DHL Dan CCLXXXVII - The Never Ending Feud

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank manages to get some more mileage out of Bill Belichick's recent Hall of Fame snub:

Bill Belichick’s reputation was actually helped by Hall snub, but his feud with Krafts will never end, and other thoughts

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Picked-up pieces on the trail from San Francisco to the Gulf Coast of Florida . . .

⋅ Bill Belichick had a strong two weeks after it was learned that he’d been dissed by voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When news of the ridiculous snub broke, Bill got a ton of support, even from longtime rivals and haters. Without making any comment, Belichick’s reputation was renewed and enhanced. It was the Hall that was embarrassed, not the coach. And folks in Canton, Ohio, will probably fix the voting process to make sure Belichick is enshrined in the summer of 2027.

The Patriots’ awful performance in Super Bowl LX was also good for the Hoodie. It was a reminder of how hard it is to win a championship. Lack of halftime adjustments made by Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels featured a sharp contrast to Belichick’s work with the Patriots in nine Super Bowls. The Pats lost three of those nine games, but were never blown out and could have gone 9-0. Bill somehow pulled out a game after trailing, 28-3. The 2025-26 Patriots, on the other hand, were almost historically bad in the Super Bowl — the first team in 51 years to go scoreless for the first three quarters — no threat to overcome a puny, 9-0 halftime deficit.

All in all, despite the Hall snub, Belichick quietly restored his image and reminded all that he’s one of the greatest coaches of all time.

I think people are inclined to forget the most recent things when evaluating a person's professional career. I don't think Belichick got any sort of boost from this, and this Hall of Fame rejection was little more than other folks in football delivering a righteous 'fuck you' to Belichick, who was a dick to pretty much everybody, and that might be soft pedaling things.