Bill Belichick spent much of his tenure with the New England Patriots convinced that the NFL establishment, particularly the league office, was out to get him.
The rest of the time, he lamented that the media was incompetent.
Well, you can't blame him for feeling pretty vindicated after ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham reported Tuesday that the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee, full of old on-field foes and veteran reporters, failed to vote him in.
At least 11 of the 50 voters left him off their ballot, despite Belichick's six Lombardi Trophies, nine conference championships and 333 career victories.
Was there a vast conspiracy against Belichick? Was it politics? How about a final punishment for past scandals? Or was it just a product of a clunky system that saw him slip through the cracks?
Only the voters know for sure, but while some secret, organized opposition is highly unlikely, Belichick has reason to be even more suspicious than usual.
And one thing could still add to the suspicions: Robert Kraft could be voted in.
Yes, the scenario exists in which the Patriots' dynasty is represented in this year's Hall of Fame class ... but by the team's owner, not the team's coach.
And that would be the same Robert Kraft with whom Belichick is currently locked in a feud. It's perhaps a one-sided feud, but still.
If you want the enduring Patriots soap opera to get even more awkward, this would certainly do it.
The official announcement of the Class of 2026 won't come until next Thursday, in the run-up to the Super Bowl. The voting took place Jan. 13. All we know now is that Belichick didn't pass the 80% threshold to gain enshrinement.
He was in a five-person category that included Kraft, as well as former players Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood. Voters were allowed to cast ballots for three of the five.
This is a bizarro group. Belichick was a coach. Kraft would be considered a "contributor." The players were all previously passed over. Why they were compared with each other is anyone's guess, but the oddball assortment is a prime example of how the process needs an overhaul.
In the end, it leaves the possibility that if Kraft does get in, he will do it at the expense of Belichick.
An owner in the Hall of Fame is controversial enough. Unless owners hold specific additional roles inside the organization, say, general manager, their "contributions" are mostly structural or peripheral.
But 16 owners are in the Hall, including the likes of Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), Wellington Mara (New York Giants) and Edward DeBartolo (San Francisco 49ers).
None of them has enjoyed the success of Kraft, whose team will play in its 10th Super Bowl under his stewardship Feb. 8. It'll be his first without Belichick or quarterback Tom Brady.
If Jerry Jones is a Hall of Famer, how isn't Robert Kraft?
Then again, if Kraft is a Hall of Famer, how isn't Belichick?
You can see where this mess is headed.
Here's where it gets even more heated.
Belichick doesn't like Kraft right now. As the head coach at North Carolina, Belichick even banned Patriots scouts from campus. Kraft has tried to extend various olive branches, including expressing hope for a Belichick statue outside Gillette Stadium, but this is Bill Belichick we are talking about. He can hold a grudge with the best of 'em. He might even be justified.
"Whatever perceptions may exist about any personal differences between Bill and me, I strongly believe Bill Belichick's record and body of work speak for themselves," Kraft said in the statement Wednesday. "... He is the greatest coach of all time and he unequivocally deserves to be a unanimous first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer."
Sure, except he isn't going to be. And one of the speculative reasons centers on Bill Polian, a former Indianapolis general manager and part of the selection committee. Polian, like everyone at the Colts, was a bitter rival with Belichick's teams.
According to Van Natta and Wickersham's reporting, Polian told some fellow voters that Belichick should "wait a year" to be enshrined as a penance for Spygate, the Patriots 2007 filming scandal.
Polian denied this, but he said he was only 95% sure he actually voted for Belichick, which raised a few eyebrows since the vote was only two weeks ago.
But he also said he was 100% certain that he not only voted for Kraft, who he acknowledges is a close friend, but even lobbied the selection committee on Kraft's behalf. He has publicly pushed for Kraft in years past, as well.
"When he didn't get in last year, I lost sleep over it," Polian told ESPN in 2024. "I'm still sick at heart about it."
Perhaps all of this is just a gigantic coincidence and a figment of Belichick's imagination.
Still, it is quite possible that Bill Belichick, the actual coach, won't get into the Hall but his current enemy, Robert Kraft, merely an owner, will. And it would stem from the same ballot, but only after Kraft's close friend and Belichick's old rival spoke against Belichick and for Kraft.
Belichick might want to remember the old aphorism: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you."
