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NFL legend Jimmy Johnson has no plans to be at the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies this year after Bill Belichick was left out of the class of 2026 the first time he appeared on the ballot.
Johnson was among those outraged over the omission, which ESPN reported on Tuesday night. The former Dallas Cowboys head coach and Super Bowl winner ripped the voters on Wednesday in various social media posts.
Then, he took it a step further.
Johnson declared on “The Pat McAfee Show” he will not be showing up to Canton, Ohio, this year for the festivities.
“I thought it was gonna be an automatic, so I chartered a jet, I was going to go up there. The hell with it, I’m not going this year,” he said. “I love football. Now that I’m retired from FOX, I got four TVs set up, I got 12 hours on Saturday, 12 hours on Sunday, no one comes in the room. I only leave the room to get a little bit of food.
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“I love football, and I appreciate greatness. And that’s what you had with Bill Belichick – greatness. And I’m a coach. If some of the players don’t get in, it doesn’t bother me that much. But for a great football coach not to get in first ballot, that was wrong.”
Belichick needed 40 votes to make it into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. He won six Super Bowl titles as the New England Patriots’ head coach and two more as an assistant with the New York Giants under Bill Parcells.
At least one voter revealed why he was left off their ballot.
The class of 2026 won’t officially be revealed until next week in the lead up to Super Bowl LX. Belichick was among the candidates in a separate group from the modern-era players category along with Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, L.C. Greenwood and Robert Kraft.
Belichick was “puzzled” and “disappointed” with the decision and that he wondered what more he had to do as a head coach to get in immediately, ESPN reported.
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“Politics kept him out. He doesn’t believe this is a reflection on his accomplishments,” another source told the outlet.
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