Former Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian insisted that he had nothing to do with Bill Belichick’s Pro Football Hall of Fame snub.
Polian denied that he tried to influence members of the Hall of Fame voting committee not to elect Belichick for enshrinement, adding in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio that he voted for the former New England Patriots head coach to be inducted as part of the Class of 2026.
“I voted for coach Belichick in the Hall of Fame selection meeting. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has confirmed that fact through the auditors of the selection process,” Polian said. “Again, I’ll state that I never said that I believe that coach Belichick should wait a year for enshrinement. This has been confirmed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, numerous selectors who were in the room, and my vote for Coach Belichick.”
When the news broke that Belichick wouldn’t be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a first-ballot honoree on Tuesday, ESPN reported that Polian had told voters that he felt Belichick had to wait a little bit for enshrinement due to his involvement in the Spygate scandal. Belichick was fined $500,000 after the league concluded that the Patriots illegally stole opponents’ signals by videotaping them in 2007.
But Polian later told ESPN in a statement that he didn’t tell voters that, although he added he wasn’t 100% sure he had voted for Belichick.
“I was shocked to learn Bill didn’t get in,” Polian said in his comments to ESPN. “He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”
Polian and Belichick were rivals for nearly a decade. Polian was the Colts’ chief decision maker for their roster from 1998-2011, building the teams that went against Belichick’s Patriots at the height of the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry. During that rivalry, Polian advocated for a rule change that would penalize defenders for contacting receivers more than five yards down the field. That rule change was approved, and it came after the Patriots intercepted Manning four times in their victory over the Colts in the 2003 AFC Championship Game. Some believe the result of that game led Polian to push for that rule change, with it being called the “Ty Law rule.”
A former Patriots coordinator believes the pettiness has continued decades later, pointing to Polian as a reason for Belichick’s Hall of Fame snub in a comment to FOX Sports’ Henry McKenna.
“Bill Polian is so jealous he could never beat Bill, no matter what he did or what rules he changed to try and gain an advantage,” the former Patriots coordinator who worked for Belichick told McKenna.
Polian also worked as the general manager of the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers before working for the Colts.
Belichick’s Patriots teams went 10-6 against Polian’s Colts teams over the years, winning two of the three playoff matchups. Those were just a small percentage of the number of wins Belichick had in his NFL career. His 333 total wins are the second-most ever for an NFL head coach, while his 31 postseason wins remain the most ever for a head coach.
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