If Bill Belichick is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, what’s the point?

A six-time Super Bowl champion as a head coach, plus throw in two more as a defensive coordinator designing one of the most dominant units in the history of the sport. In total coached in 20% of all the Super Bowls in history, including 25% during his time employed as a coach. A three-time Coach of the Year, Executive of the Year, and member of the NFL's All-2000s, All-2010s, and 100th Anniversary team. The second-most wins in NFL history with a 333-178 record.

Seems like a Hall of Fame resume, right?

Not according to (at least some of) the 50 stuffed shirts in Ohio that account for the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting committee, apparently.

On Tuesday night, ESPN reported that Bill Belichick, widely considered the greatest coach in the history of Pro Football, did not get the 80% of the vote needed for induction as a member of the Class of 2026. This was Belichick's first year of eligibility, with the Hall recently changing the rule regarding the waiting period for coaches from five years to just one.

Belichick's snub came as a shock to most fans, media, players - pretty much anyone that knows anything about the game of football. Unfortunately though, at the same time it was almost predictable given how much the voting process has disintegrated in recent years.

It feels like every few years this voting body has come up with a snub that couldn't possibly be outdone. For years Rodney Harrison was one of the headliners of that group, rarely even sniffing the finalist round. We've outlined his case plenty right here on 985TheSportsHub.com. Harrison was among the biggest snubs overall and had been the Patriots' snub for a few years, after both Ty Law and Richard Seymour had to wait multiple seasons to get in.

Then last year, the committee outdid itself and seemingly set a new floor. Adam Vinatieri, the NFL's all-time leading scorer and the greatest kicker in the history of the sport, was not inducted in his first year of eligibility. Not only was he snubbed, but the committee only inducted the minimum of four players essentially leaving blank spots on the ballot.

That at the time was the latest example of what's been a visible anti-Patriots bias since the early Dynasty years. As Evan Lazar of Patriots.com pointed out on Tuesday night, the Patriots' Hall of Fame representation has fallen way behind other teams with similar success. The '70s Steelers have 10 players, plus their head coach and owner inducted. The '80s 49ers have six players, plus the head coach and owner, as do the '90s Cowboys.

The early 2000s Patriots? Only Law and Seymour have been inducted, despite much of those teams having been eligible for years. Even factoring in Tom Brady's eventual induction (which may not be a safe assumption at this point based on the Belichick vote, and I'm only half-kidding), that still leaves the Patriots at half of those other teams. Their coach also is now eligible but not included, while their owner Robert Kraft is a Finalist this year but has been up for discussion for over a decade without induction.

Players have talked about this anti-Patriots bias in the past. Vince Wilfork, who is multiple years into eligibility, discussed it with us on the Sports Hub earlier this year. Harrison has been talking about it going back to 2019.

"It's just unfortunate," he told the Boston Herald at the time. "It's almost a form of discrimination. People don't want to elevate us, or recognize, or acknowledge how great we are, because they're such haters. Everywhere I go, people hate on the Patriots. So we don't get credit."

It's not just a Patriots thing though. The 50-person voting pool made up of mostly media members with a few ex-players, coaches, and front office staffers mixed in (full list here), has shown clear bias in the past. Whether it be about a certain team, about positional value (as I wrote about with Larry Centers way back in 2020), longevity, or simply personality, there are a number of players who have a legitimate case to be in who have been overlooked for multiple years.

Here's a great example featuring two wide receivers. Check out their career numbers...

WR A:

15 seasons
219 games
1,078 catches
15,934 yards
153 TDs

WR B:

13 seasons
190 games
1,102 catches
14,580 yards
128 TDs

Any guess which player got in first ballot, and which had to wait?

Wide receiver A is Terrell Owens. A bit of an abrasive personality, yes, but widely considered one of the greatest wide receivers of all time. He had to wait three years to get in. Wide receiver B is Marvin Harrison. Still a good player, but not often put in the same category as Owens and had a lower personality profile while being a member of those darling Colts teams. He got in on the first ballot.

When Owens finally did get inducted, he made a statement by not attending the induction in Canton and holding his own ceremony at his alma mater Chattanooga. During his speech, he made a point to call out the committee.

"This is not [about] not being inducted the first or second ballot, but it's about the process in which guys are nominated and ultimately inducted. There is a flaw in that system," he said. "So this is not only about me, but it's about the guys that went before me, that's going to come after me. And I can make a stand for those guys so they won't have to go through this situation.''

Maybe he was on to something?

That's not the only place the committee has been weird about wide receivers. I think we'd all agree that the 2000s were a pretty good decade for wide receivers? Well the wide receiver with the most catches (868) and yards (12,594) and fifth-most touchdowns (68) during that span isn't in, despite having been eligible for over a decade. That's right, Torry Holt still sits on the outside looking in despite having been a finalist six times.

Holt is more of an outlier than just that. Only one other receiver finished top five in all those categories for the 2000s. That's Marvin Harrison, who again was a first-ballot selection. He's also, for some reason, the only star member of the Greatest Show on Turf Rams offense to not be inducted with quarterback Kurt Warner, running back Marshall Faulk, wide receiver Isaac Bruce, tackle Orlando Pace, and even coach Dick Vermeil already in.

Another more recent example was last year. Left off along with Vinatieri was linebacker Luke Kuechly. An NFL Defensive Player of the Year who was also an All-Pro every single season of his NFL career, Kuechly had a shorter career of seven years but was arguably the best linebacker in football the entire time.

Those were/are all bad misses by the Hall of Fame voters. Bad, bad, bad. But Belichick, this is a new low - a low previously thought unfathomable. One that should leave fans asking, what even is the point of this exercise?

Part of what has made the Pro Football Hall of Fame stand apart in the past is the bar is higher that its contemporaries in other sports. A high bar for a Hall of Fame is good, but it can't be so high that an individual like Bill Belichick of all people ends up on the outside looking in.

Here's the thing. It's not as if individuals like Belichick, Vinatieri, and others named above aren't Hall of Famers. We watched the games and know what we saw. If the process isn't recognizing that, then the problem is in the process, not the candidates.

Which, is a shame. A Hall of Fame should tell the history of the game it represents, not about settling score or hashing out old grudges. There should be real weight and significance that comes with being associated with it. Yet, by essentially voting voting Belichick out it is now an incomplete record which casts a shadow on not just the process and the voters but the Hall itself as Belichick becomes arguably the biggest Hall of Fame snub across all major team sports. If this committee won't respect the hallowed job it is given, those in charge of the museum should find another one that is (or at least make their votes public for more accountability).

Sure, Belichick could and should get in next year. But he'll never be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. We'll always know at least some of those entrusted to honor the history of the sport did not feel like his resume was deserving.

He'll have his bust in Canton and the Hall will be more complete. Focus will shift to other snubs that have already happened, or those that are surly to come via this clearly broken system. This one though, this one is different. Even once Belichick is in, it should not be forgotten. It should serve as a black mark on the Hall - and the voting process - for a long time.