The Hall of Fames are supposed to be sanctuaries for the greatest to ever play or coach the games. They are museums of history, not pulpits for morality. But after the Pro Football Hall of Fame committee officially snubbed Bill Belichick for the Class of 2026, it’s clear: these institutions have traded their credibility for a high-horse.
What we are witnessing is a dangerous trend of “vigilantism,” where voters inject personal bias into a process that should be defined strictly by legendary resumes.
The Belichick Snub: A “Cowardly” Act
How does a man with six Super Bowl rings and 333 wins not get in on the first ballot? The answer is as petty as it is predictable: a handful of voters are holding a decades-long grudge over Spygate and Deflategate.
The backlash from those who actually played the game has been a scorched-earth campaign:
- Jimmy Johnson didn’t mince words, calling the voters “cowards” for hiding behind a secret ballot. He famously noted that if Spygate is the disqualifier, we’d have to gut the building, stating: “Many teams (including ourselves) tried it… we didn’t get anything and stopped, but many teams gave it a try.”
- Tom Brady and Brett Favre have expressed similar disbelief. When the “Mount Rushmore” players are stunned, it’s a sign that the people holding the pens are dangerously out of touch with the people wearing the pads.
The Baseball Parallel: Steroids vs. “Greenies”
This isn’t just a football problem; it’s a systemic rot. The Baseball Hall of Fame has been playing this “holier-than-thou” game for years with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
The “moral high ground” taken by baseball writers regarding the Steroid Era is laughably inconsistent. If we are blackballing players for “performance enhancers,” why do we ignore the amphetamines (“greenies”) that were the lifeblood of the 1970s? Those pills were used to sharpen focus and grind through 162 games. If the Hall is for “pure” players only, you’d have to evict half of Cooperstown.
Hand-Eye Coordination vs. The “Strength” Myth
The common argument is that cheating “tainted” the record books. But let’s be real: a needle in the arm doesn’t help you hit a 98-mph fastball or read a disguised zone blitz.
Steroids might increase your recovery time or muscle mass, but they don’t grant you elite hand-eye coordination or the football IQ required to build a twenty-year dynasty. Belichick didn’t win six titles because of a camera in 2007; he won because he spent twenty years out-thinking every person in the room.
The Solution: Radical Transparency
The arrogance of the voters is killing the prestige of the Halls. They have turned celebrations of excellence into a high-school popularity contests. To save the institutions, they need to change the process:
- Objective Benchmarks: Move toward a statistical “Floor of Greatness.” If you hit certain benchmarks (Super Bowls, All-Pros, Win Percentage, MVPs), you are in. Period.
- Abolish the Secret Ballot: No more “cowardly” anonymous votes. If a voter has the “stones of their conviction,” they should have no problem defending their choice to the public.
- Televise the Deliberation: Put the process on the NFL or MLB Network. If C-SPAN can broadcast congressional debates, they can broadcast the Hall of Fame selection. Let the fans see exactly who is gatekeeping history and why.
If the Hall of Fame doesn’t represent the best to ever do it, it’s no longer a museum of legends—it’s just a collection of plaques and busts that are essentially expensive paperweights.