Bill Belichick's Hall of Fame snub could signal another win for former Giants QB Eli Manning
Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick and former Giants quarterback Eli Manning pictured during Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, 2012 in Indianapolis. Credit: Getty Images/Jamie Squire; Al Bello
SAN FRANCISCO — The two greatest moments in Eli Manning’s career were among the worst in Bill Belichick’s. Manning led the Giants to improbable Super Bowl victories over Belichick’s Patriots at the end of the 2007 and 2011 seasons.
Fourteen years to the day after they last met in the big game, Belichick was handed another surprising defeat. And it again could be Manning who comes out the winner in it.
The Class of 2026 for the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced late Thursday night is destined to be remembered more for who was not included than for who was. Belichick, considered by any metric as one of the top two or three coaches in NFL history, was snubbed. So was Manning for the second straight year. Patriots owner Robert Kraft, once expected to get in, did not.
With Manning, there is at least a debate to be had over his football resume as a Hall of Famer. He did win two of the more memorable Super Bowls this century, both on fourth-quarter comebacks, and for 16 seasons he was the face of the Giants. But he also finished his career with a .500 record (117-117) in the regular season, never received an MVP vote and did not win a postseason game outside of those two remarkable championship runs. He was not among the top seven vote-getters last year in his first year on the ballot.
Belichick’s record is much more definitive. He holds or is tied for the record for most Super Bowl appearances as a head coach (nine), most playoff wins as a head coach (31), most playoff appearances as a head coach (19) and most divisional titles as a head coach (17). His 302 regular-season wins are the third most in NFL history behind Hall of Famers Don Shula and George Halas. If you combine the regular season and postseason, he has 333 victories, second only to Shula (347).
As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week: “That’s a Hall of Fame career, but there’s a decision-making process here, and there’s a timing issue . . . Bill Belichick deserves to be in that Hall of Fame.”
Goodell has little sway over who gets in, though. It’s not the NFL’s Hall of Fame, it’s the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and while most of its curation is slanted toward the NFL and all of the selectors have a background either playing in, coaching in or covering the league, it is an independent entity.
That process, in which 50 electors vote for a limited number of finalists who must secure at least 40 votes to get in, surely will come under further scrutiny.
The result this year is a class that includes Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri, Roger Craig and Drew Brees.
Perhaps that system will be changed and improved in time for next year’s class. Belichick, with a groundswell of sympathy and support that belies how many felt about him while he was coaching, should make it then no matter what. But a new voting process also could give Manning a better opportunity for inclusion even as other Hall-worthy quarterbacks such as Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers begin to flood the ballots. It might even give Tom Coughlin a clearer path to enshrinement.
Manning won two Super Bowls at Belichick’s expense. His Hall of Fame credentials are built on those two victories. It would be something if Belichick’s failure to get into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot this year opens the door for Manning’s eventual inclusion there, too.
Stafford wins MVP
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford won his first career Most Valuable Player award, beating out the Patriots’ Drake Maye by one vote. Stafford threw 46 touchdown passes, which led the NFL.
Other major award winners included Myles Garrett as Defensive Player of the Year and Jaxson Smith-Njigba as Offensive Player of the Year.
Mike Vrabel was named Coach of the Year. Christian McCaffrey won Comeback Player of the Year.
Tetairoa McMillan won the rookie offensive award and Carson Schwesinger won the defensive one.
Dart, Carter shut out
The last two Giants to win Rookie of the Year, Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley, went on to win Super Bowls… just not with the Giants. That could be a good omen for Jaxson Dart and Abdul Carter, two Giants who were finalists for Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year but were shut out at Thursday’s NFL Honors.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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