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Paul Domowitch Voted for Bill Belichick, but Doesn’t Think Hall of Fame Votes Need to be Public
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Domo chiming in after the Bill Belichick fiasco of the last 48 hours:
Well sure, someone could lie, but isn’t transparency a bare minimum requirement from media members who spent entire careers seeking transparency? A question for the philosophers.
In contrast, if you look at public nature of MLB Hall of Fame voting, you get the sense that the scribes who are gifted with votes view their role as a combination honor and responsibility, like they’re the stewards of a public asset. That necessitates disclosure, in their minds, and is appreciated by fans and media non-voters.
For context, the NFL Hall of Fame selection committee is made up of 50 members, which includes former players, broadcasters, executives, and coaches. It’s not just media members, though each city has a scribal representative, while New York and LA have two each. Domo is the Philadelphia voter and has been since 2002. He retired in 2021 but is more than qualified based on his nearly 40 years writing about the Eagles for the Inquirer and Daily News. The HOF’s board of directors reviews and approves these voters annually. It put out a statement on Wednesday, threatening to take action against members who violate “the selection process bylaws.”
A lot of the participants have come out since the Belichick snub and revealed how they voted. Oftentimes, as is the case in baseball, they will explain themselves in written form, which is published at their outlet of employment. Case in point, the Kansas City voter, Vahe Gregorian, said he didn’t vote for Belichick because he feels there’s a backlog of deserving senior players, and therefore used his limited number of selections on Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood. It’s a quirk of the process. You don’t just vote “yes” or “no” on a list of candidates. They are whittled down and then lumped together, as he writes:
Separate from the vote-down of modern era candidates from 15 to as many as five, the aspect involving Belichick illogically lumps together in one category the coaching candidate, the contributor candidate (in this case, Patriots owner Robert Kraft) and three seniors. Voters can choose three of the five at most, and an 80% approval (40 votes) is needed for any to go forward.
So there are a couple of different things going on here. The voting process itself could be re-worked, or there could be a transparency mandate from the board of directors. They could reduce the number of media members in the vote and add more coaches, players, etc. Either way, there’s probably going to be a change or two moving forward, judging by the shitstorm of reaction that continues into Thursday afternoon.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com