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Bill Belichick snub reveals big problem with Pro Football Hall of Fame
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- Bill Belichick snub reveals big problem with Pro Football Hall of Fame
There are things in pro football that are fait accompli.
The Super Bowl is the final game of the season. Bad teams will overpay in free agency. The draft chatter is white noise by early April. And a head coach with six Lombardi Trophies is inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first attempt.
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Or not.
The New England - Seattle Super Bowl became a rumor on Tuesday, Jan. 27, when ESPN reported Bill Belichick had not received the required 40 votes (out of 50) to earn a gold jacket this August in Canton, Ohio.
Belichick, who won a combined eight Super Bowls as an assistant (two with the New York Giants ) or head coach (six with the Patriots ).
Belichick, who is second all-time in wins behind Don Shula.
Belichick, who worked continuously in the NFL from 1975-2023.
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The outrage was swift, especially after it was reported that Belichick's involvement in "Spygate" — the Patriots were caught videotaping the New York Jets ' sideline signals — may have prompted some voters to put Belichick in the penalty box for a year.
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Did voters not select Belichick because he was rude to the media? I really hope not.
What I do really hope for is that this debacle sends the Hall of Fame back to the drawing board to fix the process.
Bill Belichick's impeccable resume
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches his team warm up before the start of Super Bowl XXXIX against the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville on Feb. 6, 2005. Belichick won six Super Bowls as Patriots head coach.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame's voting process has always been flawed. For starters, there are only 50 voters. That is too much power for one individual. By comparison, 425 ballots were submitted for the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2026.
The background of how Belichick was denied first-year induction …
Belichick isn't a part of the modern-era ballot, which is 15 players narrowed to 10 and then seven. Voters then pick up to five players for induction.
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I don't like that rule. If you think all seven finalists are Hall-worthy, you should get to vote for all seven.
Belichick was in the group that includes owners, contributors (such as general managers) and senior players. This year's class was five, including Belichick, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former players Roger Craig, Ken Anderson and L.C. Greenwood. Voters could pick up to three.
I don't like that rule, either. If you think all five finalists are Hall-worthy, you should get to vote for all five.
USA TODAY COLUMNIST: Bill Belichick, forget the NFL. Focus on College Football Hall of Fame
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Under the current rule, my three picks would have been Kraft, Belichick and Craig.
Belichick's resume is impeccable. Shoot, I would have voted for him just on the basis of two games: Coordinating the Giants' defense to a Super Bowl win over the no-huddle Buffalo Bills in 1990 and leading New England (a two-touchdown underdog) past the St. Louis Rams in 2001.
Belichick went 333-178 in the regular season (Shula holds the record with 347 wins) and an eye-popping 31-13 in the playoffs. The Patriots beat the Rams (twice), Carolina, Philadelphia , Seattle and Atlanta (record-setting 28-3 comeback) in the Super Bowl.
But no, it appears at least 11 voters didn't check off Belichick's name. Madness.
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Hall should increase number of voters
The football system should adopt the baseball system, which is the best system.
Baseball voters get their ballot (usually 25-30 candidates) around Thanksgiving and must submit their votes by Dec. 31.
Voters select up to 10 players and a player must receive at least 75% of the vote to gain induction.
Writers become eligible to voter after 10 years with the Baseball Writers Association of America. If a voter retires or stops covering baseball, they get to remain a voter for 10 years.
And every ballot is revealed.
Why is baseball the best process? Because there is a large number of voters, which eliminates the chance for an outlier vote to impact the overall results and it is "true" journalists, not those who are employed by a team.
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The Pro Football Hall of Fame voting process is too limited in terms of voters and too private in terms of ballot reveals and the overall discussion, which this year took place on Jan. 13.
Currently, every NFL team has a voting representative. In Florida, it is Sam Kouvaris ( Jacksonville ), Ira Kaufman (Tampa) and Armando Salguero ( Miami ). Salguero made the Belichick presentation to the voters. Kouvaris has been the Jacksonville rep since the Jaguars entered the NFL and merits credit for his work in helping Tony Boselli get elected to the Class of 2022. Kaufman presented the cases for Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, Ronde Barber and John Lynch and all were elected.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame's first move is easy: Expand the number of voters to three per team. Just like that, you go from to 32 to 96 voters and also double the number of at-large voters from 17 to 34.
With a working number of 130 voters, hiccups like Belichick being denied would be mostly negated. And every ballot is revealed. Period.
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Belichick not getting in this year impacts coaches like Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin, all of whom have cases to be inducted, but now must wait for this year's Belichick Error to be corrected.
This has been and will be a bad week for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But it now presents an opportunity to modernize the process.
Contact O'Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bill Belichick snub shows Pro Football Hall of Fame selection problems
