In a room of 50 Pro Football Hall of Fame voters, at least 11 of them voted against enshrining Bill Belichick, the NFL’s all-time leader in Super Bowl titles among head coaches.
The first of them came forward on Wednesday, a day after news broke that the New England Patriots legend had missed out on enshrinement. That would be Kansas City Star columnist Vahe Gregorian, the representative of the Kansas City Chiefs media contingent.
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In a column published at the Star, Gregorian explained his reasons for not supporting Belichick. And they had nothing to do with Spygate and Deflategate, the scandals that have been widely reported to be a major reason for Belichick’s exclusion.
Hall of Fame voter thinks Bill Belichick belongs in the Hall of Fame, but didn’t vote for him
From the beginning, Gregorian says he actually does think Belichick belongs in the Hall of Fame.
To be fair, many other anti-Belichick voters might agree. It was initially suggested in the ESPN article breaking the news that Belichick missed out on enshrinement that some felt he should simply have to wait a year as penance for his cheating scandals, then enter Canton.
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However, Gregorian said the matter of Spygate and Deflategate didn’t affect his vote at all:
ESPN’s piece heavily suggests that Deflategate and Spygate and “politics” led to this situation, and it quotes a veteran Hall voter as saying, “The only explanation (for the outcome) was the cheating stuff. It really bothered some of the guys.”
Perhaps that affected some voters, perhaps not. I can’t and won’t try to speak for others, and it’s a condition of being a voter to not divulge the deliberations.
But the so-called “cheating stuff” is not at all the only possible explanation. Because it certainly didn’t ultimately influence my vote.
So why did Gregorian vote against Belichick? He said he simply had other people he was worrying about making the Hall, with too few votes to go around.
Some thought this might be the case.
You can learn more about the matter here, but the situation breaks down as Belichick being one of five non-modern players up for a vote. The other four were Patriots owner Robert Kraft, in the contributor category, and three senior player candidates: Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood.
The rub for Gregorian was that due to recently instituted Hall of Fame rules, voters could only vote for, at most, three of those five, creating a situation where five men needed 40 votes from a room where there only 150 total votes to go around.
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Obviously, Belichick had a strong case to receive a full third of those votes.
We’re slowly learning why Bill Belichick wasn’t voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (AP Photo/Bill Wippert)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The way Gregorian puts it, he was much more concerned about the trio of senior players, whom he said have been “snubbed for decades” and might not get another chance at the ballot due to a backlog of senior players. So he voted for three players, with the assumption that Belichick will be back next year and they won’t:
All of that went into why I felt duty-bound to vote for the richly deserving seniors, who most likely won’t ever have a hearing again as more senior candidates enter the pool and fresh cases get made for others.
Meanwhile, Belichick is inevitable soon … as he should be. At the risk of contradicting my own vote, really, he shouldn’t even have to wait. I understand why people are offended that he isn’t going in the first moment he can.
In the end, though, I felt more compelled by what I perceive to be last chances and looming lost causes within the system as we have it — a system I hope the Hall will see fit to change now.
It’s not quite that simple, though. Belichick sure seems like a lock to make it next year, especially after this firestorm, but that will be at the expense of another contributor and set of senior players. Pushing back Belichick in favor of Anderson, Craig and Greenwood simply kicks the can down the road.
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Gregorian’s reasoning reflects a critical issue with the new Hall of Fame voting, in which voters don’t vote “yes” or “no” on a candidate so much as “this guy” or “that guy.” He’s not alone in having an issue.
Some Bill Belichick voters agree Hall of Fame voting needs fixing
Among the voters who have publicly confirmed they voted in favor of Belichick, several of them have made very clear they aren’t happy with any of this.
Some of them are annoyed the result got leaked. Some of them are understandably annoyed about being harassed for something their colleagues did. And some of them are annoyed with the new rules that created this situation.
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A sample of the latter:
Ultimately, Belichick’s snub has said far more about the Hall of Fame thant Belichick’s legacy. It’s hard to imagine this isn’t going to cause the Hall to re-evaluate its rules when it comes to coaches.
For now, though, the people will rage.
Some voters definitely went against Belichick due to Spygate
While Gregorian had his reasons, it should noted there were definitely voters who voted against Belichick due to Spygate.
As one account from the room laid out, “Spygate was the reason several selectors could not bring themselves to vote for Belichick, because they felt it sullied his records.” That lines up with ESPN’s initial reporting, though voter Bill Polian has denied leading that charge.
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Clearly there were multiple reasons to go against Belichick, most observers just don’t think they are good reasons. Some have even speculated there might have been some grudges against Belichick in the room, though rejecting him out of revenge for being grumpy with the media would be spectacularly self-defeating considering how much more heat is on the voters right now.
