Bill Belichick and Jimmy Johnson Credit: © Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images / © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson went scorched earth on Pro Football Hall of Fame voters Tuesday night, hours after ESPN revealed that Bill Belichick failed to receive enough votes for first-ballot induction to Canton.

Johnson, who won consecutive Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys before entering Canton in 2020, posted a blistering series of messages on social media hours after ESPN revealed Belichick failed to receive the necessary votes for induction.

The 82-year-old called the decision outright “wrong,” pointing to Belichick’s status as the second-winningest coach in NFL history with more Super Bowl championships than anyone and an unimaginable number of division titles. Johnson attributed the snub to small, jealous voters.

He wanted names. Specifically, he wanted the names of the “assholes” and “cowards” who voted against Belichick, and he repeatedly challenged them to identify themselves publicly. Johnson predicted that if ballots were made public —like they are for baseball’s Hall of Fame — few of those who voted against Belichick would have the courage to come forward.

According to ESPN’s Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed during the Jan. 13 selection committee meeting. The reporters detailed that Spygate and Deflategate — the signature scandals from Belichick’s Patriots tenure — dominated discussions among voters.

More troubling, an anonymous source told ESPN that Bill Polian, the former Indianapolis Colts general manager who serves on the voting committee, advocated for Belichick to “wait a year” as punishment for Spygate. Polian’s teams lost three AFC Championship games to Belichick’s Patriots, including the 2003 and 2004 seasons, before finally breaking through in 2006. The Colts defeated the Patriots in the 2006 AFC Championship game en route to winning Super Bowl XLI.

Polian denied influencing the vote when Sports Illustrated‘s Matt Verderame reached him by phone Tuesday evening. Polian said the reports were categorically untrue and that he voted for Belichick. But Polian’s certainty wavered when ESPN followed up. He told the network he was 95% sure he voted for Belichick alongside a player, most likely longtime Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end L.C. Greenwood, but couldn’t remember with 100% certainty.

If voters were using the 2007 scandal — where the Patriots illegally videotaped New York Jets defensive signals — as justification to exclude Belichick, Johnson argued, they were being ridiculous. Many teams attempted similar tactics. Including his own Cowboys.

Johnson credited Howard Mudd, then with the Kansas City Chiefs, with giving Dallas the idea to videotape opponents. The Cowboys tried it, got nothing useful, and abandoned it. But they tried. And according to Johnson, many teams experimented with the tactic during that era.

Mudd, one of the most respected offensive line coaches in NFL history, later spent 11 seasons working under Bill Polian and Tony Dungy with the Indianapolis Colts from 1998 to 2009. The same Bill Polian who now sits in judgment of Belichick’s candidacy. The same Colts organization that was so outraged by Spygate, they helped drive the Deflategate investigation years later.

Mudd died in 2020. He can’t defend himself or elaborate on what Johnson revealed. But Johnson has zero incentive to fabricate this story decades after his coaching career ended.

The Hall will announce its Class of 2026 on Feb 5. Belichick will get in eventually. But what Johnson exposed isn’t really about Spygate or moral standards. It’s about voters punishing Belichick for beating them, then hiding behind anonymity so they never have to admit it.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann