Legendary head coach Bill Belichick will not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and the internet is in an uproar.
From current players calling it an outrage to fans saying that the voters who went against the New England Patriots icon should be banned from ever watching the NFL again, it has been a tsunami of emotions since Tuesday night when the news first broke.
But behind the anger, frustration, and pure shock lies the real question: How did this all happen?
Although Belichick has never been the most personable or friendly man to the media or his contemporaries, what led to 10 people in a room of 50 to go against what many pundits consider the greatest coach to ever live?
More news: Super Bowl-Winning QB Open to Playing for Pittsburgh Steelers
More news: Fernando Mendoza Signs Unusual Deal After Declaring for NFL Draft
Rumors spread immediately that Colts Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian was behind the pact to keep the Patriots coach out of the Hall of Fame on his first go-around. It was Polian, a staunch Belichick detractor, who rallied his own team within the venue to poison the vote.
Why?
Deflategate. Acting almost as their own task force to clean up the streets of the NFL, it was speculated that the 10 voters wanted to punish and embarrass the 73-year-old legend. While he might get in on the second time through, Belichick, who cares about his legacy, would feel the sting of never being a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
While Polian has already come out and denied that he was the one to deny Belichick his spot in the Hall, even saying he was a supporter of his getting in, that hasn’t stopped the discussion over whether he’s telling the truth.
Unlike almost everything else in the NFL world, the Hall of Fame voting isn’t a televised or streamed spectacle. 50 people, with at least one representative from each team, go into a room, as if they were deciding the new Pope. They then debate and discuss until they ultimately leave, having cast their ballots to see who’ll join the select greats in Canton.
Although people can come out and say who they voted for, given the secrecy surrounding the entire meeting, there’s a strong chance we will never know officially how or why Belichick was left off.
But that won’t stop pundits and, more than likely, Belichick himself from believing there was something more to what happened on Tuesday night.
