According to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, there’s speculation that retired Indianapolis Colts Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian may have played a critical factor in former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s surprisingly failed bid to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the 1st-ballot:
“Multiple sources told ESPN that Spygate and Deflategate, the twin cheating scandals during the Patriots’ championship run, came up in deliberations among voters. A voter who
spoke on condition of anonymity said that Polian, an ardent Kraft supporter and former general manager of the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts — a chief Patriots rival during their dynasty — told some voters he believed Belichick should ‘wait a year’ before induction as penance for Spygate, the 2007 cheating scandal that cost the team a first-round draft pick. Commissioner Roger Goodell also fined the Patriots $500,000 and fined Belichick $250,000.”
“The only explanation [for the outcome] was the cheating stuff,” a veteran Hall voter told ESPN on Tuesday. “It really bothered some of the guys.”
For what it’s worth, Polian has since denied those accusations, and he has indicated that he actually voted for Belichick.
Per ESPN’s Van Natta Jr. and Wickersham, he reportedly stated that ‘he was shocked to learn Bill didn’t get in’ and that ‘he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.’ Per that same report, Polian indicated with 95% certainty that he voted for both longtime Patriots team owner Bob Kraft, as well as Belichick on the Pro Football Hall of Fame vote which was recently cast on January 13th for the upcoming summer’s Class of 2026.
It seems that the Colts’ Ring of Honor lead football executive’s longtime bitter rivalry with the New England Patriots organization, who were his team’s arch-nemesis during the prolific ‘Peyton Manning years’ and never short on national controversy, is still currently ongoing—as some old grudges may in fact, never die.
His disdain may only remain with Belichick now though, presumably not against Kraft anymore. Those two Patriots leaders have also seemingly had a bit of falling out since Belichick was let go following the 2023 season.
However, it’s not the first time that we may have heard an arguably embellished story from Polian, who back in 2015 after his own Hall of Fame enshrinement, claimed the Colts draft war room under his prior tutelage, had a first round grade on former legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, who infamously went to the Patriots in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL Draft.
Despite being involved in prior national controversies at the NFL level, there’s no question that Belichick is as great of any head coach that’s coached at the NFL level—as a 6x Super Bowl Champion (and 2x as an assistant coach respectively). He was formerly 3x AP Coach of the Year.
It’s not the Hall of Fame of outstanding character and good sportsmanship after all.
Even if Polian was one of the lead naysayers for Belichick being denied on the first-ballot, there were still other Pro Football Hall of Fame voters who clearly joined in on his dissent. Those voters share in culpability too for their opposition, as Belichick will have to wait at least another year to achieve football immortality in Canton.
