NFL
Why Bill Belichick could enter the NFL Hall of Fame in 2026: what are the new rules for coaches?
Legendary Patriots coach Bellchick and Pete Carroll, who won the Super Bowl with the Seahawks, could get into Canton earlier than expected.
NFL coaches will be eligible to be inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame earlier than they previously were starting in 2026. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has implemented new rules for the selection process for future members that will benefit coaches, who will now only have to wait a year after retirement to be Canton-bound, rather than the previous five-year period.
How many Super Bowls did Belichick and Pete Carroll win? Overall records
As a result, both Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll could be handed gold jackets in 2026. The former left the New England Patriots in 2023 after six Super Bowl wins in 24 seasons, while the latter’s 14-season stint with the Seattle Seahawks, with whom he won one NFL championship, ended in the same year.
Between regular season and playoff games, Belichick registered 333 wins and 178 defeats with the Patriots and the Cleveland Browns, who he coached between 1991 and 1995.
Carroll’s successful spell with the Seahawks came after less memorable tenures at the New York Jets and the Patriots. He ended his coaching career with 181 victories, 131 losses and one tie.
Which NFL Hall of Famers returned to coaching?
Should Belichick and Carroll return to the sidelines after being inducted into the Hall of Fame, they would follow in the footsteps of Joe Gibbs and Paul Brown as coaches who came out of retirement after being inducted into the Gold Jacket.
Gibbs was a three-time Super Bowl winner between 1981 and 1992 with the then-Washington Redskins and was inducted into Canton in 1996. However, he returned for a second spell with the Maryland-based team from 2004 to 2007.
Brown’s case is iconic because he left one team to found a new one in the same state. The legendary coach spent the first 17 years of his career with the Browns, from 1946 to 1962. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1967, a year before becoming the co-founder and first coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, who he stayed with until 1975.