Making sense of Bill Belichick’s 1st ballot exclusion

Let's make a few things perfectly clear off the top:

- I am eternally grateful and appreciative for the 20-plus years, comprised largely of excellence, that Bill Belichick provided for me as a Patriots fan through my childhood, teenage, and early adult years.

- In terms of the game's history, Belichick's resume is 1-of-1. There is not a single person more accomplished in the NFL over a career spanning nearly five decades.

- Bill was rather surly, to put it mildly, with the media and other people in power positions within the league during his career. Much of the same crowd that is now responsible for making the decision whether or not to induct him into the Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.

So, when we pause for a moment on that last point, the news yesterday that the game's greatest coach of all-time fell short of the required 40-of-50 votes for enshrinement was not all that shocking to me.

Whether it was at the direction of Bill Polian to a small group of voters to leave Belichick off the ballot as a penance for Spy- and Deflategate, or simply a collection of people feeling a certain type of way towards Belichick based on his own actions and how he treated people, neither comes as a surprise.

That said, the reasoning, if true, does not exonerate Polian or any of the other voters from making, in black and white terms, a completely indefensible decision.

It goes without saying that Belichick merits first-ballot inclusion. As J.J. Watt said during his appearance today on The Pat McAfee Show, "there are two, three people in history that are absolute, no-brainer locks whatsoever, Bill and Tom [Brady] being two of those.

"If you have Bill Belichick not making the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you should not have a vote for the Pro Football Hall of Fame," added the future Hall-of-Famer in his own right.

Scores of former players have rushed to Belichick's defense today. Those who were in the game respect the greatness. Those who covered the game, and now wield the power of the big stick, always seem to get a little carried away with what they perceive to be some eternal authority.

We see it year after year at Cooperstown in regards to steroids. It's not their place to "stick it" to Belichick. That's laughably hypocritical. It's their place to help tell the history of the game, which cannot be done without the man who has won 14% of all Super Bowls to date. Personal politics and feelings have no place in the voting process. Yet we live in a time where the opposite is not only true, it's encouraged.

In a funny way, it's the best PR Belichick could have possibly received after a couple years of headlines slanted in the other direction. Who would've pegged the grumpy old Pats coach to be the unifying factor to bring the masses into agreement across the internet and on sports talk radio & TV.

Karma is a b****, and it came for Belichick yesterday. Though, in the end, it seems the voters' attempt to knock Bill's ego down a peg only served to strengthen his case as the greatest football mind the game has ever known.

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