Bill Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls as a head coach and second all time in NFL coaching wins, will apparently have to wait a little longer for his call to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Citing unidentified sources, ESPN reported Tuesday that Belichick didn’t receive the necessary 40 votes from the 50-person panel of media members and other Hall of Famers.
The reported surprise omission of the man many consider to be one of the greatest football minds in NFL history, sent ripples throughout the league.
Current and former NFL players as well as athletes across the sports world chimed in to voice their astonishment.
The list also included Belichick’s former boss in New England, team owner Robert Kraft, who said that Belichick “unequivocally” deserved selection on his first ballot.
Players have to be retired for at least five full seasons before they are eligible for induction. Coaches only have to be retired for one full season.
The Hall of Fame's class of 2026 will be announced at “NFL Honors” in San Francisco on Feb. 5 as part of the annual Super Bowl festivities.
But if Belichick’s exclusion from this year’s class is confirmed that night, he will join a list of prominent coaches who also didn’t gain immediate election into pro football’s most exclusive fraternity.
All-time NFL wins leader Don Shula (inducted in 1997), Vince Lombardi, who won the first two Super Bowls with Green Bay (inducted in 1971), longtime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll (1993) and Dallas Cowboys legend Tom Landry (1990) are the only coaches to gain hall admission on their first try outside of the original class in 1963. Chicago Bears coach and owner George Halas and Green Bay Packers coach Curly Lambeau were part of that first class of Hall of Famers.
Here’s a look at some other prominent coaches that had to wait to get their gold jackets:
Accomplishments: Led the former Washington Redskins to three Super Bowl wins and is the only coach to have done it with three different quarterbacks: Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien. He initially left the team after the 1992 season before returning in 2004. Gibbs’ final season was in 2007.
Year he was elected: 1996
Accomplishments: In his 10 seasons as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Walsh compiled an impressive 102-63-1 mark that included 10 wins in 14 postseason games. He won Super Bowls in the 1981 and 1984 seasons, then again in his final season in 1988 to cement the 49ers as the NFL’s team of the 1980s.
Year he was elected: 1993
Accomplishments: Johnson won back-to-back championships with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1992 and 1993 seasons after having championship success in college at Oklahoma and Miami. But Johnson had to wait just over a decade after his final season with the Miami Dolphins before getting his Hall of Fame bust in Canton, Ohio.
Year he was elected: 2020
Accomplishments: Won AFL championships with the Dallas Texans in 1962 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 1966, along with one Super Bowl with the Chiefs in 1969. His final season was with the New Orleans Saints in 1977.
Year he was elected: 2003
Accomplishments: Before gaining fame as a TV analyst, he coached the Oakland Raiders for 10 seasons, earning a regular-season record of 103-32-7. During that time, he guided the team to seven division titles, including five in a row from 1972 to 1976. The Raiders capped the 1976 season with a 32-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings for his lone Super Bowl win.
Year he was elected: 2006
Accomplishments: One of Belichick’s mentors, Parcells had just five losing seasons in his 19 seasons as a head coach in the NFL, winning Super Bowls with the New York Giants in the 1986 and 1990 seasons. He also won the 1996 AFC championship with the New England Patriots. His final season with the Cowboys in 2006.
Year he was elected: 2013
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FILE - New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy as he celebrates the Patriots' victory over the Seattle Seahawks in NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
PARIS (AP) — Valentino’s first couture show since house founder Valentino Garavani’s funeral in Rome opened under a somber shadow, with many guests fresh from the ceremony — then snapped it off with a jolt of pure theater.
VIP guests, including Sir Elton John and Kirsten Dunst, were guided through near-darkness to their “seats”: simple stools set against circular pods, each punctured by a small kinky-feeling viewing window.
When the show began, the blinds lifted; the classical music soundtrack cut by the sharp punctuation of barking dogs.
Inside the hubs, models appeared like mannequins behind glass — private viewing holes turned into a couture peep show.
The white, sterile-lit staging leaned into the idea of a curated gaze.
Each guest saw a slice, not always the whole: a face, a shoulder, a shimmer of fabric, then the next.
The set read like a sterilized, futuristic cell — clean, white, clinical — made more unsettling by the soundscape, which kept slipping from elegance into angry animal sounds.
It was a clever piece of showcraft: creative director Alessandro Michele, a maximalist by instinct, using restriction as a hook.
He didn’t flood the room with spectacle; he rationed it.
The often dazzling clothes, however, didn't always match the set’s ambition.
Michele delivered disco sheen — sparkle, gems, bedazzled headwear and layered gold collars with a faint circus edge — but the couture itself felt comparatively restrained, even cautious.
There were strong flashes: bold sleeves that swelled toward leg-of-mutton proportions; sequined surfaces that caught the light with that Valentino polish; and occasional provocation in the way the body was framed.
The skirts of giant billowing dresses nicely overwhelmed the human form.
But for a designer known for excess, the collection often played it safe.
Front row heat underlined the stakes.
The room pulled in a heavy mix of celebrity and brand power, from Dakota Johnson to Lily Allen and Tyla, plus global ambassadors and high-wattage fashion regulars.
The atmosphere said “event.”
The collection said “reset”: a designer calibrating his volume, testing how far he can bend Valentino’s couture codes without breaking them.
Michele can stage a show — that much is settled.
For Suzy Menkes, the emotion around this Valentino couture show was immediate.
Coming straight from Garavani’s funeral in Rome to Paris couture week, the fashion industry doyenne and former International Herald Tribune fashion critic said “people do feel emotional” because “it is an end of an era.”
She described a wider pattern, too: “one designer or elderly designer after another” has “gently disappeared.” But this, she suggested, felt like “a special one” — not only inside the industry, but beyond it.
Menkes said Valentino was “a designer that everybody could understand,” with “so many clients and famous people” that it wasn’t just “those who were contracted to fashion who knew of him.”
Asked about her own history with Valentino, she traced it back “about 45 years ago,” when she was a junior journalist — “he didn’t pay much attention” to her, she recalled, though he was “always polite,” surrounded by “an enormous number of people” from fashion and “social society.”
She acknowledged that “we’ve got some really good designers who are taking over and doing a terrific job,” but insisted the transition doesn’t feel identical: “it’s not the same character… it doesn’t seem to be the same person who was there before.”
Andrea Lattanzi, left, and Romana Maggiora Vergano pose for photographers upon arrival at the Valentino Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Elton John, center, and David Furnish, right, arrive at the Valentino Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Rei, left, and Liz from the group IVE pose for photographers upon arrival at the Valentino Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Elton John, center, and David Furnish, right, depart the Valentino Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Tyla poses for photographers upon arrival at the Valentino Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
