NFL News: The Bill Belichick Hall of Fame Snub and Uproar

• The Bill Belichick Hall of Fame controversy is distracting the NFL from its most important two weeks of the year
• Belichick was not elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot
• The response has ranged from rage to Incredible Hulk rage
• It is an unnecessary problem as the league and the world prepare for Super Bowl LX
• What sparked this decision and what might the league do to mitigate the damage?

Bill Polian is Getting Blamed, but He’s Not the Only One

Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian has given multiple stories about his role in the Belichick Hall of Fame debate. First, it was reported that Polian said Belichick should wait a year because of Spygate. Then Polian denied he said that. Next, he said he voted for Belichick. Finally, he said he doesn’t remember if he voted for Belichick or not.

Regardless of what Polian said or didn’t say and what he did or didn’t do, his vote would have been irrelevant had Belichick reached the 40 out of 50 vote threshold for election.

So, doing some rudimentary math…there were 10 in addition to Polian who didn’t vote for Belichick. Or, if Polian voted for Belichick, there were a minimum of 11 voters who gave Belichick a thumbs down.

The Voting Process and the Tendency to Make Candidates Wait

The Pro Football Hall of Fame voting process can be read here.

The rules for induction are generally random and left up to the voters. The Baseball Hall of Fame sends voters ballots and they check off their selections. The Pro Football Hall of Fame engages in a debate to convince other voters to join in supporting their candidate.

As far as accomplishments in the NFL go, Belichick is third in league history for regular season wins behind Don Shula and George Halas. He has the most Super Bowls as a head coach and two more as an assistant. He is a three-time Coach of the Year.

Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson, a close friend of Belichick’s, expressed his displeasure on X.

Beyond the conspiracy theories about Polian and that Patriots owner Bob Kraft, also up for enshrinement, does not want to share the stage with Belichick, voting on coaches has been notoriously haphazard.

Bill Parcells waited many years before being elected. Part of that was believed to have been due to the Big Tuna’s contentious relationship with the media, some of whom were gatekeepers to the Hall. Another reason was that the Hall of Fame does not like members to become active again and be back on the field while they’re already Hall of Famers. Parcells retired and unretired over and over.

Don Coryell was an innovator on offense. Teams still use “Air Coryell” as their offensive style. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2023, 13 years after his death.

He never won a Super Bowl, let alone made one.

Tom Coughlin won two Super Bowls with the Giants (beating Belichick in both) and built the Jaguars from their inception, getting them to the AFC Championship Game in their second year of existence.

He’s 79 and still waiting.

The Hall is infamous for letting qualified candidates wait until they’re either dead or getting too old to enjoy it.

So, Why Was Belichick Snubbed?

Was it Spygate, the scandal in which the Patriots were caught filming other teams’ sidelines, trying to decipher their signals and codes?

Was it how he treated the media as though they were walking into every press conference carrying a communicable disease?

Are they worried that he might come back to coach in the NFL after he’s been inducted?

Is it the perception that he’s nothing without Tom Brady and that his behavior after leaving the Patriots with his young girlfriend Jordon Hudson and disastrous first season as University of North Carolina coach has made him such an embarrassment that they don’t want him around until he cleans up his act?

We won’t get any answers other than the NFL making vague statements and the voters closing ranks in a wall of silence.

One thing is certain: When the odds come up for who will be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2027, Bill Belichick will be a 99.9999999% certainty.

It’s the minuscule percentage of people who hate him he needs to worry about.

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