It still is hard to believe that legendary head coach Bill Belichick won’t be a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee.
After the report surfaced on Tuesday, reactions have come pouring in across the sports world. Now, former New England Patriots star Vince Wilfork, who won a pair of Super Bowls, went off on the voters.
“That’s a personal attack, honestly,” Wilfork said, via Karen Guregian of MassLive. “That’s personal. That don’t have anything to do with nothing but somebody holding something personal against him. Because there’s no reason Bill Belichick shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame first ballot. No reason. That’s just insane. It’s bananas. It really sucks.”
Wilfork called it an “injustice” and demanded that they give Belichick “his flowers” for a legendary coaching career.
Belichick won six Super Bowls as a head coach, two more as an assistant coach, and he has the most playoff wins of all-time and is second on the all-time wins list behind only Don Shula.
Yet, Belichick didn’t get in, and the report stated that some voters had issues about the Spygate and Deflategate scandals that took place during his days in New England.
Still, Wilfork continued to question the decision, even asking for a change in the voting process going forward.
“They need to go back to the drawing board,” Wilfork added. “I don’t care what sport you play, I don’t care your age, you know who Bill Belichick is, and what he’s accomplished. He’s an icon walking. I hope they get a lot of backlash because it was wrong. So they need to get that fixed, man.”
Whether or not the Hall of Fame will decide to change the voting process remains to be seen, but Belichick not being a first-ballot choice is one of the most stunning outcomes in history.
