Before we get too far into this, one thing should be clear: Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick should be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is arguably the best coach ever, and keeping him out, even for a year, is a joke. But former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll deserves to be inducted, too.
Why Belichick didn't get inducted depends on who you believe. Bill Polian, a former general manager for two of the Patriots' rivals during Belichick's tenure, the Buffalo Bills and the Indianapolis Colts, was said to have not voted for Belichick because he thought the coach needed to be punished for a year for the cheating scandals that dogged him.
Those included Deflategate and filming the Los Angeles Rams' practice before the Patriots faced them in the Super Bowl in 2019. Did New England and Belichick break the rules? Absolutely. And Polian wasn't the only voting executive who would have kept Belichick out of the Hall in his first year of eligibility (Polian says he did vote for Belichick, though).
Former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll might be able to finally one-up Bill Belichick
A clear underlying, and mostly unsaid, reason also exists for the NFL to do the silly thing and not induct Bill Belichick in his first year. He wasn't well-liked. Besides the cheating issues, the coach was seen as gruff and made more enemies than friends. He likely didn't care, but they did.
Therein lies the biggest difference between the former New England coach and the default general manager and Pete Carroll, former Seahawks head coach and vice president of football operations. Carroll might have been seen as too upbeat, but for the most part, people liked him.
Should that matter for potential induction into a Hall of Fame that values career success? No, but it does. No matter the sport, it matters. Would more people vote for Roger Clemens to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, even with his performance-enhancing drug issues, if he were better liked? Of course.
What the Pro Football Hall of Fame should have done is simply keep Bill Belichick off the ballot in his first year of eligibility if enough people were already clear they weren't going to vote for his induction. At least, the NFL wouldn't have looked so foolish by not voting for his induction.
But Belichick does belong in the Hall, and so does Pete Carroll. The difference between the two is that fewer people see Carroll as a jerk. Sometimes, making friends and being nice pays off, and it might for Carroll when he is finally eligible for Hall of Fame induction in 2028.