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Mike Vrabel reacts to Bill Belichick’s Hall-of-Fame snub
"I'm sure that Bill will get into Canton.”
FOXBOROUGH — Count Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel among those surprised that his former coach Bill Belichick will not be a first-ballot entrant into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Despite playing a central role in eight total Super Bowl titles between the Giants and Patriots, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction and was informed last Friday by a Hall representative that he didn’t make the cut.
Belichick’s denial by the 50-person voting committee — whose votes are not made public — has led to a spirited response from across the sports world.
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Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and several other former Patriots, plus Patriots owner Robert Kraft, have offered up sharp reprimands directed toward the Hall of Fame and its voting body.
Other sports figures like LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes also shared their disapproval over Belichick not getting the call to Canton in his first year on the ballot.
Despite Belichick’s snub, Vrabel acknowledged on Thursday that it’s all but inevitable that his former coach will get his gold jacket — even if the wait will be longer than expected.
“I’m sure Bill will get in,” Vrabel shared Thursday. “Again, that’s something that’s well out of my control, and I know that the time here with Bill was eight great years, and the teammates and everybody else that we had. I’m sure that Bill will get into Canton.”
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Belichick was head coach during all eight of Vrabel’s seasons in New England — with Vrabel winning three Super Bowls as a player over that stretch.
As he prepares for his first Super Bowl as a head coach, Vrabel acknowledged that he has additional appreciation for the way in which Belichick got his team ready for such high stakes on numerous occasions in February.
“I think the record speaks for itself,” Vrabel said of Belichick. “My experiences don’t give me any less or any greater affinity for Bill as a coach and somebody I played for.”
The 2025 season marks Vrabel’s seventh season as a head coach in the NFL. But, his experience as a player who competed in four Super Bowls is also coming in handy during this unorthodox schedule before Super Bowl LX.
“Just trying to remain focused on each day and not look too far ahead is something that we’ve tried to focus on, just getting started today,” Vrabel said. “Trying to break the days up, and how much they are working and when they’re off. The time that they’re going to have, but also focused on trying to keep the schedule as close to normal as we can make it.”
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