What to make of Bill Belichick’s Hall of Fame snub
College Football Enquirer co-hosts Ross Dellenger, Andy Staples and Steven Godfrey discuss why Bill Belichick missed out on first-ballot Hall of Fame cut. Hear the full conversation on the “College Football Enquirer” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
So there's 50 electors.
You have to get 40 votes.
But in this particular situation, they, they've changed the categories now, 'cause it's- players are in a different category.
These are contributors now, so their coaches are lumped in, owners are lumped in, but also there's veteran- like, former players who have passed through the player ballot system, and now are on this, this veterans list.
So, like Roger Craig, the, the former 49ers running back, who was a, a really, really good player in the '80s, and so he was on this same list of finalists with Bill Belichick.
So was Robert Kraft, by the way, the Patriots owner, which needless to say, there's a little, little bit of friction between him and Bill Belichick.
Basically, you're allowed to vote for three of the five.
Whoever gets 40 or more votes is in the Hall of Fame.
Bill Belichick did not get 40 votes.
So everyone thought Bill Polian had mounted a smear campaign-- Bill Polian, the former Colts GM, had mounted a smear campaign to keep him out.
Bill Polian was a voter and did vote for hi- for Belichick.
The, the Hall of Fame has confirmed that.
We know one who didn't, because he wrote a column about it, Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Did a year of watching him, one, fail, two, be a re- a reality TV star, whether willing or unwilling, did that cause these guys to not take Bill Belichick seriously enough to go, "Of course, Bill Belichick should be in the Hall of Fame!"?
The only thing that I could probably comment on in the last 48 hours is how many sports writers are, like, really, like, feeling- like, taking up arms on behalf of Bill Belichick.
It wasn't considered a slam dunk by anyone in college football.
When UNC was bull rushing Belichick through as the hire, everyone I know, every agent, rival agent, sympathetic agent, every coach, every person in the industry said, "I don't know if that's gonna work, guys."
It was never considered a slam dunk, except for the people in that tiny, tiny circle of blue-blooded UNC folks, who thought that they were smarter than everyone else in the room.
