You’re always going to get the truth here, or at least what I perceive with all my heart to be the truth.

You’re also going to get full disclosure. I’m not going to hold anything back, even when it makes me look bad, and foolish, and stupid, and unprofessional, and irresponsible, and childish.

Check out Bill Belichick’s book on Amazon

So, “Where in the world are you going with this?,” you may ask. Well, let me tell you.

When I got started in this business, which seems like a lifetime ago, and it really is in a lot of ways was, one of my first assignments was to cover a high school boys basketball. The first time I went out to do that, I could tell right from the get-go that the head coach, who had nearly 400 career wins at the time and was destined to go into every Hall of Fame there was in the state of Ohio, hated me. He had tremendous loathing of me. He just wanted no part of me. I would try to interview him after the games and ask him questions, and he would just leer at me like he wanted to throw me out of the gym. I couldn’t figure out why, and to this day, I still don’t know why. But the problem is that I started feeling the same way about him. “Hey, buddy, if you’re going to be hard on me, then I’m going to be hard on you.” And the few times when they lost, I secretly loved it.

I knew in my heart that it was the wrong thing to do, but I was too young and immature to do anything about it then.

Then one day, I saw the light, as God was straightening me out. I realized that the coach was the story, his team was the story, and his players were the story, not me in any way, shape or form. I needed him to do my job a lot more than he needed me. In fact, he didn’t need me at all, as evidenced by all those wins, he had accumulated in his career long before I got there.

I also realized that our readers didn’t care in any way, shape or form about what I felt about this coach. They just wanted me to cover the team and give them a picture of what was going on. That’s what all readers want, the writer entering a room they can’t and painting a picture and then coming out and telling everybody about it in an objective, not a subjective, way.

As I got further up the ladder and began covering the Browns, I realized that more and more, because what was inside that door became even more appealing. Fans wanted to know.

Getting back to that coach, I just made it my job to do whatever I had to do to accommodate him and whatever he thought about me and tried to soften him up and get him to trust me. It eventually worked.

No sportswriter, no sports media person should ever be the story. We are just ancillary parts. We are nothing more than a tiny piece of the whole puzzle of the sports world. When we go away, it’s not just that no one will miss us, but rather it’s that they won’t even remember that we were there. We are nothing, really.

As it is now, we have too many people in this business who don’t understand that. They think they’re the story and they’re the show in everything they do and they try to prove it.

That is why you have what happened recently, when the voters for selection into the Pro Football Hall of Fame chose not to induct Bill Belichick in his first year of eligibility. What a stupid, embarrassing and nonsensical thing that is.

Tom Brady shares his thoughts on Bill Belichick not making the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility 😳

Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction into the Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/Cu2sbJzECz

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) January 28, 2026

Not select the GOAT? You might as well have not selected Paul Brown, Don Shula, George Halas, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, Tom Landry, John Madden, Vince Lombardi and all the rest.

This is not about those voters, not at all. Their job — their task — is to uphold and apply the standards of the Hall of Fame, the NFL and all these great players, coaches and contributors by recognizing and honoring their greatness. Bill Belichick didn’t answer one of your silly little questions, or he cut the press conference short, or he didn’t smile at you, but that is no reason to keep him out of the Hall. The fact you did so shamed not just you, but everything connected with the league, the Hall and the process.

Belichick has always had a simple message he has given to his players, “Do your job.” Well, the voters didn’t do their job, and as a result, they and their actions became the laughingstock of the sports world..

Those voters want to always make it about themselves, and that’s exactly what they did this time, making themselves look foolish. Bill Belichick will recover from this, but they won’t. And that’s just the way it should be.

Steve King

Guardians and Cubs Tickets in the home opener

Note: We are compensated for purchases made through links on this website

RELATED: Good Bill Belichick Stories