Go F**k Yourself, Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In the wake of reports that the Pro Football Hall of Fame has snubbed Bill Belichick on his first ballot, I reached out to a handful of the selectors I usually speak to about such matters.

They were pissed. Also, stunned. But genuinely pissed. So pissed that I’m keeping everyone completely off the record. There was a lot of cussing.

It’s safe to assert that the vast majority of selectors voted for Belichick, and that many assumed that he would sail into the Hall as part of the Class of 2026. Enshrinement now requires an 80% majority, however. It’s a new rule the Hall initiated recently in the institution’s ongoing effort to suck as hard as possible.

To clarify: selectors were given a list of three Seniors candidates (Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood), one coach (Belichick) and one contributor (Robert Kraft). After a discussion period, they were then tasked with casting three votes for these five finalists. Only finalists who who were chosen by 80% of the selectors would be enshrined. The meeting and vote occurred before anyone could be certain that the Patriots would be playing in the Super Bowl.

The votes were private. Selectors were not told the results of the vote at the end of the virtual meeting. Like the rest of us, they found out about the Belichick snub from Tuesday’s ESPN bombshell.

Even a cursory reading of the voting process outlined above makes it clear that it’s a disaster waiting to happen. The more similarly qualified the finalists, the greater the chance of something close to a quintuple knockout. Still, that group of finalists was far from similarly-qualified: there’s the most successful coach of the 21st century, his goofy boss, and three great players who have spent a few decades in the Hall of Very Good. One of these things is highly unlike the others. The highest vote-getter is supposed to get in no matter what. That should have been Belichick.

At least eleven selectors voted against Belichick by leaving him off their “top three.” That’s eleven too many. The 80% rule gives a great deal of power to ax-grinders while turning “protest voters” into unsuspecting swing voters.

As far as anyone can tell, the Belichick snub was about Spygate, Deflategate and various other water-under-the-bridge gates. It sounds like some selectors wanted to rap Belichick’s knuckles by denying him first-ballot status; it’s unlikely that anyone thinks they can keep even a tiny anti-Belichick bloc together for very long.

It doesn’t sound like the “naysayers” were even coordinated. These were nothing like the heated Terrell Owens debates. The Spygate/Whatevergate conversation, from what I was told, sounded more like devil’s advocate due diligence than anyone climbing onto a bully pulpit.

There’s a prime suspect being floated as the anti-Belichick “whip,” but that individual apparently did not say much during the virtual meeting. (This does not necessarily exonerate said individual.) Some of the anti-Belichick crowd must have stealth-farted their decision. The Yes voters had no reason to believe the No voters had the votes. Would you?

Selector Mike Sando posited a plausible scenario on X: a few selectors were hardliners about the -gates, a few were staunch advocates for the senior players who assumed Belichick was a slam dunk, a few might not like the new rule that makes coaches eligible one year after retirement. Add it all up, and you get a skimpy coalition of disparate interests that had no idea of its own strength.

Whatever. The Belichick snub is simply indefensible.

I’ve written about the Pro Football Hall of Fame for years. I did my best to explain the reason why Owens was forced to wait until his third ballot. I’ve typed the word “logjam” more times than anyone who isn’t writing a book about 19th century lumberjacks ever should. I’m Mister Killjoy when anyone uses the phrase “first-ballot Hall of Famer” on social media. I despise the very word “snub” — look at that voting process again and note that two individuals are auto-“snubbed” by the rules of the process — and am only using it here because this case is so extreme and absurd.

I’ve done my best to explain, if not justify, some really poor Hall of Fame selections and omissions. On this one, I’m out.

The Hall created this tyranny-of-the-rabble-rousers scenario by adding a bunch of former players/coaches/execs to the committee, then setting the enshrinement bar so perilously high. It’s government of, by and for the ax-grinders. It’s now hardwired to punish, not honor. And it just led to a public-relations disaster which makes everyone involved — even the large majority that did not want or expect someone of Belichick’s stature to miss the cut — look petty and stupid.

I want to address any theories making the rounds that “sportswriters” held a grudge against Belichick for being, well, himself. Belichick has very good private relationships with a few selectors. Plenty of notorious assholes to the media have reached the Hall of Fame on their first ballots. Despite his public persona, Belichick has never come close to reaching the Mount Rushmore of Assholes.

Some selectors took the old -gate scandals more seriously than others. That’s reasonable enough. But any score-settlers on the committee were probably not chosen from the journalistic ranks.

Belichick was also a powerful voice on the “Blue Ribbon Panel” who selected the Centennial Class. He loves football history and has been known to passionately advocate for players (on his team and opposing teams) behind the scenes.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame should be positioning Belichick as some sort of ambassador or professor emeritus. That’s probably what the Hall’s board of directors wants. They had no idea, when they scribbled a bunch of half-assed rules to make enshrinement harder to appease some Primetime-level egomaniacs, that they were building a bear trap that they would soon poke their own head into.

A new Pro Football Hall of Fame class will be announced next week. It will include some outstanding players whose enshrinement will be overshadowed by this omission. It will be hard to take anything the Hall does seriously so long as Belichick-level legends can be barred from entry almost inadvertently by a committee that cannot keep up with the ever-shifting rules imposed on it. The current process is a bad joke. It taints the results. It takes reasonable debate by smart people and turns it into stupid results.

And remember: I never liked Belichick, and believe there was some merit to the various -gates. Imagine how folks who did must feel about this snub.