these conversations.

Before that, though, there’s a lengthy process of narrowing down an enormous list of potential names. Officially, any fan can nominate a player or coach by writing to the Hall of Fame. In practice, the construction of the list is determined by the selection committee, with preliminary lists compiled over the course of the summer.

By October, there’s a list of 25 or 26 semifinalists. By December, there are 15 finalists. That’s just modern-era players, though.

For coaches, as well as contributors and “seniors,” there is a blue-ribbon committee, compiled from nine members of the 50-person voting body. That group is charged with selecting one coach to nominate each year.

This year, they obviously chose Belichick.

This process changed recently

In 2024, the Hall of Fame made a number of changes to this process. Most notably, it separated out that specific coaching category. Before, coaches had to compete with NFL owners and executives for consideration in the contributor category. That’s why there is always one coach now.

Also, the Hall made it so coaches had to wait only one year after retirement to be eligible. It was thought at the time that would mean quicker enshrinement for Belichick.

OK, so what happened with this vote?

That’s even more complicated!

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - NOVEMBER 22: Bill Belichick of the North Carolina Tar Heels looks on before the first half of the game against the Duke Blue Devils at Kenan Memorial Stadium on November 22, 2025 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Jaylynn Nash/Getty Images) — Bill Belichick isn’t a Hall of Famer. The reason why is needlessly complicated. (Photo by Jaylynn Nash/Getty Images)

(Jaylynn Nash via Getty Images)

As voter Mike Sando laid out, the process of deciding whether a coach should be in the Hall of Fame is even more complex than the above mechanics. In actuality, Belichick was competing with the other nominees from the blue-ribbon committee categories of contributors and seniors.

This year, those were Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood — the senior players up for consideration — and, in an incredible twist of fate, Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

So, that’s five guys looking for 80% approval among 50 people. However, that voting body has to select at least one of them or, more importantly, at most three of them, leaving each voter to select up to three of those five, which means at least one of those guys made it in over Belichick.

That creates some fun possibilities here.

Possibility No. 1: A bunch of people assumed Belichick was already in

Let’s say you’re a voter who really likes Craig. Or Greenwood. You want them to get in, and you assume there’s no possible world in which Belichick doesn’t make it.

So you vote for your guy(s) and leave the Belichick voting for everyone else. This happens in voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where a 10-player maximum on ballots causes some voters to sometimes leave off slam-dunk candidates to support others they think should receive more attention.

Possibility No. 2: Some people cared more about the seniors than Belichick

Here’s another way to rationalize not voting for Belichick: You don’t know when Craig is going to be on the ballot again, so you really want him to make it now. You also know that if Belichick doesn’t make this year, he’s certain to be back next year, because he’s Belichick.

Therefore, maybe it’s better if you vote for Craig now and Belichick later, though that isn’t great for the candidates Belichick will be competing with next year. Or you just think players are more important than coaches.

Possibility No. 3: They’re punishing a cheater

Here’s the theory that came with ESPN’s report, which cited one anonymous voter who claimed that Polian, who butted heads with Belichick as general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, told some voters he believed Belichick should wait a year for induction as a penalty for the Spygate and Deflategate scandals that went down under his watch.

Polian has since denied the claim, reportedly calling it “totally and categorically untrue” and saying he voted in favor of Belichick. While the 83-year-old later said in a subsequent interview with ESPN that he wasn’t 100% sure he voted for the coach, he released a statement saying he voted for Belichick, which the Hall of Fame confirmed.

The best comparison for that situation is probably former MLB outfielder Carlos Beltrán, who was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this month. When Beltrán retired, many observers believed he had a case to make it in on his first ballot. However, his role as one of the ringleaders in the 2017 Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal clearly had an effect on his candidacy and resulted in him having to wait until his fourth ballot to reach Cooperstown.

Are any of these good reasons to vote against Bill Belichick?

Absolutely not!

When it comes to cheating, Belichick and the Patriots were already investigated and publicly punished by the NFL. It’s hard to imagine anyone asked for a mysterious group of voters to dispense additional justice with a one-year enshrinement delay.

And judging from the accounts of voters in the room, some of Belichick’s opponents spoke up in the room and cited Spygate, but there weren’t enough to make their colleagues think Belichick was in danger of missing out.

If you want to hold this stuff against Belichick, fine. Then make your case to your fellow voters and to the public. The latter might still happen, as the vote has not been officially revealed.

Hiding behind an anonymous vote to secretly punish someone disconnects the offense from the consequence in a way that teaches the world nothing and gives the “defendant” and his supporters zero opportunity to make their case. When baseball players are excluded from the Hall of Fame because they took steroids, the reporters voting against them often own it and write about it. We understand why Barry Bonds isn’t in the Hall of Fame, because the voters told us.

Doing it behind closed doors instead invites only confusion, anger at your colleagues and the possibility of more voters taking it upon themselves to quietly patrol the outskirts of Canton. Should we be preparing for this same thing when Tom Brady is up for induction?

As for Possibilities Nos. 1 and 2, let’s just say it plainly: You should vote for the candidates you think most belong in the Hall of Fame. Trying to game the system like that opens the door for some supremely wacky outcomes, like today.

Does this process need changing?

Does any of the above make sense to you? No? Then probably!

Ultimately, we’re seeing the result of the Hall ensuring it’s celebrating between four and eight people every year. It wants players people care about supplemented with the coaches, executives, owners and other luminaries that make the game great.

Making sure a coach makes it every year won’t be the solution, nor was the old process much better. At the very least, transparency would be a welcome addition to this multifaceted tug of war.

Do we know which voters voted for or against Belichick?

As of Thursday morning, only one of the 50 voters has come forward about voting against Belichick: Kansas City Star columnist Vahe Gregorian. Other voters have come forward to make clear this isn’t on them.