Patriots owner Robert Kraft will not be selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2025, according to multiple reports.
Sources with knowledge of the recent decision made by the Hall of Fame (HOF)’s nine-person contributor committee told ESPN and the New York Times that Kraft, 83, has been snubbed — for the 13th time — in favor of Ralph Hay.
Hay, who died in 1944, was a co-founder of the NFL and owned the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 to 1922.
One source told ESPN that the committee’s decision to select Hay over Kraft is a “huge surprise” and “very disappointing.” The source added, “Unless you are an NFL historian, you don’t know who Ralph Hay is.”
Another insider close to the situation noted that Hay was heavily criticized for not wanting to pay players during his time in the league. “Hay didn’t believe players should be paid. He sold the team after only four years,” the source told ESPN, adding, “I don’t know how he is seen as more deserving than Bob Kraft.”
In a statement to ESPN on Nov. 21, the HOF said the finalists for the 2025 class will be “announced jointly in early December, once all committees have held their selection meetings.”
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The selection process for the HOF begins with a nomination from the nine-person contributor committee. Once nominated, a group of 50 voters select the future inductees.
But Kraft’s name — he has owned the Patriots since 1994 and won six Super Bowl championships with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady — has never advanced past the contributor committee to the 50 voters.
Some fans theorize that Kraft is being snubbed from the HOF because of his previous scandals.
In 2007, Kraft and the Patriots were fined and penalized when it was discovered that the organization was filming the signals of opposing teams’ head coaches during games under head coach Bill Belichick.
In 2015, the scandal dubbed “Deflategate” stained the Patriots’ reputation when Brady was suspended by the league for four games in 2016 after footballs in the AFC Championship game were found to be under-inflated.
In 2019, he was accused of soliciting sex workers at a spa in Florida, with charges later dropped. According to ESPN, one voter on the Hall committee said, “We probably need to put a little distance between the massage parlor and the Hall of Fame.”
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