Bill Belichick Dodges ‘Nothing Without Tom Brady’ Bullet After Hall of Fame Insult
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
Bill Belichick’s first-ballot Hall of Fame rejection sparked the expected flood of hot takes. The 73-year-old coach fell short of the 40 votes needed from the 50-member committee, leaving him puzzled, according to ESPN sources. But the snub also dragged out the oldest, laziest argument against Belichick’s legacy: he never won anything without Tom Brady. Gary Myers isn’t buying it.
Myers posted on X Thursday, calling that criticism “the #1 worst argument” against Belichick’s Hall of Fame credentials. The longtime NFL journalist pointed out what critics conveniently forget. Brady entered the league as the 199th pick in 2000, the seventh quarterback selected that year.
“He was not Elway or Peyton coming into NFL,” Myers wrote. Belichick kept Brady as a fourth-string quarterback during his rookie season and developed him into what he became.
The #1 worst argument I’ve heard from fans against Bill Belichick belonging in @ProFootballHOF: He never won anything w/out @TomBrady. Remember: Brady was the 199th player picked in 2000. 7th QB taken. He was not Elway or Peyton coming into NFL. Who kept him as 4th string QB as…
— Gary Myers (@GaryMyersNY) January 30, 2026
Myers highlighted Belichick’s decision to bench Drew Bledsoe after he recovered from a life-threatening injury in 2001. The Patriots were a defense-first team during the early years of the dynasty, not a Brady-led offensive juggernaut. That context matters when evaluating who built what in New England.
The comparison Myers offered stings even harder. Don Shula gets labeled by some as the greatest coach in NFL history despite having Dan Marino, a top-five all-time quarterback, for 13 seasons. Shula never won a Super Bowl with Marino and reached just one title game in Marino’s second season, losing by 22 points. Nobody holds that against Shula’s legacy the way they do with Belichick and Brady.
The Bill Belichick Voting Drama Nobody Saw Coming
Bill Polian’s name keeps surfacing in the fallout. The former Colts general manager reportedly told ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. that Belichick should “wait a year” for Canton. But Polian later walked that back, claiming he couldn’t remember with certainty if he voted for Belichick.
Jason Whitlock weighed in, too, reminding voters they have two jobs: get deserving candidates in quickly and keep undeserving ones out. The Belichick case proves the process needs fixing. Six Super Bowl titles as a head coach, eight total Super Bowl rings, and 333 career wins should never require debate. But Spygate and Deflategate gave some voters cover to vote no, even if the Brady argument doesn’t hold water under Myers’ scrutiny.
