If there was ever a man who coached in the NFL who had built himself a resume worthy of a first-ballot Hall of Famer, it was Bill Belichick. Yet, because of what appears to be lingering bitterness from executives whose teams he routinely dominated during his 24-year run with the New England Patriots, Belichick did not receive that fleeting first-ballot honor.
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Belichick fell short of the required 40 out of 50 votes, which seems unconscionable. How could anyone else be a first-ballot inductee if Belichick was not? He’s won more Super Bowls than anyone, with eight (six as a head coach with the Patriots and two as a DC for the New York Giants in the 1980s), his 302 regular-season wins are third all-time, and his 31 playoff wins are the most ever by an NFL coach.
Heck, the guy was also named head coach of both the 2000s and 2010s NFL All-Decade Teams and was one of just six coaches selected to the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. Unfortunately, one of the executives involved in that centennial selection, Bill Polian, has reportedly held a grudge against Belichick for years. According to ESPN, Polian played a significant role in turning voters against Belichick during the Hall of Fame process.
“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,” read the ESPN report.
Polian has denied this outright, but he also said he couldn’t even remember with 100 percent certainty if he voted for Belichick or not. If you’re so senile or so apathetic about the Hall of Fame voting process that you can’t even remember who you put on your ballot, maybe you should be disqualified from the process.
And we’re not the only ones who believe Polian’s behavior here should warrant his removal from the HOF voting process. NFL veteran TJ Houshmandzadeh and others thought so, too.
“Take his vote away, that’s what they need to do… If they’ve got any kind of guts, they’ll take his vote away. Because he was a competitor to Bill Belichick when he was with the Colts, so he probably feels a certain type of way. Bill Polian should not be allowed to vote anymore,” Houshmandzadeh said on the Speakeasy podcast.
Houshmandzadeh’s co-host, Emmanuel Acho, agreed. Acho pointed out that not only is Polian now 83 years old, but his opinions and takes on football over the last decade should also have ruled him out of the voting process. Particularly, his opinion on Lamar Jackson coming out of college.
“He has lost his ability to speak on the game of football,” Acho said. “He said Lamar Jackson, a Heisman-winning QB, Heisman again runner-up QB. Even before the [NFL] MVPs, he said Lamar coming out of college should play wide receiver. Look it up.”
It’s true. And that was just a couple of years after Polian himself got into the Pro Football Hall of Fame back in 2015. He was the general manager of the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990s and built that near-dynastic team.
But, as H0ushmandzadeh pointed out, Polian was also the GM for the successful Peyton Manning era in Indianapolis. Belichick went 10-6 against Polian’s Colts during the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry, including a 2-1 mark in the postseason. That could easily leave a bad taste.
On top of that, Polian has always been a steadfast and ardent supporter of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. As we all know, Kraft had a severe falling out with Belichick toward the end of their partnership in New England. There’s just too much evidence against Polian here, even if it is circumstantial.
If you can’t vote honestly (and you can’t even REMEMBER YOUR VOTE), you should be removed from the panel, plain and simple.
