“Hall Of Shame?”

(Photo: CNN)

I’ve seen my share of dynasties in sports—from the three-peat Los Angeles Lakers with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, to the New York Yankees of the mid-to-late 1990s with Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte; the San Antonio Spurs with Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginóbili; and another dynasty I can never forget: the New England Patriots. To this day, I still remember when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl. They were heavy underdogs against the then–St. Louis Rams, who had the best record in the league that season and the league MVP in Kurt Warner. The Patriots shocked the world and won what would be the first of their six Super Bowl titles. The architect behind everything involving that football team was a man named Bill Belichick. I know Belichick has been under heavy criticism for not being able to replicate the same success he had when Tom Brady was his quarterback, and on January 11, 2024, the Patriots and the legendary coach agreed to part ways. When that happened, I immediately said to myself that he would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer without question. Then the news came out that Coach Belichick would not be a member of the 2026 Hall of Fame class.

Bill Belichick is the greatest NFL coach I’ve ever known and seen with my own two eyes. He took the job with the New England Patriots in 2000 and was also given the title of general manager, granting him complete control over the entire operation of the football team. Before becoming a head coach, Bill was the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants from 1985 to 1990, before taking the head coaching position with the Cleveland Browns. He was primarily responsible for helping develop what many consider the greatest defensive player in NFL history: Lawrence Taylor. As a head coach, Belichick’s ability to game plan and adapt was—and will forever be—his crown jewel. He is famously known for taking away what the opposition does best and forcing them to beat his teams in other ways. One thing I always noticed was that Patriots teams didn’t necessarily have a fixed identity. Their offense would flow based on the weaknesses of the defense they were facing. If you struggled to stop the run, they would run the ball. If you struggled to defend the pass, they would throw it all game long. Belichick’s teams could morph from a power-running group to a spread offense, and defensively they could be blitz-heavy one year and play a coverage-heavy shell the next. One thing I will forever admire about him is how he took chances on “underdog” players and turned them into key components of his system—players like Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, Laurence Maroney, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, and of course, a quarterback named Tom. I also look at how he took well-known veterans and got the best out of them. Corey Dillon often comes to mind. The Patriots traded for him, and in his first season with the team in 2004, he won a Super Bowl. His most memorable acquisition was Randy Moss in 2007, and alongside Tom Brady, they became the kind of tandem you only saw in Madden—except it was real life. I remember that season like it was yesterday. To this day, Randy Moss put together the best season I’ve ever seen from a wide receiver, scoring 23 touchdowns, while that Patriots team went a perfect 16–0 in the regular season.

The Hall of Fame voters got this one completely wrong. Let’s break it down further: 333 wins as a head coach (302 regular-season wins, third all time, and 31 postseason victories, the most ever), 17 AFC East division titles, nine AFC championships, nine Super Bowl appearances, and six Super Bowl titles as a head coach. In 24 seasons, 21 of them were winning seasons. If this résumé doesn’t scream first ballot, then what exactly does? I’ve been just as lost for words as many of you. This is, by far, the biggest Hall of Fame snub I’ve ever seen in sports. I know for a fact Bill Belichick will get in—but it should have happened on the first ballot.