Well, so much for a nice New England Patriots Hall of Fame celebration at the Super Bowl.

Let’s not waste your time. We’re not writing here saying the obvious, that Bill Belichick belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his first ballot. Thats a given, OK? And after this year he will get in, sooner than later. That also is a given.

Surprisingly to yours truly, the voting was already done, since the NFL has its awards night a week from today. The 50 voters gathered virtually via Zoom, and all the discussions took place then. The voting was done electronically, probably similar to how the Heisman Trophy voting is done.

Even more surprisingly, some of the voting has been leaked, as we heard Wednesday that former Giants QB Eli Manning didn’t make it. That never happens with this group, but it’s likely the HOF has contacted at least those who didn’t get in. Belichick leaked the info on his defeat.

So what happened to incredibly keep Bill Belichick out? That’s what we want to explore.

The process, for one. In the contributor category, coaches, owners and past players are lumped in with five finalists: Belichick, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and former “senior” players Ken Anderson(Bengas QB) Roger Craig (49ers all-purpose back) and the late L.C. Greenwood (Steelers). You need 80 percent of the vote (40 of the 50). Only three are able to be inducted from this category but it can be fewer.

It’s flawed. It’s possible the media voters were thinking, some of them, that Belichick would easily make it through the arduous voting process again next year to be a finalist, but those former players might not. They shouldn’t be in there if that’s the case. This idea was confirmed by one Belichick “no” vote by the Kansas City Star’s Vahe Gregorian who said he didn’t vote for Belichick (or Kraft, for that matter) because he wanted to vote for the three senior players. You can only vote for three.

That’s the process reason. Another reason would be “punishing” an eight time Super Bowl Champion, six as a head coach, twice as an assistant, due to the Spygate and Deflategate cheating scandals, for one year. This is probably the main reason, but who knows. Let’s face it, Belichick rubbed many the wrong way, which is likely part of the reason why he’s not in this time, but that would violate the HOF’s code. Has to be a football related reason, and the scandals are.

Thirdly, another football reason would be how Belichick’s teams did not do well for the most part after Tom Brady left for Tampa and won a Super Bowl. Belichick didn’t. But former Boston Globe writer Ron Borges on Boston radio Wednesday said he researched what other Hall of Fame coaches like Tom Landry and Chuck Knoll, just to name a couple, did after their HOF QBs and there was some dropoff as well. Belichick was 83-104 without Brady.

The last reason we can think of is again with the process. Coaches, like players, used to have to wait five years but that was changed a couple of years ago to one year. But Belichick has never retired; he’s still coaching, albeit in college at North Carolina. Perhaps 10 or more voters decided that Belichick would return to coach in the NFL. After all, Falcons owner Arthur Blank was leaning toward hiring him a couple of years ago before his front office begged him not to.

So there’s why or how this could have happened to Belichick. But the fact is it sadly and foolishly has, and now the contributor inductees’ honor is going to be diluted. They took Bill Belichick’s spot. Kraft could be one of those. We figured it coud work out the other way around.

In every way, it’s just a shameful mess. It could have been Kraft, Belichick, and kicker Adam Vinatieri (bet he won’t make it either). You wonder if this bit of negative news might be a foreshadow of what might be to come next weekend for the Patriots.

As Belichick used to say, not what we’re looking for.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK on twitter, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com