Tony Dungy was one of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s voters when legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick did not make it to Canton in his first time on the ballot.
“Six Super Bowls isn’t enough?” Belichick asked an associate after learning of his Hall of Fame snub, per ESPN.
One source close to Belichick added: “Politics kept him out. He doesn’t believe this is a reflection on his accomplishments.”
The Pro Football Hall of Fame, meanwhile, denied to release the full results of the voting, but Belichick was kept out.
“The Pro Football Hall of Fame does not comment on the voting of the Selection Committee and awaits the unveiling of the Class of 2026 at ‘NFL Honors’ on Feb. 5 in San Francisco,” a spokesperson for the Hall said in a statement last January.
© Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images.
Belichick is arguably the greatest head coach in NFL history, with a career record of 333-178, including playoffs, and six Super Bowl wins.
“Multiple sources told ESPN that Spygate and Deflategate, the twin cheating scandals during the Patriots’ championship run, came up in deliberations among voters,” ESPN reported.
Dungy has long been speculated to be a voter who pushed to keep Belichick out of the Hall of Fame.
The former Indianapolis Colts head coach, though, is refusing to reveal if he voted “yes” or “no” for Belichick.
Dungy still won’t release his vote
He still refuses to release his vote. However, he says that he won’t do it, because he feels good about the “process.”
“Because I wouldn’t talk about it, I haven’t talked about it, and I’m not going to. Everybody thinks Bill should have gotten in. There were 50 people that voted. That’s the process. I’ve always said I stood with the voters,” he told Sage Steele.
“That’s how we voted under the rules we had. And yet, those same votes, had it been under the old rules, he would’ve gotten in. I look at it and say, ‘I don’t know why everybody is looking at the voters.”
“I think he’ll get in. I know everybody made a big thing about the first ballot. Vince Lombardi didn’t get in on the first ballot. Being a Hall of Famer, I can tell you it doesn’t matter if you go in on the first ballot or not. Once you get in, you feel good about the process.”
Patriots fans, unsurprisingly, are not happy, but Dungy has made it clear that he isn’t budging.
