SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The most playoff wins by a coach in NFL history, the most division titles, second most regular season wins of all time and then there are six Super Bowl rings. Yes, I am talking about Bill Belichick, who paced the New England Patriots sideline in his ratty hoodies for decades. Love him or hate him - and I will say in full disclosure I was always firmly in the latter camp - Belichick was the walking embodiment of a future Hall of Famer, and yet this week, he was snubbed, denied entry to football's Hall of Fame by the voting committee. So what is going on here? Dan Shaughnessy is here to answer that. He's the longtime sports columnist for The Boston Globe, the author of a number of books. All in all, somebody who knows a lot about the Patriots. Welcome to the show.
DAN SHAUGHNESSY: Hi, Scott. Good to be here.
DETROW: What do you make of this?
SHAUGHNESSY: Well, I was surprised. I thought he would get in. I've kind of paid attention to this because the Patriot owner, Bob Kraft, he's on the same ballot that Bill was on, and those will be announced on Thursday, and we think Kraft's getting in. We thought Belichick was a slam dunk. And so, yeah, it's surprising and it's kind of an embarrassment for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
DETROW: Yeah.
SHAUGHNESSY: And this is a bad look 'cause he's clearly a Hall of Fame coach. He will be in the Hall of Fame, but I guess they're punishing him and making him sit out a year or more.
DETROW: I want to ask about that. I had listed all the high points on his resume, but there are two pretty significant scandals - what the football world called Deflategate and Spygate - shady practices by the Patriots...
SHAUGHNESSY: Sure.
DETROW: ...Team that they were penalized for. Do you think that was a factor here?
SHAUGHNESSY: I do. I talked to people who were - the voting was done secretly after 50 of the voters gathered on Zoom. Talking to people who were in that call, there was more conversation about the scandals, the cheating, the punishments than they expected.
DETROW: What do you personally make of that? 'Cause this was litigated at the time. He paid a personal fine. The team was penalized pretty heavily. Everybody moved forward.
SHAUGHNESSY: It feels petty and vindictive and taking a measure against a guy that they didn't like or some guys didn't like getting beat by, or whatever you want to call it. I mean, baseball has its Hall of Fame - and I'm a voter - and they have a character clause - character, sportsmanship, integrity. And we've taken that very seriously, and that's why you don't see Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, guys who were PED guys. Or other folks who had issues have been kept out because of that. Football has not had that ever. O.J. Simpson's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I mean, do we need to say anything else? And, you know, he was in before the scandals, before the crimes, and then was never - there was no push to get him out, and he's still there. So it's surprising. It's clear that Belichick has a Hall of Fame resume...
DETROW: Yeah.
SHAUGHNESSY: And the Pro Football Hall of Fame has never applied standards other than what happened on the field.
DETROW: Do you think this is - like, you see this a little bit with the Baseball Hall of Fame, where one or two voters will not cast a ballot for somebody who's a slam dunk Hall of Famer because they think, we want to keep - you know, like, obviously that was broken at a certain point, but nobody should...
SHAUGHNESSY: Yeah.
DETROW: ...Be a unanimous vote. Like, that type of thing. Do you think there was some gatekeeping? Like, Belichick, you're going to be in, but wait a year?
SHAUGHNESSY: I guess. I suppose. I mean, this guy's been kept out because of people, and most of them are media people who were not treated well by him for decades. I'm one of them.
DETROW: You think that was a factor, though?
SHAUGHNESSY: Oh, I do.
DETROW: Yeah.
SHAUGHNESSY: I think of, you know, people being treated poorly. This is their chance. And none of them have come out to say, I didn't vote for him and here's why. But I think probably 40 to 45 are the veteran media people. And then you got a handful of Hall of Famers - you know, I think Tony Dungy and Bill Polian and Dan Fouts - and they were voters as well. But it's mostly longtime media people.
DETROW: And then, lastly, Patriots fans have some good distractions right now. The team's back in the Super Bowl. How is this landing with people in and around the franchise?
SHAUGHNESSY: In and around the franchise is a good question, Scott, because there's a real rift between Bob Kraft, the owner, and Bill, the ex-coach. There's - they've been sniping at one another for a couple years now. You know, Kraft putting out this hideous documentary which presented it as if there was no coach here the whole 20 years when they won all those Super Bowls. There ended up being a lot of, I don't know, competition for credit, deflection of blame, jealousy, what have you. But the working relationship was not good at the end. Belichick was fired by Kraft. They don't like each other. Would have been super awkward to have them both on the stage in Canton, Ohio, next summer, but that's not going to happen now.
DETROW: That is Dan Shaughnessy with The Boston Globe. Thank you so much.
SHAUGHNESSY: Thank you so much, Scott.
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