If you’re told that a coach has won eight Super Bowls, including six times as head coach, and has the second-highest lifetime winning total, you’re probably thinking that he’s going into the Football Hall of Fame with his eyes closed, right? Not Bill Belichick, apparently!
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This is indeed the case. Belichick, in his first year of eligibility as an immortal, was left out. A massive blow for the ex-Patriots pilot!
Belichick needed 40 votes among the 50 people who are called to vote to enter the Temple and he did not obtain them.
This is not an unfortunate error in the count. This is not a typo. This is not a dubious joke. It’s not an April Fool’s joke or a January Fool’s joke.
It is often said that there is no league full of surprises like the NFL, but here is a sentence that I was convinced I would never write: Bill Belichick is not admitted to the Hall of Fame.
This is simply insane, unimaginable and unjustifiable.
Please explain!
In other words, there are at least 10 people in a room who have decided that the third winningest coach of all time (second including the playoffs) deserves to hang around.
These individuals should be publicly identified. It would be the least we could do to explain their reasoning.
It’s an honor to enter the Hall and even more so to get there in your first year of eligibility. Belichick, despite all he has accomplished, will never enjoy this unique privilege that is reserved for the greatest of the greatest.
I’ve been talking to you about the NFL for 15 years on behalf of Journal and I have rarely, if ever, addressed such embarrassing news. This seems simply inconceivable and scandalous to me.
Strong reactions
Several players and former players heavily criticized this decision, including former star defensive end JJ Watt.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes reacted without restraint via his X account.
“It’s crazy! I don’t even understand how this is possible,” he wrote.
Belichick first made his name as the Giants’ brilliant defensive coordinator. Under Bill Parcells, he won his first two rings.
Then, from 2001 to 2018, he added six to his collection as conductor of the Patriots.
Obviously, there are those who would argue that the primary architect of the Patriots dynasty was Tom Brady rather than Belichick. It’s childish, simplistic and petty in terms of reasoning.
It’s the equivalent of saying that the Beatles were the work of Paul McCartney or John Lennon. As if one had brought nothing to the other and had only been a necessary evil.
The reality is that Belichick of course benefited from having the best quarterback of all time alongside him. But Brady might never have become Brady with the Carolina Panthers or the New York Jets.
It’s true that Belichick looked bad after Brady left. Maybe he had served his time and maybe his ego got in the way of the most prolific professional sports marriage there is.
That doesn’t make Bill Belichick any less of a Hall of Famer the second the door can be opened for him.
Others will say that the 2007 signals scandal hurt him. Obviously he was not an angel in this regard, but it is recognized that coaches from all over the NFL have always used this tactic. His biggest flaw in this story was being caught red-handed, unlike the others.
Since then, many coaches have come to his defense, saying that signal theft had been a common practice, unfortunately, in those days. Who knows, anyway, what is happening these days?
You’ll excuse the use of English about the Hall of Fame, but today the Hall of Fame should be renamed the Hall of Shame.
