Picked-up pieces while wondering why the Seahawks are only 3½-point favorites against the Patriots in Seattle on Opening Night . . .
⋅ The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2026 was inducted in Canton, Ohio, a couple of weekends back, and we got to see Adam Vinatieri take his rightful place in the shrine alongside new inductees Luke Kuechly, Larry Fitzgerald, Drew Brees, and Roger Craig.
With the Patriots set to kick off their regular season Sept. 9 in a Super Bowl rematch in Seattle, I got to thinking about potential Patriot presence on the HOF stage next summer in Canton.
Rules require that Tom Brady must wait until the summer of 2028. It’s the price he pays for playing until he was 45. The good news for New England fans is that all-world tight end Rob Gronkowski hung up his cleats a year before Brady and has a great shot to wear a gold jacket in Ohio next August.
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But what about Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft, the bookend backbones of pro football’s greatest dynasty? Their omissions from the Hall last winter were a loud statement on the confusing process required to gain admission and the troubling tonnage of jealousy and hard feelings generated across Football America (Spygate and Deflategate, anyone?) during the two decades Belichick and Kraft dominated their sport. It’s also fair to say that since they won their last Super Bowl together, post-dynasty failures, salvos fired at one another, and non-football shenanigans have dented the legacies of New England football’s real men of genius.
We are a long way from knowing where this is going. Next summer’s Hall class won’t be announced until mid-February when Super Bowl LXI is played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Belichick and Kraft are both candidates to be on the coaches/senior players/contributors ballot, which is separate from the ballot of recently retired players that’ll feature Gronk, Ben Roethlisberger, Richard Sherman, and Eli Manning, among others. Belichick and Kraft both made the “final five” cut and appeared on this separate ballot last year, along with three senior players (those who’ve been retired more than 25 years), but came up short on a 50-voter ballot, which produced only Craig as a Hall of Famer.
There was considerable noise last winter when it was learned that Belichick failed to gain the Hall, and we heard a lot about potential changes in the process that would make the path easier for a controversial coach who might be the greatest in NFL history. As of now, none of those changes have happened and there’s no guarantee the Hoodie makes it next year. Same for 85-year-old Kraft, who has done just about everything any owner can do, yet has to watch Jerry Jones and Eddie DeBartolo Jr. wearing gold jackets.
If Belichick and Kraft again advance to the final, five-person coach/senior player/contributor ballot (no guarantees there), they’ll again compete against one another in the final vote.
The deterioration of their relationship since Kraft fired Belichick in January 2024 adds to the drama. Now coaching at the University of North Carolina, Belichick feels wronged by Kraft’s vanity Apple-TV “Dynasty” series, says he no longer feels welcome in Foxborough, and has prohibited Patriots scouts from attending practices in Chapel Hill. Days before last season’s Super Bowl, Belichick’s 25-year-old companion/muse Jordon Hudson openly taunted Kraft, wearing an “Orchids of Asia” T-shirt to a nationally televised college basketball game. It’ll be a cold day in Aruba before Belichick is honored in Kraft’s Patriots Hall of Fame.
Belichick and Kraft held their tongues when they were not elected last winter. Smart. There’s no upside to going all Schilling when the sting of the snub is rendered. By saying nothing, the legends left room for dozens of credible football folks to make impassioned cases for them.
In the upcoming weeks and months, you’ll hear of early versions of ballots with many nominees to be considered for the final (coaches/senior players/contributors) vote. That ballot will include three senior players, but only one coach and a maximum of one owner/contributor. Belichick will be up against the likes of Tom Coughlin, Chuck Knox, and Mike Holmgren. Kraft needs to advance against (among many others) Bud Adams, Clint Murchison, Art Rooney Jr., Clark Shaughnessy, Howard Cosell, Chris Berman, and Roone Arledge.
The math is tough. Candidates on the final ballot need to get 80 percent of the votes to make the Hall and voters can vote for no more than three of the five. We know that Belichick and Kraft were both at least 11 votes shy last winter.
It is my belief that the Hoodie gets in this time. There was enormous blowback when word leaked of his omission last winter. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is a farce if he’s kept out another year. But Bill’s not exactly trending in a good direction these days, and if he fails on a second shot, he’d risk being relegated to the “futures” bin while voters perhaps give worthies Coughlin, Holmgren, and Knox a shot.
I’m less optimistic about Kraft making it this year.
The Patriots owner’s Sisyphean quest for Canton is well-documented.
“No current owner has tried harder to get into the Hall — or been denied longer,” ESPN’s Don Van Natta wrote in 2024, while also reporting that when Jones was inducted in 2017, Kraft told a confidant, “He hasn’t been to the NFC title game in two decades and he gets in? How does that work?”
It works in mysterious ways. And rest assured, no matter what happens in this Patriots season, there will be Belichick-Kraft Hall of Fame drama all the way to Super Bowl week. And beyond.
Now close your eyes and try to imagine the big bowl of awkward if they are inducted together in Canton next summer.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name six Red Sox outfielders since 2010 to win at least one Gold Glove; 2. Name five MLB teams since 1950 that have altered their official team name without moving cities. (Note: The Miami Marlins, who were the Florida Marlins, are not a correct answer because they moved from Miami Gardens to Miami proper when they changed their name.) Answers below.
⋅ When Eliot Wolf was asked on Tuesday about a potential extension for Drake Maye next year impacting the Christian Gonzalez negotiations, the Patriots’ de facto general manager said, “It’s about a cash budget. ... We’re cognizant of having a plan for that and working with Jonathan and Robert [Kraft].” Remember those words.
⋅ Are we going to need Ed Davis to tell us precisely where Jason Varitek was “reassigned” within the Red Sox organization?
Where exactly has Jason Varitek been reassigned within the Red Sox organization?
Where exactly has Jason Varitek been reassigned within the Red Sox organization?Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
⋅ How is it that the Worcester Red Sox are not undefeated this year? Every player they send up to Boston looks like a big league All-Star. The WooSox should be running away with the International League.
⋅ Heading into Friday, there were only eight qualifying major leaguers hitting .300 or better. If this holds up, we’ll have a third straight season with fewer than 10. The only other seasons in which this happened in the last 126 years are 1908 (eight) and 1968 (six).
⋅ Rafael Devers went into Friday with 29 home runs and 76 RBIs, which would put him atop the Red Sox’ leaderboard with Willson Contreras. Devers’s 17 homers at home this season are the most by any Giant since Barry Bonds in 2004.
⋅ Julia (Yawkey) Gaston, the adopted daughter of former Red Sox owner Thomas A. Yawkey and his first wife, Elise Watts, died June 11 at the age of 90. Ms. Gaston’s obituary listed Southborough, Mass., and Wilson, Wyo., as her last residences. According to Bill Nowlin’s thoroughly researched bio of Yawkey (“Tom Yawkey: Patriarch of the Boston Red Sox,” 2018), Ms. Gaston was born in the summer of 1936 and the “new” Sox owner adopted her two months later. Tom and Elise Yawkey separated a few years after adopting Julia, and they were divorced when she was 8. She was raised in New York City and married Frederick Gaston III in 1957. When the Red Sox owner died in the summer of 1976, Yawkey’s will, according to Nowlin’s book, stipulated that his adopted daughter receive $10,000 in cash and a $5,000 annuity for life. According to the book, “Tom was never close to Julia. He had taken care of her education, however, and not only had his first wife Elise married a man of means, but so had Julia.”
⋅ Shedeur Sanders delivered a spectacular in-game interview during the Browns’ preseason game vs. the Bills in Cleveland last Saturday, offering a refreshing tone of humility and energy.
⋅ UMass football (0-12 last year under Joe Harasymiak), takes a 16-game losing streak into its first game at Rutgers next Thursday at 6 p.m.
⋅ Since I’m so often wrong with predictions, let the record show that in the Globe’s annual preseason baseball section, yours truly predicted that Walpole’s Cam Schlittler would win the 2026 American League Cy Young Award. Feeling pretty good about that one at this early hour.
Walpole's Cam Schlittler is having a Cy Young-worthy season for the Yankees.
Walpole's Cam Schlittler is having a Cy Young-worthy season for the Yankees.Jim McIsaac/Getty
⋅ Did you know that Jazz Chisholm’s full name is Jasrado Prince Hermis Arrington Chisholm Jr.? ... or that Ceddanne Rafaela played for Curacao in the 2012 Little League World Series?
⋅ Seattle’s Cal Raleigh hit 60 homers last year, but had only 18 going into Friday. He’ll go into a small hall of sluggers with big drop-offs from one season to the next, including Hack Wilson (56 in 1930, then 13 in 1931) Brady Anderson (50 in 1996, 18 in 1997), and Adrian Beltré (48 in 2004, 19 in 2005).
⋅ The Wall Street Journal recently featured a nice profile on Durham, N.H.’s, Sam Fuld, who is president of business operations for the Phillies after a playing career that took him from Phillips Exeter to Stanford, then parts of eight big league seasons for the Cubs, Rays, A’s, and Twins, before Phillies owner John Middleton sent him to The Wharton School at Penn. The 44-year-old Fuld’s father was dean of the college of liberal arts at UNH and his mother a New Hampshire state senator.
Durham, N.H., native Sam Fuld is the Phillies' president of business operations.
Durham, N.H., native Sam Fuld is the Phillies' president of business operations.Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
⋅ Put me down as one who cannot wait for the Sept. 22 release of Peter Gammons’s new book: “It’s All About the Players: What I’ve Learned from Baseball’s Best.” (Grand Central)
⋅ If the name of Lindsay Clancy’s attorney — Kevin Reddington — sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because you recall him successfully defending Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn in a drunk-driving case in 1998.
⋅ Congrats to Andy Yosinoff, who is starting his 50th year coaching women’s basketball at Emmanuel College. He goes into the season with 951 wins.
Andy Yosinoff became the 10th NCAA women's basketball coach to win 900 games in 2023.
Andy Yosinoff became the 10th NCAA women's basketball coach to win 900 games in 2023.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Rafaela (2025), Wilyer Abreu (2024-25), Jackie Bradley Jr. (2018), Mookie Betts (2016-19), Shane Victorino (2013), Jacoby Ellsbury (2011); 2. Tampa Bay Rays (from Tampa Bay Devil Rays), Cleveland Guardians (Indians), Cincinnati Reds (Redlegs), Houston Astros (Colt .45s), Los Angeles Angels (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Anaheim Angels).