There is an old aphorism, ‘Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.’ Bill Belichick, who built a two-decade-long dynasty with the New England Patriots, always believed everyone was out to get him. The obvious question on anyone’s mind would be: why? Well, try being a mastermind head coach who is an embodiment of ‘The Patriots Way’, with six Super Bowl rings, 333 franchise games, and nine conference and 17 divisional championships.

Whether it was correct then or not, we can always debate. But it became real this January when that same head coach was snubbed from Canton’s honor, unable to win even 80 percent of the required votes to become the first ballot hall of famer. To date, what he achieved with New England remains unparalleled, but his snub raised many eyebrows, forcing one of his disciples to see the HOF in a different light.

“Yeah, that’s kind of a joke, no?” Julian Edelman replied to Amon-Ra St. Brown when he asked about whether his views on the Hall of Fame changed after Belichick’s snub on The St. Brown Podcast. “It’s been funny. I don’t know what you got to do to be a first ballot. So, it is what it is. There’s a bunch of haters out there, the Patriots hate is clearly real, holy smoly. It’s real.

“(He) has some of the craziest accolades of all time, and he doesn’t make it. So, it’s just tells me that it’s true that there are real haters out there, who hate on people. It does make you look a little different at the Hall of Fame.”

When Belichick was informed that he did not make it to the list of Hall of Famers on the first ballot, he did not have much to say. He looked at two of his colleagues and simply wondered, “What does one have to do?” He wasn’t the only one asking that question.

However, ever since the Spygate scandal, Belichick has not hidden his frustrations with the media and the league office. You know that saying, ‘the more I work, the more I seem to have luck’? That was probably what Belichick said in his head as he saw everyone targeting his team because they seemed unstoppable while building the NFL’s most well-known dynasty.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee is full of old on-field foes and veteran reporters whom he used to lament as the Patriots coach. When the voting took place on January 13, at least 11 of those 50 voters left him off their ballot. He didn’t pass the 80% threshold to gain enshrinement. But his Patriots tenure wasn’t all roses. He had his fair share of thorns en route to those glowing trophies, which may or may not have bled him now.

While Belichick cannot be the first-ballot HOF, he can still try to gain a seat in 2027. However, it makes a curious case for why Julian Edelman is talking about Canton.

He was inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame last year and could be next eligible for the NFL Hall of Fame soon. What’s interesting is that because of what he saw happen to Belichick, he has a little heart to campaign for himself.

“I didn’t play the game to make the Hall of Fame, I played the game to go out and win championships, and I got to do that multiple times,” Edelman told Brown on his podcast.

Let me make a case for why, when Belichick could not be in the golden jacket, Edelman shouldn’t be either.

Can Edelman make it to Canton before Belichick?

Edelman played under Belichick for 11 years and knows his achievements were not a fluke. And while he was a seventh-round pick, Edelman also ended his career as a star receiver with three Super Bowls to show for it. But what really made his career shine was his Super Bowl LIII MVP award after an outstanding performance.

In that game, he tallied catches for 141 yards to lead a stumbling New England Patriots offense to win over the LA Rams 13-3. The chatter to put him up started instantly. His retirement after the 2020 season only ignited the talks. But does he deserve it?

He himself told Brown that there are many receivers ahead of him who deserve to get the honor first. Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor puts him at 115th rank among receivers to get inducted, and we can see why.

He did perform the best on the night of SB LIII, but his career tallies are blips in NFL history books. His 620 catches are 92nd all-time, his 6,822 yards are 17th all-time, and his 36 touchdown catches are not even in the top 250.

But he put himself down slowly, still.

“It’s not for me to debate. I put the product out there, and it’s for the other people to debate,” Edelman told Brown. “I always wanted to be the guy who made the big play when the team needed. I had a lot of those in my career. As long as I left a good stance with teammates, coaches, I had the hardware, I got everything.”

Compared to Belichick’s accolades, these certainly don’t count. But call it politics or hate for the Patriots, Belichick became the first lamb. Although his Pro Football Hall of Fame snub feels wrong, many believe the Spygate and Deflategate scandals were the reason for it.

Spygate and Deflategate scandals likely cost Bill Belichick a first-ballot Hall of Fame honor

Bill Belichick was the New England Patriots‘ head coach for 24 years. During that time, he turned the franchise from zero Super Bowls to six Super Bowl wins. Despite this being a glorious time for the Patriots Nation, a few scandals put question marks on the franchise’s credibility.

The first one was the “Spygate” scandal, which caused a major backlash throughout the league. In 2007, authorities discovered the Patriots had illegally videotaped the New York Jets’ defensive signals from an unauthorized sideline location. Patriots’ video assistant Matt Estrella was caught by the Jets security filming signals during a game, violating league rules established earlier that year.

As a result, the former head coach and the organization were fined $500,000 and$250,000, respectively, and the franchise lost its first-round pick in the 2008 draft.

Other than that, there was also the “Deflategate” incident in 2015. The Patriots were accused of using underinflated footballs in the AFC Championship game against the Colts. The league even launched an investigation, which ultimately concluded that Tom Brady was reportedly aware of the tampering.

The football weighs around 12.5–13.5 pounds per square inch (PSI). However, underinflated balls are easier to catch in wet and cold weather. Brady was fined $1 million in addition to a four-game suspension and a loss of two picks in the 2016 draft.

These incidents became black marks on Belichick’s glorious career. For now, he hopes to be in Canton next year, if the hate towards him or the Patriots goes away. However, the snub did make us view the selection committee for the HOF a little differently.