Six-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick didn’t get voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, according to a report from ESPN.

Citing four unidentified sources, ESPN reported Tuesday that Belichick didn’t receive the necessary 40 votes from the 50-person panel of media members and other Hall of Famers. ESPN said Belichick received a call from the Hall of Fame last Friday with the news.

The Hall of Fame declined to comment before its class of 2026 is announced at NFL Honors in San Francisco on Feb. 5.

The report of Belichick’s snub was met with significant criticism, including from Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who posted on social media: “Insane … don’t even understand how this could be possible.”

Belichick was hired by New England in 2000 and led the franchise to six Super Bowl wins and three other appearances in the title game during an 18-year span from 2001-18. Belichick’s 333 wins in the regular season and playoffs with New England and Cleveland are the second most to Don Shula’s 347. He won AP NFL Coach of the Year three times.

Belichick also was one of the game’s top defensive assistants before taking over in New England, winning two earlier Super Bowls as defensive coordinator for the New York Giants.

Belichick’s career did have blemishes. He was implicated in a sign-stealing scandal dubbed “Spygate” in the 2007 season and was fined $500,000 after the team was caught filming defensive signals from the New York Jets during a game.

Belichick’s tenure in New England ended following the 2023 season. He just finished his first year coaching in college at North Carolina.

Belichick was one of five finalists among coaches, contributors and senior players who last appeared in a game in 2000 or earlier. Patriots owner Robert Kraft was the contributor finalist, with Roger Craig, Ken Anderson and L.C. Greenwood the players.

Between one and three of those finalists will be inducted into the Hall along with between three and five modern-era players from a group of 15 finalists.

Bills promote Brady

The Buffalo Bills stayed in-house by promoting offensive coordinator Joe Brady as their new head coach on Tuesday, in a move that provides continuity to a Josh Allen-led perennial winner that has accomplished everything short of reaching a Super Bowl.

The team announced Brady agreed to a five-year deal. He will be introduced as the head coach during a news conference Thursday.

The 36-year-old Brady just completed his fourth season in Buffalo and his second full season as coordinator. He previously served as quarterbacks coach before taking over the offense after Ken Dorsey was fired midway through the 2023 season.

Brady’s promotion came a little more than a week after Sean McDermott was fired following a nine-year tenure.

Brady broke into the league with the New Orleans Saints by spending two seasons as an offensive assistant under Sean Payton. He left the Saints to serve as passing game coordinator on LSU’s 2019 national championship team, with Joe Burrow at quarterback.

Brady returned to the NFL by taking over as the Carolina Panthers’ offensive coordinator before being fired late into the 2021 season.

Former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll is an offensive coordinator again as part of new Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh’s staff, the team announced Tuesday. Daboll went 20-40-1 with the Giants and was fired Nov. 10, the day after a 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears that dropped their record to 2-8.

Nix had ankle issue

Sean Payton said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had a preexisting ankle condition that made a fracture inevitable.

Nix broke a bone in his right ankle in the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Nix flew to Birmingham, Alabama, last week for an operation.

He watched from a suite Sunday as backup Jarrett Stidham took his place in Denver’s 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

On Tuesday, the Broncos’ brass provided the fullest accounting yet of Nix’s injury, with Payton saying a preexisting issue made the fracture “a matter of when.”