Bill Belichick will not be announced as a first-ballot Hall of Famer come Thursday, according to an ESPN story published last week. It required at least 40 of 50 votes for the former Browns and Patriots head coach to earn induction.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft was in the same group of five finalists with Belichick, and no one within his camp has leaked his fate. So, he may . . . or may not have made it. Senior candidates L.C. Greenwood, Ken Anderson and Roger Craig are the other candidates in the category, and at least one of the five will earn Hall of Fame induction.
With Kraft sitting on the front row of Roger Goodell’s state-of-the-league news conference, the commissioner twice was asked a question about Belichick not being voted into Canton.
“Listen, I’m not even sure whether it’s true,” Goodell said, “because I don’t think the class has been announced. But at the end of the day, as I said before, Bill Belichick is the second-winningest coach in NFL football, six Super Bowls as a head coach, I think, and two as a defensive coordinator. That’s a Hall of Fame career, but there’s a decision-making process here, and there’s a timing issue. There are a lot of people who are deserving of this. So, I think it’s something that [the selection committee will have to decide], but there are a lot of people who want to be in that Hall of Fame, and Bill Belichick deserves to be in that Hall of Fame.”
Goodell is on the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors, but he made clear the board has no say in the voting rules or process.
“The Pro Football Hall of Fame is not in any way controlled by the NFL,” Goodell said. “We have no say in the voting process. We don’t participate in the voting process. . . . I think it’s really an important honor, and it’s something that should be done with a lot of clarity, a lot of understanding of what’s expected of those voters.
“Our board does nothing more in the voting [process] than approve the leaders of the media that participate. So, we are not involved in it.”
Goodell said he expects Belichick and Kraft both to become Hall of Famers, whether it’s this year or some other year.
“Bill Belichick’s record goes without saying,” Goodell said. “Same with the Patriots and Robert Kraft. They are spectacular. They’ve contributed so much to this game, and I believe they’ll be Hall of Famers.”
