It’s not often that the governor of Florida weighs in on New England sports legends, but Ron DeSantis, like a lot of Americans, has an opinion on Bill Belichick failing to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It’s “absurd,” DeSantis said on social media, retweeting a Fox News article expressing a similar opinion from the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.
But is it?
After decades of being hailed as the greatest coach of all time, credited for the New England Patriots’ dynasty, Belichick’s legend has been somewhat tarnished of late. In New England, there has been robust debate over whether Belichick, Tom Brady or franchise owner Robert Kraft deserved the lion’s share of the credit, and Brady (as always) was winning.
It is Belichick whose star has dimmed, in part because of his dismal post-Brady record and his eyebrow-raising personal life. The Belichick legend also hasn’t been helped by comparisons to Super Bowl-bound Mike Vrabel, who, although he played for Belichick for eight seasons, has a vastly different style of coaching.
“Belichick who?” read a headline in The Wall Street Journal, way back in October 2025, when even the most devoted Pats fans were just hoping for a better season than 2024’s 4-13. In that column, Jason Gay surmised that Belichick “might prefer to ride a bicycle built for two across over the Rockies” with Kraft rather than hug each of his players after a game like Vrabel does.
The winsome Vrabel is the anti-Belichick in so many ways. He is polite, affectionate and respectful, even of the media, which Belichick openly disdained. “Are the 2025 Patriots ... actually likable?” was a theme of one “Pat McAfee Show” and more than one article in national media.
There is more to Patriots hatred than Belichick, of course, but his frosty temperament made the Pats easier to hate as they won six Super Bowls during Belichick’s 24 years in New England. It also made it easier for people to pile on when his University of North Carolina team lost and his 24-year-old girlfriend did pretty much anything.
Amid this backdrop came The Athletic’s reporting that Belichick did not make the Hall of Fame as expected in his first year of eligibility. It may be the best thing that happens to Belichick this year.
It landed as a snub, something personal, and soon Boston sports radio personalities were demanding to know which 10 votes cost Belichick the honor that he so rightly deserved.
The day before, however, much of the narrative had been that both Brady and Kraft had been invited to the Super Bowl in the years since the dynasty imploded — Brady in 2020 and Kraft in 2026; only Belichick has failed in this regard.
And yet Belichick woke up this morning the undisputed GOAT of coaches again, hoisted there more by public sympathy than his record. It’s true that he trails only Don Shula as the NFL coach with the most career wins (Shula has 347, Belichick, 333). But much has been made lately of Belichick’s Brady-less record, which is 88-111, if you count his 4-8 season in his first year at UNC.
Should personal behavior be a disqualifier for Hall of Fame honors, or any kind of professional honor? Should it matter who Belichick dates or what he wears or how rude he is to a wide range of people? Or do only cold, hard stats matter?
That’s a dilemma in every profession that honors its own, most notably Hollywood, and we all have our own thoughts on that.
But like in a courtroom, where ultimately it’s just the opinions of 12 people who matter, Belichick’s inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame required 50 votes, and he fell short. Was there pettiness involved? Likely. Was there genuine skepticism of whether he deserved to be considered at all? Also likely. It turns out you can be 73 years old, enormously successful and wealthy by the standards of the world, and still have people wonder if you’ve got what it takes.
In commentary for The Athletic, Steve Buckley said the vote “reeks of score-settling, petty grudges and arm-twisting.” He added, “It’s frankly as tawdry and unbecoming as anything Belichick ever did on or off the field.” He believes that the vote was a short-term punishment for various scandals, such as DeflateGate and SpyGate, and that it is inevitable that Belichick will be admitted to the Hall of Fame on a future ballot.
His next chance is in 2027.
That gives America plenty of time to ponder whether “tawdry” and “unbecoming” behavior of any kind should be overlooked when professional honors are bestowed or if we’re all about the wins. For now, Belichick can take comfort in the fact that the Tar Heels don’t play again until August, and so for at least the next seven months, he’s the GOAT of coaches again.
