Ex-NFLer Says There’s More Than One Reason Why Bill Belichick Was Snubbed By HOF Vote

Could it have simply been that some voters think Belichick is a jerk?

The NFL world is buzzing after Bill Belichick was stunningly shut out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, despite almost universally being considered an easy first ballot Hall of Famer.

On Friday’s edition of OutKick’s Hot Mic, Ex-NFL guard Ross Tucker talked about why he thinks enough voters decided not to give the nod to Belichick, which in turn left him out of the Hall.

“We’ve got a little bit of a flavor of this, and I guess the headline is it’s not just one thing is how I would describe it,” Tucker said. “So, for some people, I think it is the cheating scandals; Spygate, Deflategate, whatever.”

OutKick’s own senior NFL Senior Writer, Armando Salguero, reported that very thing after the news initially broke.

The scandals that popped up during Belichick’s time in New England certainly seem to have played a role, but Tucker floated another reason.

One that voters might be less inclined to discuss publicly.

“For other people, and they won’t write this in their column, I think they just thought that Belich was a jerk, and they didn’t like the way he treated them,” Tucker said. “So they were going to get back at him by not voting him in.”

Now that’s speculative, but it doesn’t sound like the legacy sports media I know…

…wait; yes, it does.

Tucker also said that the way the vote happens — where voters are only allowed to vote for three candidates — also played a factor. 

“I do think, though, the way they vote for the senior candidates (players whose careers ended at least 25 years ago), I think that’s a big part of this, guys,” Tucker said. “Because it’s really hard to get a player like Kenny Anderson or LC Greenwood or Roger Craig… nominated as a senior candidate. Super hard. And usually when they get that chance, it’s their only chance. 

“So these writers, they know that these players have been hoping for this, praying for this for at this point well over 15 years. They want to make sure they get in.”