The number of known Hall of Fame voters who did not vote for Bill Belichick has doubled. From one to two.
Mike Chappell of Fox59.com, who has the Indianapolis vote on the 50-person panel, has joined Vahe Gregorian of the Kansas City Star in disclosing that he did not vote for Belichick. Unlike Gregorian, Chappell voted for Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Under the current rules, Belichick, Kraft, and three senior candidates (Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, L.C. Greenwood) were in the same five-person bucket. Each voter listed three of them on their ballots.
Chappell included Kraft but not Belichick. Chappell cited Kraft’s “role in building the Patriots dynasty beginning in 1994 AND his undeniable role in helping negotiate the end of the 100-play-day work stoppage in 2011 — while his wife was gravely ill — that has resulted in long-standing labor peace.” Chappell also pointed out that Kraft has “also been involved behind the scenes in bolstering the NFL’s ever-increasing TV revenue.”
As to Belichick, Chappell cited Spygate. He also said #Deflategate was mentioned during the discussion. (That’s a new wrinkle.)
“There’s no erasing the stain of Spygate from his bio,” Chappell wrote. “This wasn’t alleged behavior. The NFL fined Belichick $500,000 — the maximum allowed — along with docking the Patriots $250,000 and a first-round draft pick for illegally videotaping New York Jets signals in 2007.”
Chappell also said he’s not in favor of grouping senior players with coaches and contributors. Chappell voted for two players and Kraft.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Kraft and Belichick pulled votes from each other,” Chappell wrote.
Chappell expressed confidence that Belichick will make it next year, admitting that his failure to vote “in no way insinuates Belichick isn’t Hall-of-Fame-worthy. (Chappel is right; it doesn’t “insinuate” it. His failure to give Belichick a Hall of Fame vote expressly says it.)
Chappell also dubbed as “asinine” the theory that Belichick’s attitude toward reporters was a factor. But Chappell can’t know what prompted some to entertain Spygate as an impediment. For one or more voters, Spygate may have been a pretext for the conscious or subconscious bias regarding a coach who was, at times, a gratuitous jerk to reporters (and, at times, still is).
The real problem here is the shift away from straight up-or-down voting for each finalist. The sooner the Hall of Fame gets back to that, the sooner situations like this won’t arise in the future.
And, frankly, all 50 voters should refuse to participate in the voting process unless that happens. The current approach creates unintended results, and it makes all of the voters look bad — even the ones who voted for Belichick.
