Sources: Robert Kraft not voted for Hall of Fame Class of '26 - ESPN
I have such mixed feelings of schadenfreude and disbelief on this one. Despite living in Pats land (and my son being a big fan) and really enjoying the team, I also greatly dislike these two guys. But Belichick in particular feels like 100% first ballot.
I do wonder if the Epstein release added additional fuel to delaying Kraft, or if he already wasn’t getting in.
The vote was held before the Epstein release, so that shouldn’t have been a factor.
But also, despite the fact that it’s a polite (and eyeroll worthy) fiction, in theory HoF voters only consider NFL related aspects of their candidacy.
The league does seem to be doing some major damage control, though. I don’t think they really understood that antipathy for Belichick among the general public was not the same as belief he didn’t deserve to be in the Hall when first eligible. Maybe Kraft not getting in will help but it’s still a major unforced error on their part.
I actually think it was really just the math. The NFL created a horrible system that put former players in with coaches and owners and made it impossible for more than a few to get elected (only could vote for 3, but needed 80% to get in).
Here is one voter explaining that: https://amp.kansascity.com/sports/article314488692.html
He really felt like this was the last chance for the senior players and couldn’t let them fall into oblivion when obviously Belichick will get in at some point.
Here’s a similar story, though he also did give weight to Spygate, and chose Kraft over a senior player.
Mike Chappell: I voted for Robert Kraft, not against Bill Belichick
I get the math angle but this was an entirely predictable outcome they failed to predict. It’s blaming the tool instead of the person who picked up the hammer instead of the wrench.
They changed the voting rules - adding coaches and contributors to the senior player pool and also shortening the eligibility window to 1 year following retirement for coaches - but keeping the 3 vote rule. That was obviously going to create issues by having a bigger pool but the same limits on votes.
So, the HoF fiddled with the rules and got a bad result. If a rule change leads to a result that doesn’t pass the sniff test, the response should not be that they followed their rules and it can’t be helped but instead that they realize they screwed up and will work on addressing the issue.