Bill Belichick has a game plan in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But his own enshrinement will have to wait at least one more year.
Tucked away among the artifacts of the game’s rich history is Belichick’s game plan for Super Bowl XXV, the road map he put together for the New York Giants as they prepared to take on Jim Kelly and the high-flying Buffalo Bills offense. This was a unit that prided itself on stopping the run, but Belichick had a different idea. They were going to let the Bills run Thurman Thomas that night, and dare the Bills to keep running the football. by playing with five or even six defensive backs to take away the pass.
Final score: New York 20, Buffalo 19.
Again, that game plan is tucked away in the Hall of Fame, something I have looked upon with my own eyes. But as the coach himself is on the cusp of entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame, reports have surfaced that in his first year of eligibility, Bill Belichick, a part of eight Super Bowl victories as both a defensive coordinator and a head coach, and the architect of two different dynasties with the New England Patriots, is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer. According to multiple reports, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for enshrinement in this, his first year of eligibility.
The idea that Belichick is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer is absurd on its face.
The reasoning behind it, if reports are true, is even worse.
According to a story from Seth Wickersham, Spygate and Deflategate are the reasons.
Multiple sources told ESPN that Spygate and Deflategate, the twin cheating scandals during the Patriots’ championship run, came up in deliberations among voters,“ wrote Wickersham on Tuesday evening. ”A voter who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Polian, an ardent Kraft supporter and former general manager of the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts — a chief Patriots rival during their dynasty — told some voters he believed Belichick should “wait a year” before induction as penance for Spygate, the 2007 cheating scandal that cost the team a first-round draft pick. Commissioner Roger Goodell also fined the Patriots $500,000 and fined Belichick $250,000.“
So, in addition to the penalties already levied by the league — penalties that Patriots fans rage about to this day — Belichick has to endure yet one more punishment as a result of these dual investigations.
Never mind the winning record. Never mind the eight Super Bowl wins. Never mind the two dynasties. Never mind the fact that Belichick appeared in more Super Bowls than any other head coach in league history.
No, one more bit of punishment from Polian, a general manager that Belichick’s teams battled against (and defeated) so many times before. Who for years griped about how Belichick’s teams played defense, particularly against those Peyton Manning teams, and was a driving force behind the expansion of defensive holding penalties in the secondary, a rule that became known as the “Ty Law rule” in reference to one of Belichick’s New England defensive backs.
Law is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who got in on his third try.
Even Belichick himself is reportedly “puzzled” by the decision.
According to Wickersham, “[s]everal sources who spoke with the coach over the weekend described Belichick as ‘puzzled’ and ‘disappointed’ by his inability to secure support from at least 80% of Hall committee members.
”‘Six Super Bowls isn’t enough?‘ Belichick asked an associate, referring to the championships he won as head coach of the New England Patriots. He won two more as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. To another associate, he said, ‘What does a guy have to do?’”
Belichick, noted a source to Wickersham, believes politics kept him out this year.
“Another source familiar with Belichick’s thinking said, ‘Politics kept him out. He doesn’t believe this is a reflection on his accomplishments.‘”
Legendary writer Peter King, once a Hall of Fame voter himself, also expressed bewilderment at the news.
”‘Holy f—! Oh f—! … I’m very, very surprised,‘ said King to Wickersham. ‘A lot of things happen in that room that are unexpected. And of course this is a big surprise to me.’”
It is a surprise to us all.
Belichick will ultimately see his day in the Hall of Fame. And perhaps some of the voters in the room wanted to avoid any potential awkward situation with Belichick’s former boss, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who himself is a finalist for the Hall of Fame.
But as Belichick himself apparently wondered, if his resume is not worthy of being a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, who’s is?
Maybe Bill Polian can tell us.
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