Bill Belichick won’t be introduced as a first-ballot Hall of Famer come Thursday, based on an ESPN story printed final week. It required at the very least 40 of 50 votes for the previous Browns and Patriots head coach to earn induction.
Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft was in the identical group of 5 finalists with Belichick, and nobody inside his camp has leaked his destiny. So, he could . . . or could not have made it. Senior candidates L.C. Greenwood, Ken Anderson and Roger Craig are the opposite candidates within the class, and at the very least one of the 5 will earn Hall of Fame induction.
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With Kraft sitting on the entrance row of Roger Goodell’s state-of-the-league information convention, the commissioner twice was requested a query about Belichick not being voted into Canton.
“Listen, I’m not even sure whether it’s true,” Goodell mentioned, “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, however he made clear the board has no say within the voting guidelines or course of.
“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.”
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Goodell mentioned he expects Belichick and Kraft each to develop into Hall of Famers, whether or not it is this 12 months or another 12 months.
“Bill Belichick’s record goes without saying,” Goodell mentioned. “Same with the Patriots and Robert Kraft. They are spectacular. They’ve contributed a lot to this recreation, and I imagine they’ll be Hall of Famers.”