The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Should "Spygate" Delay Bill Belichick’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Entry?

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Should "Spygate" Delay Bill Belichick’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Entry?

Scott wants to talk about Bill Belichick. Hi, Scott. What's going on, guys? Hi. All right. So the Bill Belichick situation, let me just start here. So there are two types of sports fans, in my opinion. So there are fans who are fans of their city, right? So they may become an Astros fan during playoff times. They love what it represents or a Rockets fan when they're doing well, Texans, so on and so forth.

And then there are other fans of their teams in the sports. And yes, I'm a huge Astros Rockets and Texans fan. but I'm a fan of the game as well. So over the years, and I'm 31 years old, although all my favorite players are, you know, who I grew up rooting for are from the city of Houston. I gain an appreciation for the players that we, the players and teams that we competed against.

If you were to ask me who my favorite players are outside of the city of Houston, I would give you names such as the first one that comes to mind is Albert Poulth, Peyton Manning, Kobe Bryant, because I remember battles with them, I'm meeting something to me when I was growing up learning to love sports. I don't remember a time where something happened, a travesty like this happening to another city irritated me this much. Not only is this a sham, I mean, there's so, when people, when I was watching clips on this

last night and people were even explaining Belichick's resume to articulate how much of a travesty this is, that's almost insulting. He is just the goat among goats where it's something that shouldn't have to be, even talked about. I'll submit this. This is where I stand with it. Two facts that have happened, give or take within the last year, and which one is more egregious? The Mavericks trading Luca Donchitz for Anthony Davis or Bill Belichick not being a first ballot hall of famer. I would submit that Bill Belichick not being a first ballot hall of famer is a more egregious act. I know they're not really comparable than what the Mavericks did to Laker.

That is how ridiculous it is. And it ruins the credibility of future Hall of Fame inductions if something like that is to happen. I don't know. It really tick me off. Scott, don't, yeah, we have. Don't hang up because I actually called for people like yourself. So I'm going to repeat what I said about an hour ago. He is a Hall of Fame coach.

He is going to get in. You have old stodgy media. that's just part of that's just who votes okay it is what it is they when you know and sometimes media guys have agendas and that's not the right answer but i'm just speaking to you in real life here real talk but the point is should there have been a punishment for a guy who was found guilty of trying to steal signs from another sports from one of his opponents he got fined five hundred thousand and was found complicit. We don't know how severe it was, we know how long it was,

but there was impropriety involving the New England Patriots trying to sign steal from the New York Jets. My response to you on that would be if we take into consideration that that was the only reason in time period that he found a level of success then potentially. The man was

considered to be the greatest coach during his time, the NFL over a span of two decades. one, eight, and here I am explaining his credentials again. Sure. One, six Super Bowls as a head coach, and I was listening to someone talk about last night. There's two Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator of the Giants. He gets massive credit.

Apparently that Bill's offense was unstoppable that year and the job they did to them in the Super Bowl, and he received all the credit for that. I mean, it's the same answer I would give, as us as Astros fans, when people ask, is that the reason we want? Us's fans know in our heart of hearts that 2017 through 2020, That was one of the more talented rosters put together, left right and center. Didn't matter if we were at home. Didn't matter if we were on the road.

We had high caliber players at every position, and we can say with a relatively high confidence that with or without cameras, we were going to win a lot of baseball games during that era. We feel confident in saying that. Absolutely. But if George Springer is going to the Hall of Fame, he's going to have to wait. If Carlos Beltron, he did get in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, he did. Yeah, it was Anna's first ballot on that?

I don't think so. I hope Jose Al-Tube is not going to have to wait because I don't think Jose was involved. That's just me. Maybe I'm being biased. You might have to. But. Okay. So should Tom Brady have to wait a year?

Sure, why not? You were in the room. You would not vote Tom Brady as off the first of all. I would. I would have voted Bill Belichick. That's not what you asked. I mean, he broke the rules. It was a major scandal.

This is not some great travesty. And we're also not saying that he's not going ever going to get in. But there may be some people. And again, I'm just trying to think through the other person's perspective. If you have someone who has this incredible resume, Scott, which obviously Bill Belichick does. But there is a blemish, asterisk, scar, whatever you want to call it next to it, there may be 10 people in a room of 50 that say, you know what, we appreciate everything he's done. He's one of the greatest coaches of all time, if not the greatest all of all time.

but there is something that that has marred his career and SpyGate was a pretty significant part of a huge five-year run through in the NFL. It wasn't just a it wasn't just a one-off in terms of all, well, you know,

I'm trying to think of something minor. It was a very major offense when it happened. Yeah. It was talked about for a long period of time. And then there were allegations throughout his career. It was a major scandal. I mean, they got a draft pick taken away. He was fined $500,000. I know it was 20 years ago at this point, but it was a major, major scandal.

So this is the last thing I would say on it. So if the point is that his career has a blemish on it because of that, which I guess in some degrees is fair, why I think it makes me so upset is that they are saying that the last 20 years of football have a blemish to it because they were the most dominating force over that 20-year period. Yeah, that's what they're saying. credibility away of the last 20 years of football. And I'm not willing to accept that. And most people are not, but you found 10 people that were.

Yeah. I appreciate you talking to you. Thanks, and again, I wish I could come to you and this is the greatest Travis I've ever heard in my life. And again, I think maybe you and I are maybe on the wrong side of this. Because I'm looking at all the different TV shows, Bill Belchick, how can this possibly happen? It happened because-

He cheated. He cheated. He happened because he cheated. And this is the thing, he's not been banned for life. He's not kicked out of the NFL for good. He's going to have to wait one year. You think it's a spend even a game. I think this is a gross overreaction by people.