00:00What do you make of the backlash?
00:01Just so you know, I wasn't in the building.
00:04I was on a Zoom call, but just to be technical.
00:10Yeah, to answer your question, Dan, look, I'm flabbergasted.
00:13I'm still flabbergasted, right?
00:15And because I think I said to a bunch of people, look, we have five people on this part, which include the seniors, include the one contributor, which is Bob Kraft, and Bill Belichick.
00:27And then we had 15 guys in the modern era class, right?
00:33And if you asked me to rank all 20 of them, if you just threw them together and said, who's the most qualified guy to be in the Hall of Fame?
00:42My answer would have been Bill Belichick.
00:44He was number one regardless, right?
00:46Voted for him.
00:47I do understand the detractors.
00:49I mean, he's not without some issues, okay?
00:53It's not the cleanest resume you've ever seen in the world, but it's an overwhelming resume when you talk about it.
01:00And I think that one thing that people don't really, truly understand in this, there's two parts to it.
01:07He was put up against players.
01:09Now, they were senior candidates, but a lot of guys value players more than they value people off the field, whether those are contributors or coaches.
01:17I generally agree with that.
01:19Like, if you said it was Tom Coughlin versus Elsie Greenwood or Roger Craig or Kenny Anderson, I would have said I probably would have voted for one of the players over Tom Coughlin.
01:32But it wasn't Tom Coughlin.
01:33It wasn't Mike Shanahan.
01:34It wasn't Mike Holmgren.
01:35It was Bill Belichick, you know, one of the three to five greatest coaches in the history of this league.
01:40And I would have voted for him over that.
01:42And likewise, I voted for Bob Kraft.
01:46I voted for three out of the five people that were allowed to vote, or actually were required to vote for three out of the five, which is I voted for Belichick Kraft and Roger Craig.
01:57And so I would just say that I thought Kraft was probably one of the three or four most qualified people out of the entire 20.
02:04You know, he's up there with a Drew Brees or a Larry Fitzgerald.
02:07You know, like when you talk about guys like that, in my mind.
02:11So I voted for Kraft, and then I voted for Roger Craig.
02:14But there are guys who believe strongly in players.
02:17There are also guys who, you know, take Spygate very seriously, that when guys get, you know, punished by the league, that they should pay some penance for that when it comes to the Hall of Fame.
02:28I don't agree with that in this case in particular, because I think the case is so overwhelming.
02:34But that's me.
02:37And I would just caution you to say this.
02:40When you say he was denied his opportunity, he's denied his opportunity this year.
02:45I fully expect that Belichick's going to be on the ballot next year.
02:48This is going to come up again next year.
02:50And we're going to vote him in next year.
02:52And that the people who were on his case about Spygate or whatever it is or whatever their reasons are are going to look there and go, okay, it's time to put Belichick in.
03:02Or we're going to change the rules.
03:05He's going to come up again, and it's not going to be an issue.
03:07Jace, I know you can't talk about what went on in the room there, but let me ask you this.
03:14Did people, did they have votes against?
03:18Did they have arguments against him in the room there?
03:22Were there people in the room that stood up and were against his induction as a first ballot?
03:26I know you can't talk about it, but let me ask you about it anyways, so I can't answer that question.
03:36I'm not naming names here, but—
03:37No, let me say this.
03:40Let me say this.
03:43I didn't hear that argument this year in this setting, but it has been said before in other settings among voters.
03:53Not all voters, but I know some voters who are like, look, not—you know, he has to pay his penance again.
04:01You know, like there are people who have said that.
04:04More than one.
04:05Again, I don't agree with that, but I know what their feelings are.
04:09And, you know, let me add that, you know, there are some people who, you know, worry about whether he's going to come back to the NFL, which I also—the Hall has already said that doesn't matter to the Hall.
04:23There's already precedent for it because Joe Gibbs went into the Hall of Fame and then came back and coached again later on.
04:29So I don't think it should matter.
04:31I don't think it should matter.
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