Football <\/p>\n
Earlier this week, news came out<\/a> that former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick won\u2019t be part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026. His failure to get 40 of the required 50 votes in the coaching category was rather shocking.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Yet, the most likely reason that Belichick didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n The Kansas City Star\u2019s Vahe Gregorian, who has a Hall of Fame vote, used that explanation when he stated why he didn\u2019t vote for Belichick.<\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/a>. All these years later, despite Polamalu being a first-ballot Hall of Famer, King regrets not casting a vote for Polamalu.<\/p>\n King appeared on the \u201cBetween The Tackles\u201d podcast with former NFL reporter Manish Mehta. He discussed regretting not voting for Polamalu, and why the voters made a mistake with how Belichick\u2019s voting was handled.<\/p>\n \u201cI used a similar rationale, which I came to regret, the year that Troy Polamalu got in,\u201d King said, expressing his regret for not voting for Polamalu, according to a video via the show\u2019s YouTube page<\/a>. \u201cIf you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf99\ufe0fPeter King on Hall of Fame voter Vahe Gregorian\u2019s rationale snubbing Bill Belichick: \u2014 Manish Mehta (@MMehtaSports) January 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Ahead of the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class\u2019s voting, Polamalu was as strong a lock as possible for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 2010 Defensive Player of the Year, won two Super Bowls, made eight Pro Bowls, and made the NFL\u2019s All-2000s Decade team. Polamalu finished his career with 732 tackles, 32 interceptions, 12 sacks, 14 forced fumbles, and five defensive touchdowns.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n All of those players made it into the Hall of Fame themselves. And King\u2019s not voting for Polamalu didn\u2019t keep him from becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But the logic behind King\u2019s voting was flawed.<\/p>\n He tried to make an excuse for it at the time, though.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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\u2014Atwater, Boselli, and Lynch,\u201d King wrote in his MMQB column explaining his votes back in 2020.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t 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 \u2018yea\u2019 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n All these years later, King sees some of his same logic applied to Belichick\u2019s vote. Now, he is admitting he was wrong to think that way about Polamalu. Hopefully, voters won\u2019t continue doing that moving forward.<\/p>\n After all, their job is to vote for the five best candidates. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that didn\u2019t happen with the Hall of Fame with Belichick this year. And it\u2019s going to leave a major stain on the Hall of Fame class.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cI used similar rationale, which I came to regret. I know it\u2019s wrong. I was wrong in 2020 when I didn\u2019t vote for (Troy) Polamalu. What you\u2019re doing is taking the law into your own hands. It\u2019s\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/faKEzJhaPk<\/a><\/p>\n