Late Saturday night, after his UNC Tar Heels bullied their way to their first win of the college football season, first-year head coach Bill Belichick confirmed what most of us already suspected.
Plenty of bad blood still exists between he and his former employer — the New England Patriots.
When asked after North Carolina’s 20-3 victory over Charlotte about reports that UNC had banned Patriots scouts from its facilities, the six-time Super Bowl champion with New England didn’t mince words.
“It’s obvious I’m not welcome at their facility,” Belichick said, referencing the precedent allegedly set following his 2024 departure from the Patriots. “So, they’re not welcome at ours. Simple as that.”
Well, if that’s the case, you do you Belichick. Not many people are going to open their offices to an employer that couldn’t wait to kick them out and change the keys.
Books can — and have — been written about the complicated relationship between Belichick and the Patriots, so let’s be brief.
Despite 24 seasons of unprecedent success, Belichick wasn’t exactly thrown a lavish going-away party upon his departure from New England. An undisputed future Hall of Famer who helped lead the Patriots to six Super Bowl titles, Belichick was ousted following a 4-13 year in 2023 amid a speculative ongoing feud with owner Robert Kraft.
That apparent feud, depending on the documentary, has plenty of roots, be it Belichick’s involvement in the “Spygate” scandal to his lack of defense of legendary quarterback Tom Brady amid the “Deflategate” sequel. Heck, it’s well documented that Brady’s eventual departure from New England, where he spent 20 seasons of his Hall of Fame career, was a result of Belichick’s treatment of the superstar.
Still, that bad blood apparently didn’t trickle down to Belichick’s children, as both Steve and Brian were offered positions on the New England coaching staff following their father’s firing. Steve is now the defensive coordinator at UNC while Brian is the defensive backs/safeties coach.
On the one hand, you could argue that a facility free of NFL personnel helps foster a distraction-free environment in which athletes are focused intently on the task at hand. You know, “do you job.”
Then your coach’s 24-year-old influencer girlfriend walks by.
So, since distractions are everywhere, especially at the NFL level, and Belichick’s main recruiting plug is that his program is a pipeline to the big leagues, isn’t his ban actually a disservice? Think about it.
Belichick treats and coaches his student-athletes as if they’re professionals, and as such, the expectation is that graduates of his program will have a streamlined path to the NFL. So why ban the very employers your student-athletes are striving to attract?
Seems a tad petty, but in Bill they trust, right?
The point in all of this is that Bill Belichick was fired from the Patriots. He won six Super Bowls with the franchise, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers for most in NFL history. In the end, though, Tom Brady left for sunnier pastures and a nicer head coach, and the Patriots suffered in his absence. Actually, they sucked.
Was Belichick to blame for that? Sure. Should he have gotten fired? Probably. But if the Patriots aren’t going to roll out the red carpet for the man who helped change the course of the franchise — Brady got a bronze statue after all — then who’s to blame Belichick for not doing the same.
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