Dick Vermeil
I Feel Guilty Being In Hall of Fame
… After Belichick Snub
Published
TMZSports.com
Dick Vermeil has seen everything the NFL can throw at you … but leaving Bill Belichick out of Canton has him completely shocked.
The Hall of Fame coach didn’t hold back with TMZ Sports while talking about Belichick’s first-ballot snub … saying the new voting process flat-out doesn’t work for coaches — and the Patriots legend being left out proves it.
Vermeil said he felt the same frustration last year when Mike Holmgren got passed over … pointing out that under the Hall’s revamped system, coaches keep getting squeezed out while other positions cruise in.
And when it comes to Belichick? Vermeil didn’t hesitate.
“If anybody belongs in the Hall of Fame regardless of voting, it’s Bill Belichick,” he said, adding that he actually feels “guilty being in there with him not there.”
Belichick was one of five finalists in the coach, contributor and seniors categories, in which voters can only select up to three, while candidates need 80% approval.
Vermeil also rattled off Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin as no-brainers, saying elite coaches simply don’t get the same respect anymore as star quarterbacks … “and I guess that’s why they pay them so much money.”
As for the controversies that critics still bring up around Belichick? Vermeil waved them away with decades of perspective.
“It’s baloney,” he said, explaining that after starting in the league back in 1969, he’s seen plenty of things that were “not legal or ethical” that never saw the light of day — and were just as serious as anything being used against Belichick now.
Vermeil did say he trusts Hall president Jim Porter to fix the problem eventually, but made it clear the voting process has failed.
“When you leave out a Bill Belichick,” Vermeil said, “the system does not work.”
If arguably the greatest coach ever isn’t a Hall of Famer yet … the Hall’s got a Hall of Fame problem.