Peter King Finally Admits He Was Wrong Leaving Troy Polamalu Off HOF Ballot

Earlier this week, news came out that former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick won’t be part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026. His failure to get 40 of the required 50 votes in the coaching category was rather shocking.

It led to plenty of discussions regarding voters potentially holding personal vendettas. People also suggested voters punished Belichick years later for on-field issues, like Spygate.

Yet, the most likely reason that Belichick didn’t get into the Hall of Fame is that voters overthought it. They probably tried to manipulate the voting and use their votes elsewhere. Most of them thought that Belichick would be an easy selection for others.

The Kansas City Star’s Vahe Gregorian, who has a Hall of Fame vote, used that explanation when he stated why he didn’t vote for Belichick.

The same thing caused longtime NFL reporter and columnist Peter King to leave former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu off of his Hall of Fame ballot. All these years later, despite Polamalu being a first-ballot Hall of Famer, King regrets not casting a vote for Polamalu.

King appeared on the “Between The Tackles” podcast with former NFL reporter Manish Mehta. He discussed regretting not voting for Polamalu, and why the voters made a mistake with how Belichick’s voting was handled.

“I used a similar rationale, which I came to regret, the year that Troy Polamalu got in,” King said, expressing his regret for not voting for Polamalu, according to a video via the show’s YouTube page. “If you’re on the Hall of Fame committee, you have to abide by the bylaws of the Hall of Fame. And the bylaws say that you have to vote for who you think is most deserving.

Ahead of the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class’s voting, Polamalu was as strong a lock as possible for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In his illustrious career in the Black and Gold, Polamalu was a four-time first-team All-Pro and a two-time second-team All-Pro. He was the NFL’s 2010 Defensive Player of the Year, won two Super Bowls, made eight Pro Bowls, and made the NFL’s All-2000s Decade team. Polamalu finished his career with 732 tackles, 32 interceptions, 12 sacks, 14 forced fumbles, and five defensive touchdowns.

He was the best safety of his era. And yet King cast votes for the following players: Steve Atwater, Tony Boselli, Steve Hutchinson, Edgerrin James, and John Lynch.

All of those players made it into the Hall of Fame themselves. And King’s not voting for Polamalu didn’t keep him from becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But the logic behind King’s voting was flawed.

He tried to make an excuse for it at the time, though.

“I think an explanation for the lack of a vote for Polamalu on the final five is necessary. I believe he was one of the top five candidates this year, and I believe in voting for the best five candidates. But because I felt certain Polamalu would make it regardless of my vote, I decided to vote for three players I felt were marginal after listening to the deliberations—Atwater, Boselli, and Lynch,” King wrote in his MMQB column explaining his votes back in 2020. “I don’t feel great about doing that, honestly. Our jobs are to vote for the best five, and I was totally on the fence about the fifth ‘yea’ vote had I marked down Polamalu. It still bothers me a little bit. But I felt so strongly about the cases of Atwater, Boselli, and Lynch, who were exceedingly close in my eyes, that I wanted to vote for them, knowing that a vote not for Polamalu was not going to keep him out.

“I’ve done this a couple of times before, and I absolutely do not want to make it a habit. It just felt like the right thing to do this year.”

All these years later, King sees some of his same logic applied to Belichick’s vote. Now, he is admitting he was wrong to think that way about Polamalu. Hopefully, voters won’t continue doing that moving forward.

After all, their job is to vote for the five best candidates. It’s not about trying to manipulate the voting and using your five votes to try to help other deserving candidates. When there is an obvious choice on the paper, you vote for it. You should vote for the five best choices, period.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen with the Hall of Fame with Belichick this year. And it’s going to leave a major stain on the Hall of Fame class.