The overarching theme I could not ignore when asking some college football coaches and NFL scouts about Bill Belichick’s legacy in the NFL was clear: cheating.
Not his six Super Bowls won as a head coach, not his coaching tree nor his decision to start a former sixth-round NFL Draft pick, Tom Brady, who became the greatest quarterback the sport has ever seen. Belichick’s cheating defines who he is to some in the NFL and college football.
And that seems to be the message this year’s Hall of Fame voters wanted to impart, as Belichick fell short of receiving at least 40 votes of 50, or 80 percent, for Canton as a first-ballot inductee. Now, the former New England Patriots coach and current North Carolina coach will have to wait until at least 2027 to be voted in.
“My personal opinion is I definitely feel like he’s a first-ballot guy,” former New York Giants scout and two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Watts told me. “Regardless of all the negative stuff floating around on him, I feel like he’s earned it.”
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in 2019. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
Fans and current and former athletes — including Sanders, Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James and Jimmy Johnson — were shocked by Belichick’s exclusion. Brady was mystified. And those I spoke to Wednesday echoed their sentiments.
“‘That was insane’ was my first thought, given his resume,” a Big 12 position coach told me. “Then I saw the Bill Polian angle, punishing him, even if it’s just for one year, due to the cheating allegations. It’s more symbolic to make him wait, but he’s the greatest of all time.”
“Not sure what to make of it,” a former NFL general manager told me. “It’s not good for the game. The Polian stuff is concerning, if true.”
“How do you ignore getting caught cheating three times?” a former NFL scout during the Patriots’ Belichick era told me. “And twice for the same thing. For those who said the first ‘Spygate’ wasn’t a big deal, why did he keep doing it? That’s a big part of his legacy. … I also don’t believe Polian didn’t tell them he shouldn’t go in on the first ballot.”
[HALL OF FAME: Bill Belichick’s Snub Result of Flawed Voting Process]
Did deciding to pursue college football hurt his NFL legacy? Perhaps, but one college football staffer told me that shouldn’t be a factor.
“That sounds crazy that that’s the narrative,” the Power 4 assistant player of personnel said. “How can one season of college affect him on the Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot? I think it’s all about cheating.”
Maybe it is.
Bill Belichick yells to the referee during the North Carolina-Virginia game on October 25, 2025 at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, NC. (Photo by Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Going 4-8 in his first season as head coach at North Carolina couldn’t have helped him. Months of tabloid headlines about Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, playing a not-so-quiet part in building the image of not just Belichick on Chapel Hill but also the Tar Heel football program surely didn’t help either.
Still, if Belichick had finished the 2025 season at 16-0 with a national championship, fans would have crowned him as the best football coach — NFL or college — who has ever lived. We love a conqueror in football, and we enjoy watching winners.
And that is who most people believe Belichick is in the NFL — except his peers with the power to vote.
[BELICHICK SNUB: Hall of Fame Voter on Not Voting For Bill Belichick]
This snubbing will not enhance his legacy in the NFL, but it will have no bearing on how he is remembered in college football. That part is still up to him.
There’s still time for Belichick to show us in college football that he can coach with the best in our sport.
There’s still time for him to enjoy the two-year turnaround Deion Sanders, a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer, enjoyed at Colorado — going from 3-9 to 9-4 with a Heisman Trophy winner in tow.
Now, he knows what the league he gave 24 years of his head-coaching life to think of him. We’ll find out if he coaches differently, wins more or cares less what college football does of him, too.
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