Bill Belichick’s cheating cost him first-ballot Hall of Fame induction. It might have also cost the Eagles a Super Bowl title.

You’ve probably never heard of Eugène Sue, a French surgeon under Napoleon and later the writer credited with first use of the phrase, “La vengeance se mange très-bien froide.”

Loosely translated, it means, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” It has been uttered by characters as diverse as Vito Corleone in The Godfather novel, to Khan Noonien Singh, a Klingon warlord in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

Now, Philadelphia and the Eagles can say it, too.

Now, in Bill Belichick’s hour of disappointment and shame, Philly can savor revenge.

Despite winning a record six Super Bowls, Belichick — whose era as Patriots coach coincided with two of the most notorious cheating schemes in NFL history — failed to secure the minimum 40 of 50 votes required to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He will not be a first-ballot inductee, according to an ESPN.com report Tuesday.

This shocked the sports world.

Former defensive lineman J.J. Watt, who never played for Belichick, said on Twitter/X that there is “not a single world whatsoever” in which Belichick shouldn’t be a first-ballot inductee.

Voters are not required to reveal their votes, but Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson said voters who do not admit to omitting Belichick from their ballot are “cowardly.”

Like so many, they were shocked. Like so many, they were outraged.

They should not have been.

Hall of Fame voters hate cheaters.

Carlos Beltrán, who helped run an illegal sign-stealing scheme for the Houston Astros, had to wait four years to gain entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Roger Clemens, Herculean heroes all implicated in PED scandals, might never make it in.

I voted for all of those guys, and I’d have voted for Belichick, too, if I’d had a vote (the panel is a rotating hodgepodge of 50 mostly credible experts). But I understand. I understand why at least 10 voters banned Bill.

Why should Belichick, a proven and penalized two-time cheater, be treated any better than other scofflaw? He might not be Pete Rose, but he ain’t Bill Walsh, either.

The voters convened on Jan. 13 to discuss the fates of the Hall of Fame finalists, among them Belichick, whose 302 wins are a record in the Super Bowl era (30 of Don Shula’s 328 wins predate the Super Bowl). Reportedly amid the discussion: Belichick’s role in “Spygate,” an illegal videotaping scheme that Belichick conducted from 2000, the year he was hired as the Patriots’ head coach, through early 2007, when they were caught red-handed while taping the Jets’ sideline during a road game.

This incident came just over a year after the league issued a memorandum reminding teams of the parameters and definitions of illegal recording.

The penalty was a $500,000 fine for Belichick, a $250,000 fine for the Patriots, and the loss of their first-round pick in the 2008 draft.

But there was no way to secure reparations from the teams who had been cheated — possibly among them, the 2004 Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.

Thanks in part to the efforts of former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, it has since been established that the Patriots recorded opponents’ signs before and after that game.

It was a hot topic. How hot?

Shanin Specter, a Philadelphia attorney and the late senator’s son, told The Inquirer in 2021 that, in 2008, President Donald Trump — then a private citizen — appeared to offer Specter’s father a bribe if he would drop his investigation into Spygate.

» READ MORE: The story about Donald Trump, Arlen Specter, and the Patriots that set the internet ablaz

The real ones didn’t need an investigation. They knew what was happening as it was happening.

In a story in 2018, former Eagles defensive backs coach Steve Spagnuolo told a Philadelphia radio station that, at Super Bowl XXXIX, Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson accused the Patriots of stealing the Eagles’ signs during the game. The Patriots seemed to know what was coming even when the Eagles employed rarely-used schemes and plays.

How did this specter of cheating arise so many years later?

The ESPN report indicated that Bill Polian, a Hall of Fame member as an NFL executive and a current voter, lobbied against Belichick during that Jan. 13 meeting. He cited the incidence of Belichick’s cheating, and he had skin in the game.

Polian was president and GM of the Colts when the Patriots, in the middle of their Spygate era, knocked them out of the playoffs after the 2003 and 2004 seasons. On Tuesday night, Polian denied to ESPN that he had told voters that Belichick should serve a one-year penance, but, incredibly — as in, not credibly — Polian said he was unable to recall if he’d voted for Belichick.

Polian wasn’t with Indianapolis after 2011, but he remained close to the franchise, so he wasn’t happy when the Colts were victims of Belichick’s other moment of ignominy.

At halftime of the 2014 AFC championship game in New England, NFL officials were alerted by Colts players that the footballs the Patriots were using seemed soft. The balls were examined, deemed to be illegal, and an investigation commenced.

That’s how Belichick and the Patriots were implicated in “Deflategate." Eventually, they were found to have routinely, intentionally, and illegally deflated footballs they used on game days to make them easier to pass, catch, and hold on to. Furthermore, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was found to have destroyed evidence during the investigation. (Belichick denied knowledge of the matter, and the Wells Report into Deflategate found that Belichick was not involved, but many observers remain unconvinced).

This time the league fined the Patriots $1 million, suspended Brady for the first four games of the 2015 season, and took away the Patriots’ 2016 first-round pick and their 2017 fourth-round pick.

Today, most folks look past Belichick’s cheating, especially on Tuesday, when the story broke. They point at his innovation, his preparation, and his ability to maximize the abilities of every player, from Brady to Richard Seymour to Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski.

But just enough folks apparently did not. Just enough folks think Belichick should have to wait a bit before he gets his bust and his jacket.

Just enough folks did not look past Belichick’s sins.

Shula died in 2020, but somewhere, you have to think ol’ Don’s smiling. He despised Belichick’s methodology.

“The ‘Spygate’ thing has diminished what they’ve accomplished. You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments,“ Shula said in 2007, during the Patriots’ failed attempt to match his 1972 Dolphins’ perfect season.

Seven years later, when asked about Belichick’s feats to that point, Shula replied with the nickname Belichick’s detractors had given him: “Beli-Cheat?”

Yes.

Beli-cheat.

“La vengeance se mange très-bien froide.”