Bill Belichick was snubbed. Colin Cowherd understands it.
Belichick coached the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl victories and won two more as the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. It was reported on Tuesday that he failed to secure the required number of votes to be a first-ballot inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. While many disagree with the voters’ decision, Cowherd sees the other side of things.
“If you have several asterisks by your name, is it OK to pause for a year?” Cowherd posed.
Cowherd’s opposition to Belichick’s induction stems from three separate counterarguments, or asterisks, as he put it.
The most glaring reason is that the coach struggled to win without the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady. All six of Belichick’s rings as the Patriots’ head coach came with Brady under center. Take a look at the years when Brady wasn’t in New England, and Belichick’s record is not pretty.
“If you take out one superstar quarterback in Belichick’s career,” Cowherd said. “He has a winning percentage lower than Jerry Glanville (a head coach in Houston and Atlanta from 1985-93), and equal to Anthony Lynn (the Chargers head coach from 2017-2020). With (Tom) Brady, his teams scored almost 29 points per game, and he won 77% of his games. Without Brady, they scored 19 points, and he wins 44%. And not only that, he was fired in Cleveland without him. He was about to get fired before Drew Bledsoe got hurt. And then the minute Brady left, he put a defensive coordinator in at OC.”
“Mike Vrabel (the current New England head coach) is getting to a Super Bowl with Drake Maye, who’s not even a finished project,” Cowherd added. “Mike Vrabel got a No. 1 seed with Ryan Tannehill (during his time with the Titans), the 17th-best quarterback in the league. Brady leaves, and they can’t score, they don’t get offense. They’re the worst drafting team in the league.”
[Related: Bill Belichick’s Snub Result of Flawed Hall Voting Process, Voter Explains]
It is a compelling argument, however is it honest to fault Belichick as a result of he coached Brady? Their connection and the mountaintops they reached collectively are a part of the equation.
Now, Cowherd believes Belichick will, finally, be inducted into the Corridor of Fame. It is a matter of time. He simply might have to attend — as a lot of his friends did.
“The winningest coach of all time, Don Shula, received to a Tremendous Bowl with Dan Marino, David Woodley and Earl Morrall. He needed to wait 5 years till he was even eligible for the Corridor of Fame,” Belichick mentioned. “Is it attainable the voters went, ‘Timeout, the classiest man ever, the winningest man ever, the man Belichick’s been chasing perpetually — Don Shula — needed to wait 5 years to even be eligible, and now due to a bizarre tweak, I received to place Belichick in?'”
For context, the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame lowered the obligatory ready interval for teaching candidates from 5 years to at least one yr in August 2024. This rule change is the very factor that allowed Belichick to change into eligible for induction within the class of 2026.
“Invoice Parcells, his mentor,” Cowherd mentioned. “He needed to wait perpetually.”
Cowherd thinks it is affordable that Belichick ought to have to attend like his elders did, no matter some newfangled rule.
His last level is the elephant within the room.
“What’s the one week of the yr that the league values probably the most? Tremendous Bowl week. And in 2007, it was tarnished due to Belichick — footage of him taping one other workforce. And Roger Goodell needed to go to the Tremendous Bowl, and all week lengthy, needed to handle Belichick’s dishonest,” Cowherd mentioned.
[Related: What If … the Patriots Had Never Fired Bill Belichick?]
In the end, the NFL fined Belichick $500,000, the most important monetary punishment imposed on a coach in league historical past. There’s an opportunity this snubbing is an extension of that punishment 19 years later.
“There’s a tax to pay if, probably the most worthwhile week of the yr, you blew it up as soon as, since you have been taping one other workforce,” Cowherd mentioned.
There isn’t any clear cause why Belichick did not earn a primary poll Corridor of Fame nod in his first yr of eligibility, however Cowherd believes the voting consequence was justified.
“In evaluation,” he mentioned, “Don Shula needed to wait 5 years. Invoice Parcells, your mentor, needed to wait perpetually. Your successful share is 44% with out (Tom) Brady, and also you blew up a Tremendous Bowl week.”
