CHICAGO — There’s only one way for the Pro Football Hall of Fame to right the wrong of denying former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick his first-ballot entrance into the Hall.

Gather all the 50 voters back together and stage a “Knives Out” whodunit, with Daniel Craig investigating in a musky mansion.

Maybe they could even get “Hard Knocks” star Liev Schreiber to narrate for HBO. Surely by the end of the two-hour mystery we’d know who committed this deed so foul, and the 11 or more culprits would be properly pummeled by the gold-jacketed Hall of Fame members and banished from the league forever.

In case you missed it, Belichick, the wonderful and affable Patriots coaching legend, reportedly was shocked and dismayed to learn that he didn’t make the cut in the Hall of Fame voting that will be announced next week before the Super Bowl. The results are supposed to be kept top secret, but the fact Belichick was not elected somehow was leaked to ESPN, which posted a story Tuesday night.

Obviously, Belichick’s record six Super Bowl titles as head coach, two more as an assistant and three Coach of the Year awards should’ve merited immediate entrance to the Hall. But for reasons that can only be speculated upon, he’ll have to wait at least one more year.

It was the biggest snub since last week, when “Wicked: For Good” didn’t receive a single Oscar nomination, and it set into motion the automatic outrage machine that once was called Twitter.

Everyone from LeBron James to Patrick Mahomes commented on the injustice of it all, and even those who didn’t like Belichick were aghast. The winningest Super Bowl coach ever was treated like he was Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and every other alleged cheater denied entrance to a Hall of Fame.

There wasn’t this kind of outrage when legendary NFL coaches Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs or Bill Parcells weren’t elected on the first ballot. All were equally worthy, and all eventually got in. But that was before social media and the proliferation of hot-take sports shows in which the loudest shouters get the most attention.

Stephen A. Smith, ESPN’s high-decibel yahoo, called for a boycott of this summer’s Hall of Fame ceremony in Canton, Ohio, apparently feeling that if Belichick didn’t make it, none of the other Hall of Famers deserves to be seen or heard. The always rational Dave Portnoy of Fox Sports and Barstool fame tweeted that the voters who snubbed Belichick should “not only have their votes taken away but executed.” Since he’s the quintessential Patriots fan, it’s hard to tell if he was joking.

After several minutes of scrolling, the only one I found who agreed with the snub was former Chicago Tribune colleague and lifelong contrarian Skip Bayless, who made a 12-minute video pointing out that he called it years ago, blaming Spygate, Deflategate and Belichick’s poor record coaching teams that did not feature Tom Brady as the quarterback.

Bayless was shot down by most everyone, and Brady chimed in Wednesday in an interview with Seattle Sports 710-AM, saying: “I don’t understand it. I mean, I was with him every day. If he’s not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, there’s really no coach that should ever be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, which is completely ridiculous because people deserve it.”

Some of the 50 voters on the HOF committee agreed with that sentiment and publicly declared they voted for Belichick, who had to receive 40 of the 50 votes, or 80%, to be elected. He was competing against former players L.C. Greenwood, Ken Anderson and Roger Craig and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Voters could choose three of the five.

Kraft, Belichick’s former boss-turned-arch enemy, only added to the Knives Out mystery. Kraft crafted a statement Wednesday saying Belichick “unequivocally deserves to be a unanimous first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer.” But if Kraft gets in, the plot will only thicken.

So how did this happen? We can’t really be sure, since the Hateful 11 (or more) have not all revealed themselves to the public. Unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, in which the vast majority of voters check a box on the ballot to agree to allow the Hall to reveal their votes soon after the election, the Pro Football Hall of Fame conducts its voting in secrecy.

I’m not sure why the pro football writers feel they should be spared the same kind of criticism baseball writers get for our votes, but that’s unlikely to change.

Fans are now piling on the football media without evidence of who didn’t vote for Belichick, which seems appropriate for our times. When in doubt, blame the entire media.

We may never know the real culprits, even as everyone has seemingly fingered former Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts executive Bill Polian as the main villain of the mystery. The original ESPN report, using an unnamed source, said Polian swayed voters to deny a first-ballot entrance because of Spygate and Deflategate, the two black marks on Belichick’s resume.

Polian told ESPN he was 95% sure he voted for Belichick, but it was after the story had already been posted. Then he confirmed he did vote for Belichick, which painted him as a confused, old man.

All this finger-pointing reminded me of “The Honeymooners” episode in which Ralph Kramden ran for convention manager of the Raccoon Lodge and mistakenly blamed Norton for not voting for him after discovering he lost. Any resemblance between Belichick and Ralph Kramden, however, is purely coincidental.

The fortunate part of the Belichick saga, at least for the NFL, is that the story was leaked early. By the time the Super Bowl takes place on Feb. 8, it won’t be a huge distraction. This week is one of the slowest times of the year, sports-wise, and the Belichick snub was a perfect lead-in to Media Week next week in San Francisco.

And while Belichick reportedly is hurt and angered by the voting, he should be encouraged by all the support he has received since the news was leaked. Instead of being known as a surly egomaniac, he’s suddenly being viewed as a sympathetic character.

Who would’ve guessed that would happen in our lifetime?

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