The Pro Football Hall of Fame has announced several changes to its selection rules, and one of them could put Bill Belichick in Canton in 2026.
Previously, coaches had to be out of the game for five seasons before they could be inducted into the Hall of Fame. But the new rule announced today is that coaches only have to be out of the game for one season before they are eligible for Hall of Fame selection. The selection process for the Class of 2025 has already begun, so Belichick won’t be eligible to be inducted next summer, but he will be eligible for the Class of 2026 if he doesn’t get another coaching job before then.
Under the old rules, Belichick wouldn’t have been eligible until the Class of 2029.
It’s also possible that Belichick could get selected to the Hall of Fame after the 2025 season and then hired to be a head coach again for the 2026 season, which would result in a Hall of Fame coach actively roaming the sidelines.
Under the new rules, one coach will be a finalist for each Hall of Fame class. Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach, is easily the coach with the best Hall of Fame résumé, so there’s every reason to believe he will be a Hall of Fame finalist as soon as he’s eligible, which will be 2026, if he hasn’t been hired by another team first.
If Belichick is hired by another team, that re-sets the clock on when he would be Hall of Fame eligible. Pete Carroll, who won one Super Bowl and reached another, would be the next-strongest coaching candidate in 2026 if Belichick is back on the sidelines by then.