Dave Hyde: Jimmy Johnson 'livid' Bill Belichick not in Hall, blasts 'Spygate' critics

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Jan 28, 2026

Published in Football

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — “I’m livid.”

That’s how Jimmy Johnson answered the phone.

“I’m so livid.”

The Hall of Fame coach recently ended a conversation with his friend and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman by saying, ‘By the way, I’m probably going to Canton this summer with (Bill) Belichick getting in the Hall of Fame.”

“I’m not sure it’s automatic he’s getting in,” Aikman said.

“What? He’s a slam dunk,” Johnson said.

Aikman texted Jimmy Tuesday night with the strange news: Belichick wasn’t voted in the Hall. It’s like George Washington not going on Mount Rushmore — or maybe Abraham Lincoln depending if Belichick is the greatest head coach because of his record six Super Bowl titles or Don Shula is because of his record 347 wins.

That’s a conversation. This isn’t: Belichick’s worthiness as a Hall of Fame coach — or more accurately, a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach. That’s the issue here. It’s an embarrassing, even petty issue. He didn’t get 40 of 50 votes from a panel of mostly media but a handful of Hall of Famers.

“What, he didn’t do enough?” Johnson said.

Belichick coached the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowls, 13 AFC championship games, 30 playoff wins and 17 AFC East titles. Those are all facts the Miami Dolphins fans know well. But …

“Let’s talk about Spygate,” Jimmy said.

This was the reason he was left off the ballot, it seems. Former Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian, a Hall of Fame voter, initially told ESPN he “couldn’t remember” if he voted for Belichick.

I sat with Shula at his home when he first expressed the term, “Belicheat.” I asked if he really wanted that printed. “That’s his name,” Shula said.

“I put on Twitter if that’s the reason they voted against him, it’s ridiculous,” Jimmy said. “A lot of teams in the league were filming signs. We actually got it from a scout. Howard Mudd, when he was coaching for Marty (Schottenheimer) at Kansas City — he was really good at it.

“You’d put a camera up in the press box and you film the opposing signal-caller. You take the film and match it up to what they’re doing on defense. Then what Howard Mudd would do as the offensive line coach in Kansas City — you could see a guard looking at the sideline and not the quarterback when the play is called. Howard Mudd would signal if it was man (defense) or zone or whatever.”

Jimmy tried it in Dallas.

“We weren’t very good at it,” he said. “It ended up being more of a hassle. Most of the time you couldn’t get it in before a play was run. We tried it maybe four or five games before we stopped doing it. We knew for a fact a bunch of other teams were doing it.

“Some teams were a helluva lot better at it than us. I know Jerry Glanville did it in Atlanta. We played them and every time they knew if we were in man or zone. Bernie (Kosar) was our quarterback that game and didn’t have the velocity on the ball that Troy had. We knew they had our signals both on offense and defense and we struggled.”

“I’m rattling on about this, but for them to penalize Bill for doing something that was a big part of the league at the same time is ridiculous.”

Mudd went on to coach in Indianapolis under Tony Dungy and Polian at the height of the Colts-Patriots rivalry.

“I don’t know if they tried it there,” Johnson said of stealing signs.

Johnson, to be sure, is good friends with Belichick. He nearly hired Belichick as the Dolphins defensive coordinator. Just last week, they watched college football’s national championship game together in the suite of University of Miami president Joe Echevarria.

“I know how much he loves the NFL and the history of the game,” Johnson said. “This is important to him.”

Not much gets Jimmy upset these days in the Keys.

“This just isn’t right,” he said.