What Tom Brady Told Hall of Fame Voters About Bill Belichick Before HC's Snub Revealed

Bill Belichick was reportedly and shockingly snubbed from earning first-ballot induction into the Hall of Fame, though don't blame Tom Brady.

The longtime New England Patriots quarterback offered a glowing endorsement of his former head coach, which Hall of Fame voter Armando Salguero shared with his colleagues.

"I don't believe that any coach in the history of the game has done more to earn his place in the Hall of Fame than Bill Belichick," Brady said. "To say that he was my greatest coaching influence would be an understatement. His tremendous leadership, vision, and daily discipline allowed our team to excel in nearly every area for almost two decades. We were consistently competitive at the highest level every week as he challenged us to grow from the day that season started to the day it ended. That's the role of the head coach and that's Bill Belichick. I had a front row seat for 20 years watching the greatest coach of all time prepare, teach, and lead. He set the standard every single day. His mindset, his consistency, his ability to adapt and evolve was unmatched. He expected a championship level standard from everyone in the building, and he got it. That's why we won! And that's why he belongs in Canton. I'm grateful for what we accomplished together, and I'll always be proud of the team we built. No one's more deserving of this honor than Coach Belichick."

Suffice to say, Brady was stunned—like just about everyone else, sans the Hall of Fame voters who didn't select him—when he learned of the snub:

He wasn't the only prominent figure from the world o f sports to speak out regarding the situation:

According to a report from ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, a few factors may have contributed to Belichick's snub.

Some voters, for instance, reportedly were swayed by New England's two cheating scandals during Belichick's tenure, Spygate and Deflategate. Former Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian, a voter, reportedly told his colleagues that Belichick should "wait a year" as further punishment for those scandals, though Polian denied doing so and said he couldn't remember if he voted for Belichick or not.

There was also the possibility that some voters may have assumed Belichick would get in and voted other candidates—namely senior players who may not appear on the ballot again—to boost their chances given the Hall of Fame's questionable induction process.

Any way you slide it, however, Belichick's snub felt like an injustice, and it may cause a reckoning regarding the voting procedures. The eight-time Super Bowl champion made a strong argument for being the greatest head coach in NFL history during his career—there's no doubt he deserved to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.