Rob Gronkowski: Andy Reid can't be a first-ballot Hall of Famer if Bill Belichick wasn't
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski saying that since Bill Belichick wasn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, then coaches like Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid shouldn’t be either. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Rob Gronkowski says Andy Reid can't be a first-ballot Hall of Famer because Bill Belichick wasn't.
Quote, "No other coach ever in history should go first ballot."
That's what Rob Gronkowski told Front Office Sports, and it just speaks to the layers of what happened in the voting process.
I, I will say this again loudly, Caroline: I have been covering the NFL in some capacity for a decade at this point.
I have never, in my entire career, known the voting before we got to the final moment.
I've never seen it leaked, and when you wanna talk about some of the, the, the ramifications of that, it's this: We now have Gronk going out saying, "Well, if Bill wasn't a first-ballot Hall of Famer, then Andy Reid sure as hell can't be a first-ballot Hall of Famer."
And the, the hard part for me is that I don't wanna live in a world where suddenly it's this or that because I didn't get my candy bar, you don't get a candy bar.
But I also do understand the math that Rob Gronkowski is doing to say, "If you don't let Bill first, you can't let Andy first."
It just shows you how difficult the entire Hall of Fame conversation has become.
It's I, I do get what Gronk is saying.
Like, I- Bill Belichick is the best coach in the history of the National Football League.
Bill Belichick has won six Super Bowls as a head coach, two more as a defensive coordinator.
Bill Belichick is one of the winningest coaches in the history of this league, and when we talk about the Hall of Fame, you do compare resumes.
That's kind of the whole point of the Hall of Fame.
And so Andy Reid does not have the same caliber of resume as Bill Belichick.
Andy Reid is a Hall of Famer.
Andy Reid will be in Canton.
So I, I see the math.
The math is mathing for Gronk here.
But it's not an indictment on Andy Reid, nor is it an indictment on Bill Belichick.
Is it ridiculous that he wasn't a first-ballot Hall of Famer?
1,000%.
We all view him as such.
Even if he isn't actually one, we all think that he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
It's more of an indictment on the process, that we can't punish Andy Reid, or we can't punish any other coach that's going to be eligible for the Hall of Fame f-f-for, you know, m- for Bill Belichick not getting in, because it's a process issue.
We're not comparing Andy Reid and Bill Belichick.
What the process was was Bill Belichick compared to the rest of the coaches that were eligible in the voting process.
So the problem isn't Bill Belichick's resume, nor is it Andy Reid's resume.
The issue is the process.
If we are picking apart Andy Reid and Bill Belichick, that is a, an indictment in the process in, in, in and of itself.
