Bill Belichick's dominance in the NFL has been unprecedented in decades. A hoodie-wearing bully, he led his New England empire to six Super Bowls, 17 AFC East crowns and weathered countless controversies.
From success to scandal, from fashion choices to press conference quips, he remains the most watched figure in the NFL.
In fact, he still is.
“I think every conversation right now is going to be about what happened with Bill in the first five minutes,” one NFC player personnel director said.
Train wrecks can cause people to crane their necks, and Belichick's early tenure at UNC was one of them.
Belichick, snubbed in a league he once dominated, enters the college ranks this year expecting success. Instead, he's produced a stumbling, embarrassing soap opera so far. The Tar Heels are currently 2-3 and desperately short of talent after losing 39 players from last year's team and adding more than 40 transfers. They head to California on Friday as a 10.5-point underdog.
Jokes abound. The same goes for schadenfreude. Most notably, though, the scene in Chapel Hill provided validation for NFL teams, which unanimously passed on hiring Belichick after he and the Patriots parted ways after the 2023 season.
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On Monday, Belichick held UNC's weekly press conference, attended by the school's president and athletic director, in an attempt to present a united front against speculation that he could be fired and/or resign.
“Reports that I was seeking a buyout or trying to get out of here are absolutely false,” Belichick said. “There's zero truth to any of this. I'm glad I'm here.”
Where he really wants to be is the NFL. As he limped through his final season in New England — a lackluster 4-13 campaign — the legendary coach began to look at life after Foxborough not with fear but with a hint of excitement, multiple sources said.
He has perhaps the greatest coaching resume ever, and hopefully another NFL team will hire him quickly. After all, he spent decades defeating them all.
Seven teams (Atlanta, Carolina, Las Vegas, Los Angeles Chargers, Seattle, Tennessee and Washington) will have vacancies. There are at least four other teams (Chicago, Dallas and two New York teams) that could legitimately fire their players just to get to Belichick. Even Philadelphia seems possible.
Instead, Atlanta was the only team to interview Belichick, with the Falcons subsequently selecting Raheem Morris.
According to sources at the time, there was no thought around the league that the now 73-year-old coach might have lost something.
Even more disturbing, Belichick's stubbornness in relinquishing control over player personnel decisions doomed his time in New England. The trend in the NFL is for front offices to operate with some degree of independence. Could Belichick's famously controlling style allow this to happen?
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Essentially, the man known for the phrase “Do your job” doesn't do just one job – coach the team. Personality trumps potential. His feud with Patriots owner Robert Kraft further heightened concerns.
Not all of these franchises made the right decisions. Las Vegas and Tennessee have changed coaches of their choice other than Belichick. The New York Jets are having another rough year before a regime change, but things could get worse.
If Belichick rolls around in Chapel Hill as he's expected to, maybe the “how are you now” vibe will shift in another direction. But he's not. His team leads 120-33 against three Power 4 opponents.
There was no shortage of reports in the media about disappointed players, disgruntled parents and general confusion. A coach who once demanded discipline ran a team with no discipline. A leader who once decried disruption is now in the tabloids. The debate rages over whether the Patriots' success is really all about Tom Brady.
Belichick and UNC general manager Michael Lombardi clearly don't fully understand how college football works. They call the Tar Heels the NFL's 33rd team, but roster construction, especially through the transfer portal, has so far been unsuccessful.
UNC brought in 70 new players thanks to money, attention and Belichick's credibility as a pipeline to the pros. It should at least be decent. Instead, some NFL scouts are calling it one of the worst lineups in the ACC.
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The pair revealed their plans to multiple sources last fall and dismissed claims that the college was unique — though longtime NFL head coaches Herm Edwards (Arizona) and Lovie Smith (Illinois) have tried similar strategies in recent years without much success. Conversely, college legends from Urban Meyer to Steve Spurrier often flamed out quickly in the NFL, and even Nick Saban decamped from the Miami Dolphins to Alabama after two seasons.
That's the opportunity the NFL has taken. That's why interest in Belichick waned in the first place, a string of poor personnel decisions. Only now it's in college portals instead of pro drafts.
Maybe Belichick can still coach, but not with the roster he built.
“It's been a learning curve,” Belichick admitted Monday. “We're all in this together. But we're making great progress and the process will ultimately produce the results we want, just like everywhere else I've been.”
“Everywhere else he's been” is watching closely, and the league remains fascinated by him, just not for the reasons Belichick hoped for.