There have been plenty of Hall of Fame snubs, but few that reach the incomprehensibility of Bill Belichick’s. Luke Kuechly should’ve been a Hall of Famer last year. Steve Smith, the eighth-most prolific receiver in NFL history, should’ve been one already. Torry Holt and Reggie Wayne, too.
But Belichick is perhaps the worst snub in the history of snubs. It is unfathomable that he was not voted in. He needed 40 of 50 votes to make it, which is admittedly a pretty hefty threshold in general. However, he’s Bill Belichick. He should have had 50 of 50 votes.
Bill Belichick misses Hall of Fame somehow
This egregious mistake will be rectified next year, but there’s always a little more weight added to a first-ballot Hall of Famer. It has an air about it that separates those players or coaches from the rest. Bill Belichick was maybe the most deserving person ever.
He’s won eight Super Bowls, two as a coordinator and six as a head coach. That is more than any single team has in the entire NFL. The report didn’t say how many votes he fell short by, just that he fell short. He was reportedly “puzzled” and “disappointed” by this, which is probably putting it mildly.
A source close to Belichick said he believes this is just “politics,” which might not be the strangest theory in the world. Belichick was not necessarily beloved, and many have criticized his inability to succeed at a high level without Tom Brady.
Never mind the fact that not having the greatest QB in the history of the sport would make any coach look worse. Never mind the fact that Brady left because the roster was in such awful shape, so how could Belichick have won with that roster?
Even if there is a debate on who is actually responsible, the accolades are the accolades. We don’t hold players out of the Hall of Fame because they had the benefit of playing with an elite quarterback or because they got to throw the ball to Jerry Rice a lot.
Football is a team sport, and there are a ton of factors that influence success for each individual, but that doesn’t mean we have to be as nuanced as possible and keep people out of the Hall of Fame because we’re not absolutely certain they alone were responsible for their success.
NFL reacts to stunning snub
NFL reporter Jonathan Jones wrote on X after the decision, “I legitimately think this is the biggest miscarriage of justice in history of sports honors/awards. Nothing else even comes close. And at the risk of being hyperbolic, it is reprehensible.”
He’s not the only one. Patrick Mahomes said he couldn’t understand how this was even possible. JJ Watt said that this news had to be coming out of a fake Hall of Fame or that he was somehow not reading the report correctly.
LeBron James crossed sports to tweet, “Man there’s no way I read that right! Right? Ain’t no WAY Bill Belichick ain’t 1st Ballot HOF!! That’s IMPOSSIBLE, EGREGIOUS, and quite frankly DISRESPECTFUL!”
Former NFL coach Jimmie Johnson claimed the voters were “small” and “jealous” and refused to vote Belichick in. Gerald McCoy said emphatically, “The voters have to not remain anonymous anymore. We need an explanation for why Bill Belichick one of the greatest coaches ever of any level of any sport with 8 SB’s is not a first ballot HOF’er.”
There is some debate that Belichick was held out because of his cheating scandals, such as Spygate or Deflategate, but when Tom Brady is a first-ballot Hall of Famer with unanimous support, that argument won’t hold water.
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