After several voters stepped forward to share their own exasperation and their affirmative votes for Bill Belichick, it was naturally only a matter of time before we learned the identities of the 11+ voters who declined to do so. Either they would admit it and reveal their reasoning themselves or we would find out via process of elimination.
The first to step forward publicly with their rationale for not voting for Bill Belichick was Vahe Gregorian of the Kansas City Star.
And in his column explaining his ballot, his reasoning actually holds up.
Gregorian firmly believes that Belichick is a slam dunk Hall of Famer. But in his column, he made the point that the Hall of Fame’s rules lumping together senior candidates along with coaches and contributors ties the hands of voters and leaves out individuals who are deserving, but may have very limited chances at induction.
It wasn’t politics or scandals or anything else. It was simply a numbers game. And in only being able to vote for three candidates, Gregorian chose to vote for three deserving former NFL stars.
Anderson, Craig, and Greenwood racked up 14 Pro Bowls between them and are generally regarded as three of the all-time greats not enshrined in Canton. And because of the Hall’s stringent election process, Gregorian alluded to a backlog of deserving senior candidates that have been snubbed for years and have seen their chances of election fade away. He cited 60 All-Decade players that are still awaiting their call to Canton because of the massive pool of worthy former stars that have been passed over.
And for that reason, Gregorian said that his ballot was not a vote against Bill Belichick, but rather the best he could do with a flawed system.
