{"id":53243,"date":"2026-01-29T03:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=53243"},"modified":"2026-01-29T05:20:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:20:46","slug":"pro-football-hall-of-fame-voter-reveals-reason-why-he-snubbed-bill-belichick-on-first-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=53243","title":{"rendered":"Pro Football Hall of Fame voter reveals reason why he snubbed Bill Belichick on first ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the first known voters who didn\u2019t choose Bill Belichick<\/a> as a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer has explained his choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kansas City Star\u2019s Vahe Gregorian wrote a column Wednesday<\/a> revealing he was one of at least 11 Hall of Fame voters who didn\u2019t vote for Belichick, which shocked the football world when the news surfaced Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While that report stated Belichick\u2019s involvement in scandals with the New England Patriots like Spygate and Deflategate, Gregorian, who has been covering the league for nearly 40 years, said that wasn\u2019t his reason for leaving the coach off his ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was denied entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot. (AP Photo\/Michael Dwyer, File)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregorian said the “curious selection dynamics” from the Hall led to him to cast his votes elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belichick was a part of a five-person pool separate from the 15-man modern-era ballot, in which each voter is tasked with selecting just three members to enter the Hall. Among those are three senior candidates, a contributor and a coach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belichick was the coach on this year\u2019s ballot, while, coincidentally, Patriots owner<\/a> Robert Kraft was the contributor nominee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Gregorian explained why he chose to cast his three votes for the three senior members \u2014 Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood \u2014 all of whom he believed deserved a spot in Canton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregorian said he felt “duty-bound” to cast his votes for the senior candidates, believing they were looking at possibly their last chances to get into the Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All three have been long deserving of induction in the Hall,” he wrote in his column. “All three have been, well, snubbed for decades.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A longtime NFL reporter revealed why he didn\u2019t check off Belichick’s name on his ballot for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (Damian Strohmeyer\/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregorian said Belichick would inevitably get in, but once he saw that he didn\u2019t procure the necessary 80% of votes on his first ballot, the veteran writer understood the vitriol and backlash that was received once news broke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At the risk of contradicting my own vote, really, [Belichick] shouldn\u2019t even have to wait,” Gregorian\u2019s column said. “I understand why people are offended that he isn\u2019t going in the first moment he can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I felt more compelled by what I perceive to be last chances and looming lost causes within the system as we have it \u2014 a system I hope the Hall will see fit to change now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kraft called Belichick the “greatest coach of all time,” while Tom Brady<\/a> said he couldn\u2019t fathom why his old mentor in Foxborough, Massachusetts, isn\u2019t heading to Canton, Ohio, this summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many others, including Patrick Mahomes, J.J. Watt, Ryan Clark and Pat McAfee all shared their disbelief after reading the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patriots owner Robert Kraft and others have called Belichick the “greatest coach of all time.”  (Steven Senne, File\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belichick has the second-most wins by a head coach all time behind only the great Don Shula. Belichick won six Super Bowls in New England and two while a defensive coordinator with the New York Giants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Gregorian was brave enough to face the backlash, it\u2019s unknown whether the other writers who didn\u2019t vote for Belichick will reveal themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

foxnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first known voters who didn\u2019t choose Bill Belichick as a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer has explained his choice.  The Kansas City Star\u2019s Vahe Gregorian wrote a column Wednesday revealing he was one of at least 11 Hall of Fame voters who didn\u2019t vote for Belichick, which shocked the football world when the news surfaced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":53244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[34537,1675,4364],"class_list":["post-53243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-belichick","tag-first","tag-hall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53245,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53243\/revisions\/53245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}