That's what many NFL pundits said they felt when they heard former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick didn't get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this week.
Belichick did not receive the minimum 40 of 50 votes required to make the Hall of Fame.
"It's absolutely asinine that he did not make it into the Hall of Fame as a first-ballot," former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said Wednesday on the Zolak & Bertrand show on 98.5 the Sports Hub.
"The process is inherently flawed," ESPN correspondent Mike Reiss added while he was a guest on the show Wednesday. "I think it calls for leadership from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Someone needs to step up and say like, 'This is not good. It's not good for the game."
Even former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady chimed in this week.
"I don't understand it. I mean, I was with him every day. If he's not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, there's really no coach that should ever be a Hall of Famer," said Brady, the five-time Super Bowl MVP and current Fox Sports broadcaster, in an interview with Seattle Sports.
As a head coach in the NFL, Belichick is "second all-time in NFL head coaching wins with 333 (302 regular season, 31 postseason), trailing only Don Shula, and holds the record for most playoff wins (31)," according to the website for the Patriots Hall of Fame.
Belichick racked up nine Super Bowl appearances with the Patriots, winning six of them.
Franchise owner Robert Kraft also weighed in, telling the Associated Press Belichick deserved the honor.
"Whatever perceptions may exist about any personal differences between Bill and me, I strongly believe Bill Belichick’s record and body of work speak for themselves," Kraft said in a statement.
"As head coach of the New England Patriots for more than two decades, he set the standard for on-field excellence, preparation, and sustained success in the free agency and salary cap era of the National Football League. He is the greatest coach of all time and he unequivocally deserves to be a unanimous first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer."
Even people who had never played for him or worked with him were stunned. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes took to X writing, "Insane…don’t even understand how this could be possible,"
What does it mean that Belichick didn't make the grade to be considered a first-ballot Hall of Fame candidate?
Here's what to know.
What is a 'first-ballot' NFL Hall of Fame candidate?
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame online, a first-ballot candidate is a "player or coach whose career accomplishments are so overwhelming that they are immediately elected to the Hall of Fame the first year they become eligible, without needing multiple years of consideration by the selection committee."
Why didn't Belichick make it into the Hall of Fame this week?
Some sports pundits have speculated that it was the "Spygate" scandal that kept him out of the Hall, or perhaps the "Deflategate" incident in 2015.
Spygate refers to when the NFL caught "the New England Patriots illegally videotaping coaching signals of the New York Jets from an unauthorized location in a Week 1 game (in 2007) in East Rutherford, N.J.," according to the History Channel.
"Just before halftime of the Patriots' 38-14 Patriots win, a 26-year-old New England video assistant named Matt Estrella was caught capturing hand signals from New York's defensive assistants on video."
In Deflategate, Brady was charged with using under-inflated footballs in the 2015 AFC Championship game. Though the scandal was tied mostly to Brady, Belichick was also thought to be involved on some level.
How does the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting process work?
While the committee elects the new members, they are not the only voices in the nomination process. Anyone can nominate eligible players, coaches or contributors to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame only receives nominations and does not make them.
There are four ways to become eligible for enshrinement:
- Modern-Era Player (retired for 5 to 24 seasons)
- Senior Player (retired for at least 25 seasons)
- Coach (retired at least one season)
- Contributor (any past or current official, owner, general manager, etc.)
Once the preliminary list is compiled, that's where the selection committee comes in. Members are polled at various points throughout the year, eventually shrinking the list of potential inductees down to 20 following a vote in December.
Of the 20, 15 spots are for modern-era players and the remaining spots are awarded to those recommended by the three committees – coach (1), contributor (1) and seniors (3).
At the annual meeting ahead of the Super Bowl, the voters gather to further winnow the list and elect the newest members from the group of finalists.
The selection committee can vote for up to three of the five nominees made by the Coach, Contributor, and Seniors committees. Anyone who receives at least 80% of the vote is inducted in the Hall of Fame.
It's a process that is then replicated for the players, reducing the list from 15 down to 10 and then seven before the final vote. The committee can select up to five players and anyone with at least 80% of the vote will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
There is no set number of inductees for each class, but the committee's current bylaws stipulate that between four and eight new members could be elected each year. Given the way the process works, it is designed for eight new members every year, but that is not always the case.
USA Today reporter Nick Brinkerhoff contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bill Belichick wasn't voted into Hall of Fame. Brady, Kraft slam snub
