At least 11 members of the 50-person panel of Hall of Fame voters did not include Bill Belichick on a convoluted ballot that required the selection of three of five finalists who were not modern-era players.
At least one of the voters has affirmatively disclosed that he did not include Belichick’s name on his ballot, with an explanation for the decision to pick others instead.
Vahe Gregorian of the Kansas City Star, the Kansas City representative to the panel, has posted an article addressing his reasoning.
Gregorian has explained that, if the process entailed (as it did not very long ago) a simple up-or-down vote for Belichick, Gregorian would have voted for the six-time Super Bowl winner. Because, however, the current process required Gregorian (and the other voters) to narrow the selections to three from a list that included Belichick, Robert Kraft, Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, and L.C. Greenwood, Gregorian omitted Belichick. And Kraft.
Gregorian voted for Anderson, Craig, and Greenwood, the three finalists nominated by the seniors committee.
“As the presentations and discussions proceeded, I found myself wanting to vote for all five — including Steelers great Greenwood, a four-time Super Bowl champ who was All-Decade in the 1970s, and Bengals quarterback Anderson, the 1981 MVP who led the league in passer rating four times,” Gregorian wrote. “All three have been long deserving of induction in the Hall. All three have been, well, snubbed for decades.”
And so Gregorian chose to vote for the three senior candidates, because he viewed it as their last chance to get in.
“I felt duty-bound to vote for the richly deserving seniors, who most likely won’t ever have a hearing again as more senior candidates enter the pool and fresh cases get made for others,” Gregorian wrote. “Meanwhile, Belichick is inevitable soon . . . as he should be. At the risk of contradicting my own vote, really, he shouldn’t even have to wait.”
Gregorian’s explanation highlights the illogical nature of the current process, which has scrapped the up-or-down vote on each finalist for a competition among the five, vying for three votes from at least 40 of the voters.
It shouldn’t be that way. And that’s on whoever at the Hall of Fame had the bright idea to change the rules. Thus, while those who chose not to make Belichick one of their three choices will take the heat, the real culprit(s) is/are the person(s) who thought it made sense to dramatically alter the process, stripping each finalist of a simple, clear, yes-or-no vote.
If nothing else, here’s hoping that ill-advised tweak is revised for 2027. And here’s hoping the others who didn’t vote for Belichick disclose their decision, and the reasoning for it.
