Don Van Natta Jr.
Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick, the co-architects of an NFL dynasty in New England who have become bitter antagonists since parting ways, are both finalists for the 2026 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Hall announced Wednesday morning that Kraft, who has owned the six-time Super Bowl-winning Patriots since 1994, was the lone finalist in the Hall’s contributor committee. This marks the first time Kraft, 84, is a finalist for the Hall after 14 years of campaigning on his behalf by his team’s longtime PR man and other supporters.
Belichick, the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach — six as head coach of the Patriots, two as the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants — is the finalist in the coaching category during his first year of eligibility, the Hall said.
While sources with knowledge of the voting process told ESPN that Kraft’s fate with the 50 Hall voters is far from certain, they said Belichick, 73, is believed to be a favorite for induction. His NFL coaching record of 333-178 (including playoffs) is second all time only to Don Shula’s 347 victories.
Two nine-member committees — one for coaches, the other for contributors — selected Kraft and Belichick for consideration by Hall voters next month. If both Belichick and Kraft win 80% of the total vote, the two men will be inducted side by side in Canton next summer.
“You could have a delicious moment where Kraft and Belichick get busts together,” a veteran Hall of Fame voter told ESPN on Tuesday night. “I’d pay a lot of money to watch that. … Of course, only one of the two men could get in. And I’d pay a hell of a lot of money to see that.”
Kraft’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a call Wednesday. Belichick declined to comment.
Three finalists in the senior committee will vie for the Hall of Fame against Belichick and Kraft: quarterback Ken Anderson, running back Roger Craig and defensive end L.C. Greenwood.
Anderson was a four-time Pro Bowler for the Cincinnati Bengals who won the NFL MVP award in 1981. He finished his career with 32,838 passing yards and 197 passing touchdowns.
Craig, who played a majority of his career for the San Francisco 49ers, is one of only three NFL players to amass 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season, in 1985. The other two players to do it are Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk and Christian McCaffrey of the 49ers. Craig totaled 13,100 yards from scrimmage and scored 73 touchdowns.
Greenwood was a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ “Steel Curtain” defense in the 1970s that won four Super Bowl titles. Credited with 78 sacks (an unofficial stat during his playing career) and 14 fumble recoveries, Greenwood was named a first-team All-Pro defensive end twice and was selected to play in six Pro Bowls.
For the second year, the finalists in the coaches and contributor categories, Belichick and Kraft, will be competing against three senior nominees. Because each voter can select only three finalists, multiple sources among the voters say it’s possible — maybe even probable — that Belichick could be elected but not Kraft, or vice-versa.
Kraft and Belichick vying for immortality in Canton against each other in the same year is made even richer by their complicated, embittered relationship after a remarkable 24 years in New England.
The animosity has played out publicly since they parted ways behind a Gillette Stadium podium in January 2024 and it has gotten even worse since Belichick took the coaching job at North Carolina.
Sources close to Belichick have told ESPN that the coach was rankled by Kraft’s secretive role in shepherding a 10-part Apple TV documentary seen as shortchanging the coach’s contribution. At the Tom Brady roast in May 2024, when Kraft and Belichick awkwardly raised a glass together, Belichick quipped, “It’s an honor to be here for The Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix. It’s not to be confused with the roast of Bill Belichick during the 10-part Apple TV series.”
When Belichick interviewed for the Atlanta Falcons job in January 2024, Kraft advised Falcons owner Arthur Blank that his former coach “could not be trusted,” multiple sources told ESPN last year. Blank, who initially was enthusiastic about Belichick’s candidacy, instead opted to hire Raheem Morris to be his head coach.
Belichick rarely reacts publicly to comments made about him by Kraft. But in July, the coach released a statement to ESPN responding to Kraft’s remark on a podcast that he had taken a “big risk” when he hired Belichick in 2000. In the statement, Belichick said it was he who took a “big risk” by joining a flailing franchise with few resources that was $10 million over the salary cap.
Earlier this fall, Belichick wasn’t invited by Kraft to attend Bill Parcells’ Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Belichick made it clear he was displeased with being snubbed.
Belichick acknowledged in September that he had forbidden Patriots scouts from attending practices at North Carolina’s training facility. “It’s clear I’m not welcome at [the Patriots] facility,” Belichick told reporters. “So they’re not welcome at ours. It’s very simple.”
Last year, ESPN reported on the long campaign Kraft’s supporters have waged on his behalf to get a bronze bust of him in Canton. Longtime supporters of Kraft, including Hall of Famer Bill Polian, say he is long overdue to be inducted. Kraft, a lifelong Patriots fan, bought the team in 1994 and quickly transformed it into one of the most successful franchises in NFL history.
“Every home game has been sold out since, and the franchise has been valued at $7 billion,” the Hall said of Kraft in announcing he was a finalist. “Kraft has served on several key owners committees and has been credited with helping end a league labor dispute prior to the 2011 NFL season.”
Belichick left New England with records that will be difficult for any current or future coach to match. He won 17 division titles, the most by a head coach in NFL history, and nine conference championships, the most by any coach in the Super Bowl era.
He made 12 Super Bowl appearances, including his time as an assistant with the Giants, and his 21 winning seasons as a head coach trail only George Halas (40), Shula (33), Curly Lambeau (33) and Tom Landry (29).
Kraft hired Belichick as coach in 2000 and oversaw the Patriots’ six Super Bowl-winning seasons from 2001 to 2018. “There’s no box that Robert Kraft doesn’t check to get into the Hall of Fame,” Polian, a leading Kraft advocate, told ESPN last year.
During his supporters’ 14-year Hall of Fame campaign, Kraft watched three owners get into Canton ahead of him. Former 49ers owner Eddie J. DeBartolo was inducted in 2016 despite losing his team in 2000 because of his connection to an extortion case.
When Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager, was inducted in August 2017, Kraft saw his archrival getting into Canton before him as an insult, a verdict that Jones was more responsible for the NFL’s astonishing success. “He hasn’t been to the NFC title game in two decades and he gets in?” Kraft told a confidant. “How does that work?”
In 2018, the late Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen was inducted.
Last year, Kraft was seen as a favorite but was snubbed by the contributors’ committee, which selected NFL co-founder Ralph Hay. That decision enraged many of Kraft’s supporters among Hall of Fame voters, including Polian, veteran NFL writer Peter King and ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio.
This year, Kraft was selected over eight other semifinalists in the contributor category: Hay, the late Oilers and Titans owner K.S. “Bud” Adams, pioneering TV executive Roone Arledge, player and league executive Frank “Bucko” Kilroy, Steelers executive Art Rooney Jr., innovative coach Clark Shaughnessy, statistician Seymour Siwoff and player/executive Buddy Young.
The eight other semifinalists in the coaches category this year were Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert and Mike Shanahan.
The 50 Hall members will vote on the finalists Jan. 13. Inductees will be announced before the Super Bowl in February.
