This writer, who was a beat writer for the miami Dolphins presented bb
My phone rang on Tuesday around mid-afternoon, and it was the familiar voice of an NFL source who started the conversation by bluntly asking, "What happened with Belichick?"
I did not know what the heck he was talking about and told him as much, and that's when he informed me he'd just heard that former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowl championships as a head coach and guided this century's most dominant NFL dynasty, was not voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
I didn't know. And I didn't immediately believe it.
Except it is true. Belichick indeed will not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
Bill Belichick Not First Ballot HOFer
And this one hits home because I presented Belichick in the Hall's sub-committee meeting that selected him to advance to the full 50-member selection body. And I also presented Belichick to the full selector's committee in the meeting on Jan. 13.
And throughout the process, I thought it impossible that the coach who won six Lombardi Trophies, more than any other head coach including the man the trophy is named after, would be snubbed as a first-ballot inductee.
But here we are. At least 11 selectors voted against Belichick.
I know the names of some of those because they made their positions clear in the meeting that they outright didn't intend to vote for Belichick or spoke up in the debate, making it obvious they felt uncomfortable doing so.
It's not my place to name the dissenters. But they definitely should speak up.
because they felt it sullied his records.
And I addressed that issue in my presentation.
Post Spygate Belichick Still A HOFer
I told them that even if you believe every victory Belichick’s teams authored up to Sept. 9, 2007 when Spygate was uncovered should be expunged from the coach’s record, he still…
Won 3 Super Bowl championships.
He won 6 conference titles.
He had 14 double-digit-win seasons, including 13 in a row.
Belichick has a 112-81 record for a .580 winning percentage through that first game of 2007. And he has a 190-84 record for a .693 winning percentage afterward.
After Spygate, Belichick won more regular-season games than 22 of the 28 coaches in the Hall of Fame including:
John Madden.
Joe Gibbs.
Hank Stram.