Bucs QB Tom Brady’s Hall of Fame Candidacy Fuels Fiery Rant

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame and its voters held a master class in bad PR and self-inflicted punishment over the last few weeks, first with the denial of legendary New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick then again with Patriots owner Robert Kraft — arguably the greatest head coach and owner in NFL history.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith unloaded on the Hall of Fame after denying Belichick and Kraft … then really came unglued when the subject of former Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady came up.

It’s a fair question, now, to ask the unthinkable: could Brady be denied entry to the Hall of Fame when he’s eligible for the first time in 2028?

“(Belichick and Kraft) have already been denied first ballot entry and based on this trend, they’re going to do it to Tom Brady, too,” Smith said on “First Take” on Tuesday. “The Hall of Fame already doesn’t have any credibility and they’re a waste of time … they should be perceived as nothing. They’re a nothing entity. They don’t deserve our time. If (denying Brady) happens, you might as well burn the building down. It makes no sense. The Football Hall of Fame without Tom Brady makes no sense.”

Brady played 23 seasons in the NFL and is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time if not the greatest football player of all time and holds the record for most Super Bowl wins (7) and appearances (10).

Not Everyone Agrees on Brady’s HOF Candidacy

Belichick, Kraft and Brady’s detractors have a couple of very concrete things they point to when they discuss why they shouldn’t be first ballot Hall of Famers — the SpyGate and DeflateGate scandals.

First to mind with Brady is DeflateGate, where Brady was determined to have ordered the deliberate deflation of footballs used in the 2014 AFC Championship Game win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Brady served a 4-game suspension to start the 2016 season. The Patriots were fined $1 million and stripped of 2 picks in the 2016 NFL draft, including their first rounder.

Brady’s Career Unlike Any Other in NFL History