Wetzel: Here’s how the Belichick HOF snub could get even more awkward

Invoice Belichick spent a lot of his tenure with the New England Patriots satisfied that the NFL institution, notably the league workplace, was out to get him.

The remainder of the time, he lamented that the media was incompetent.

Effectively, you’ll be able to’t blame him for feeling fairly vindicated after ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham reported Tuesday that the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame choice committee, filled with previous on-field foes and veteran reporters, did not vote him in.

A minimum of 11 of the 50 voters left him off their poll, regardless of Belichick’s six Lombardi Trophies, 9 convention championships and 333 profession victories.

Was there an unlimited conspiracy in opposition to Belichick? Was it politics? How a few closing punishment for previous scandals? Or was it only a product of a clunky system that noticed him slip via the cracks?

Solely the voters know for certain, however whereas some secret, organized opposition is very unlikely, Belichick has motive to be much more suspicious than standard.

And one factor may nonetheless add to the suspicions: Robert Kraft might be voted in.

Sure, the situation exists through which the Patriots’ dynasty is represented on this 12 months’s Corridor of Fame class … however by the group’s proprietor, not the group’s coach.

And that might be the identical Robert Kraft with whom Belichick is at the moment locked in a feud. It is maybe a one-sided feud, however nonetheless.

If you’d like the enduring Patriots cleaning soap opera to get much more awkward, this would definitely do it.

The official announcement of the Class of 2026 will not come till subsequent Thursday, within the run-up to the Tremendous Bowl. The voting passed off Jan. 13. All we all know now’s that Belichick did not cross the 80% threshold to achieve enshrinement.

He was in a five-person class that included Kraft, in addition to former gamers Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood. Voters had been allowed to solid ballots for 3 of the 5.

It is a bizarro group. Belichick was a coach. Kraft could be thought of a “contributor.” The gamers had been all beforehand handed over. Why they had been in contrast with one another is anybody’s guess, however the oddball assortment is a chief instance of how the method wants an overhaul.

In the long run, it leaves the chance that if Kraft does get in, he’ll do it on the expense of Belichick.

An proprietor within the Corridor of Fame is controversial sufficient. Except house owners maintain particular extra roles contained in the group, say, basic supervisor, their “contributions” are principally structural or peripheral.

However 16 house owners are within the Corridor, together with the likes of Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), Wellington Mara (New York Giants) and Edward DeBartolo (San Francisco 49ers).

None of them has loved the success of Kraft, whose group will play in its tenth Tremendous Bowl below his stewardship Feb. 8. It’s going to be his first with out Belichick or quarterback Tom Brady.

If Jerry Jones is a Corridor of Famer, how is not Robert Kraft?

Then once more, if Kraft is a Corridor of Famer, how is not Belichick?

You possibly can see the place this mess is headed.

Here is the place it will get much more heated.

Belichick does not like Kraft proper now. As the top coach at North Carolina, Belichick even banned Patriots scouts from campus. Kraft has tried to increase numerous olive branches, together with expressing hope for a Belichick statue outdoors Gillette Stadium, however that is Invoice Belichick we’re speaking about. He can maintain a grudge with the most effective of ’em. He would possibly even be justified.

“No matter perceptions might exist about any private variations between Invoice and me, I strongly consider Invoice Belichick’s file and physique of labor communicate for themselves,” Kraft mentioned within the assertion Wednesday. “… He’s the best coach of all time and he unequivocally deserves to be a unanimous first-ballot Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer.”

Positive, besides he is not going to be. And one of many speculative causes facilities on Invoice Polian, a former Indianapolis basic supervisor and a part of the choice committee. Polian, like everybody on the Colts, was a bitter rival with Belichick’s groups.

In keeping with Van Natta and Wickersham’s reporting, Polian informed some fellow voters that Belichick ought to “wait a 12 months” to be enshrined as a penance for Spygate, the Patriots 2007 filming scandal.

Polian denied this, however he mentioned he was solely 95% certain he really voted for Belichick, which raised a couple of eyebrows because the vote was solely two weeks in the past.

However he additionally mentioned he was 100% sure that he not solely voted for Kraft, who he acknowledges is a detailed buddy, however even lobbied the choice committee on Kraft’s behalf. He has publicly pushed for Kraft in years previous, as properly.

“When he did not get in final 12 months, I misplaced sleep over it,” Polian informed ESPN in 2024. “I am nonetheless sick at coronary heart about it.”

Maybe all of that is only a gigantic coincidence and a figment of Belichick’s creativeness.

Nonetheless, it’s fairly potential that Invoice Belichick, the precise coach, will not get into the Corridor however his present enemy, Robert Kraft, merely an proprietor, will. And it might stem from the identical poll, however solely after Kraft’s shut buddy and Belichick’s previous rival spoke in opposition to Belichick and for Kraft.

Belichick would possibly wish to bear in mind the previous aphorism: “Simply since you’re paranoid doesn’t suggest they are not after you.”