On NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show Sunday, Rodney Harrison became the latest former Patriot to speak out about Bill Belichick’s Pro Football Hall of Fame snub, with Harrison pointedly telling his NBC Sports colleague Tony Dungy that “you guys got it wrong.”
The segment started with host Jac Collinsworth asking Dungy if he voted for Belichick. “I’m not going to disclose that,” Dungy answered, saying that the Hall of Fame committee takes an “oath” not to discuss the deliberations.
Dungy said the process stipulates that of the five finalists in the category of coaches, owners, and senior players, one gets in, and it was former 49ers running back Roger Craig. Dungy said that Belichick deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and that if the process had not changed two years ago he would have gotten in.
“Any list that doesn’t include Bill Belichick at the top is absolutely wrong,” Harrison responded, later telling Dungy, “There’s nobody more deserving of being in that Hall of Fame than coach Belichick. I’ve seen his greatness. I’ve seen him design defenses to stop your offense. … When I look throughout the Hall of Fame and even Tom Brady—Tom Brady wouldn’t be Tom Brady without Bill Belichick. That’s the disappointing part of it, coach, and you guys got it wrong.”
Harrison played his final six NFL seasons for Belichick, a time in which the Patriots won two Super Bowls. Belichick won six as head coach of New England, and two as defensive coordinator of the Giants. Dungy’s Colts had a years-long rivalry with the Patriots, and it was the Colts who precipitated the “Deflategate” scandal.
Front Office Sports approached Dungy during NBC’s media event earlier this week, and he declined to comment on whether he voted for Belichick or for Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who also did not make the cut.
The snubs were a hot topic on Radio Row this week.
“The system is stupid,” Chris “Mad Dog” Russo—a Radio Hall of Famer—told FOS. “You can’t have three ex-players’ last year on the ballot be up against two guys who are contributors, and you only can vote for three of them. And a lot of the guys are gonna vote for the players because it’s their last crack at it, and they’re gonna go push the Belichicks and the Krafts down a year or two, which isn’t fair, but that’s what they’re gonna do… And let’s be honest, Belichick and Kraft are Hall of Famers, we all know this. Put him in the freakin’ Hall of Fame and don’t delay it.”
Rob Gronkowski, a likely future Hall of Famer who won three Super Bowls with Belichick (and a fourth with Brady in Tampa), said, “Coach Belichick needs to be in the Hall of Fame, and it needed to be first ballot. Now there’s no such thing as a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach. No other coach ever in history should go first ballot. There’s a guy out there, Andy Reid, but he can’t go first ballot now because Coach Belichick wasn’t first ballot.”
Former Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer told FOS on Radio Row, “Whoever didn’t vote for those guys should turn in their ability to vote. You can’t tell the story of the NFL without Bill Belichick, and you look at RKK [Kraft] not only the success of the organization, but he’s grown the sport.”
Speaking on ESPN, Randy Moss, another of Belichick’s former Patriots stars, lashed out at the idea that sportswriters are the main gatekeepers for the Hall of Fame. “If you didn’t play it, if you didn’t coach it, you shouldn’t have a vote,” Moss said.
