Bill Belichick surprisingly did not receive enough votes to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his first ballot, leaving the NFL world stunned. Belichick notably won six Super Bowls as a head coach and has the second-most wins by a coach in NFL history, yet he didn’t make the Hall of Fame in his first go-around.
Tom Brady already gave his shocked response to Belichick’s snub, and now his former teammate Rob Gronkowski, who played for the Patriots from 2010 to ’18, has shared his thoughts on the Hall of Fame voting. Gronk believes Belichick’s snub has set a precedent for NFL coaches moving forward when they become Hall of Fame nominees.
“Ridiculous,” Gronkowski told Front Office Sports on Wednesday. “Coach Belichick needs to be in the Hall of Fame, and it needed to be a first ballot. Now there’s no such thing as a first ballot Hall of Fame coach. No other coach ever in history should go first ballot. There’s a guy out there, Andy Reid, but he can’t go first ballot now because Coach Belichick wasn’t first ballot.”
Rob Gronkowski says Andy Reid can't be a first-ballot Hall of Famer because Bill Belichick wasn't.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 4, 2026
"No other coach ever in history should go first ballot," @RobGronkowski tells FOS. pic.twitter.com/XAWcbIhMQh
It’s worth noting that only three NFL coaches in history have made the Hall of Fame on their first ballot—Don Shula, Chuck Noll and Tom Landry. Other star coaches such as Vince Lombardi, Paul Brown, Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson all were snubbed in their first ballot. So, it isn’t completely out of the ordinary for a legendary coach to not be enshrined in their first year on the ballot. But, Belichick achieved things that very few coaches can match.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rob Gronkowski Reacts to Bill Belichick’s ‘Ridiculous’ Hall of Fame Snub.
