In a week highlighted by midterm elections across the United States, a different kind of election news came out of Canton, Ohio, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bill Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach, is one step closer to being elected to the Hall of Fame.
Belichick was one of five former coaches to advance to the next stage toward enshrinement in the Hall of Fame Class of 2027. The others were four of Belichick’s contemporaries—Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, and Dan Reeves—three of whom are also Super Bowl champions.
Those five were chosen from a list of 14 nominees and will learn their fates in two weeks. Members of the Hall of Fame Coach Subcommittee will meet virtually on Nov. 17 to select one of the five as the coach candidate for induction. Only one can be inducted in next year’s class, but it’s also possible that none get inducted, as happened last year.
Like players, coaches need approval from at least 80 percent of the selection committee. Last year, his first year eligible, Belichick emerged as the one coach candidate, but he didn’t get the 80 percent required to be enshrined, which sent an uproar through the football world.
Belichick’s prized pupil, Tom Brady—who infamously didn’t have the greatest relationship with the coach—stood 10 toes down in saying Belichick should have been inducted.
“I just think that to me, I don’t understand it,” Brady said in January. “I mean, I was with him every day. If he’s not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, there’s really no coach that should ever be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, which is completely ridiculous because people deserve it. He’s incredible. There’s no coach I’d rather play for. If I’m picking one coach to go out there, to win a Super Bowl, give me one season, I’m taking Bill Belichick.”
The former NFL head coach, now in his second season at the University of North Carolina, has eight Super Bowl rings to his name, which is the most of any coach, player, owner, executive, or anyone else in the history of the National Football League. He won two as defensive coordinator with the New York Giants (1986, 1990) and then six as head coach of the New England Patriots (2001, 2003-04, 2014, 2016, 2018).
The only other people with more than six Super Bowl rings are Brady, who has seven as a player, and Neal Dahlen, who won five as an administrator with the San Francisco 49ers and two in the same role with the Denver Broncos.
But the rings tell only part of the story. Belichick also has the most Super Bowl appearances as a head coach (nine), most postseason victories (31), and most divisional titles (17). His three AP Coach of the Year awards are second most all-time, trailing only Don Shula (four). Also, Belichick’s 333 regular season plus postseason victories trail only Shula’s 347 among every coach in NFL history.
As for the other former coaches on the ballot, two of them own a pair of Super Bowl championships: Coughlin, who defeated Belichick’s Patriots in The Big Game twice, and Shanahan. Holmgren has one Super Bowl title; Reeves is the only one of the five to never reach the summit. Reeves’ teams reached four Super Bowls, losing each one, but he does have something in common with Belichick, as their 165 regular season losses are tied for the most in league history, along with Jeff Fisher.
Also this week, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the five people who advanced in the contributor category. One is Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Belichick’s former boss; the others are Ralph Hay, Virginia McCaskey, Doug Williams, and John Wooten.
The Hall of Fame will select 15 finalists—13 modern-era players, one coach, and one contributor—who will then be voted on by the selection committee.
The reveal of who gets the honor will take place during the annual NFL Honors Show in February, the week before Super Bowl LXI in Los Angeles, with the induction ceremony then being held in August in Canton.
