FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had almost come to the end of his early Friday news conference when he was asked a final question about whether assistant coaches are shortchanged when it comes to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Belichick, who had been expansive on a number of topics up to that point in the 26-minute session, began his answer by explaining how "assistant coaches have a huge impact on a football team" and how "any head coach [can't] be good without good assistants."

At that point, Belichick, who many agree will have a bust in Canton some day, veered off and discussed the selection process.

"The Hall of Fame is a tough one," he said. "I don't even know what the criteria is. You have guys that played 15 to 20 years and aren't in the Hall of Fame. You have guys that played four or five that are, and vice versa. You have guys that have had great, short careers that aren't, and guys that have had OK, long careers that are. You have guys that haven't won championships that are. You've got guys that have won a lot of championships that aren't. What are we basing it on? I don't know."

After saying that, Belichick noted that assistant coaches in the Hall of Fame "would be a worthy discussion" before asking, "Do you want to slight them relative to the other contributors?"

"I don't know," Belichick said, answering his own question before continuing on with thoughts on the criteria for a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

"You've got different sets of rules for everybody, too -- players, coaches, contributors. I don't understand it [but] I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it," he added. "But what little I know about it, it's pretty confusing to me. I have no idea what the criteria is. If you talk to people who have been in that room, which I'm sure you guys have, it sounds like there's a lot of confusion in there, too, about who [they're] voting for, what we're voting on, how much of it is political, how much of it is a campaign trail. I don't know. It's not really my thing -- the whole process."