MOBILE, Ala. – Bill Belichick is the best football coach of this generation and should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
He was on my ballot, and the fact that he wasn’t on at least 11 of the other 49 ballots, according to ESPN, was an egregious mistake the selection committee I’m a part of will have to wait a year to address.
Belichick has the second most wins of any coach in NFL history with 333 and his six Super Bowl victories are unmatched. He was a tactical genius who is widely regarded as one of the best defensive minds ever, and he doubled as a pioneer on offense. The tight end-centric playbooks he used in the early 2010s started not when he drafted Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez to the New England Patriots but with Charlie Sanders and David Hill back when he was tight ends coach of the Detroit Lions in 1977.
Even if you think he was a scoundrel for the Spygate cheating scandal that tainted his reputation and likely cost him a spot in this year’s class, a reasonable view considering the NFL was so ashamed it destroyed all evidence in the case, Belichick still won three Super Bowls and 175 games after Spygate was put to rest.
That’s a better resume than most of the 29 coaches who have been enshrined in Canton since the Hall opened its doors in 1963 and it should have been enough to make Belichick No. 30 – and the fifth first-ballot Hall of Fame coach, along with Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Tom Landry and Don Shula - this summer.
As a Hall of Fame voter, I’m not at liberty to discuss who said what in our annual selection meeting earlier this month.
But I can tell you I was as stunned as anyone when news broke Tuesday that Belichick was not a part of this year’s class.
Selection procedures have varied in my 10-plus years on the committee to make it a rightfully more exclusive club. This is the Hall of Fame, after all. It’s for the game’s all-time greats, not merely those who were pretty good.
This year, Belichick was part of a five-person group of coaches, contributors and senior nominees who were up for election along with 15 modern-era finalists.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, ex-San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig, former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end L.C. Greenwood and ex-Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson were the other seniors/coaches/contributors nominees.
Committee members discuss each candidate in-depth following a five-minute opening presentation, then vote for the three from that group they feel are most deserving in a private ballot. Anyone receiving 80% of the vote is elected. If no one receives 80%, the top vote-getter gets in.
(Modern-era finalists are considered separately, with a slightly different voting procedure.)
There’s a saying among selectors: Jim Brown and sit down. As in, some candidates have such an iron-clad case there’s no need for debate. The presenter can simply say the candidate’s name, sit down - or end his Zoom presentation nowadays - and the rest of the committee knows what to do.
I thought Belichick was that much of a lock, a Bill and chill, essentially, though there always was going to be debate about Spygate (and to a lesser extent, Deflategate), how Belichick fared as coach without Tom Brady and whether a one-year wait is long enough to let any coach in.
None of those arguments held water to me as reason to keep Belichick out of the Hall of Fame. His overall body of work was too good, his accomplishments unmatched.
He was the first name I clicked on when it came time to cast my ballot. For transparency, I also voted for Kraft and Craig.
This isn’t the first time my vote has differed from who got in and it surely won’t be the last. The honor is subjective by definition; there’s no baseline for All-Pros or MVP awards or championships that inductees must achieve, and setting one would eliminate some very worthy candidates and perhaps let other less deserving ones in.
That’s the beauty of the process in many ways. Discussions can be long and eye-opening, they are mini histories of each candidate’s place in the game. But the voters I know take their roles seriously. It’s a tremendous honor to be elected, and a heavy weight to do the electing.
I don’t know why so many voters thought Belichick was less deserving of selection than Kraft, Craig, Greenwood or Anderson. His resume compares favorably not just with that group but with others already in the Hall.
He will get in eventually, but for now his absence casts a shadow on everyone involved in the whole process - candidates, voters and the Hall itself - and it stinks.
Dave Birkett is a Pro Football Hall of Fame voter. He covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bill Belichick's Hall of Fame snub: Why my colleagues got it wrong
