Bill Belichick sat on the 295-foot yacht of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, surely delighting in the opulent world of billionaires, hoping (and quite sure) this was the man who was going to give him another shot.
Belichick had split from Robert Kraft and the New England Patriots four days earlier, but he took no time to decompress. He wanted another job and made his pitch to Blank.
The initial surprise was that Blank’s Falcons were the only NFL team interested in Belichick last January. Then the real shocker came. Blank went in a different direction. The Falcons didn’t want the future Hall of Fame coach either.
There was a hold-up that was tough for Blank and company to get past. Belichick wanted to lead the football operations department the way he did for so many years in New England, one of the perks of building a dynasty and becoming the most decorated NFL coach of all time thanks to the six Lombardi Trophies that now reside in Foxboro.
But after watching the Patriots crater after Tom Brady departed for Tampa Bay, NFL teams seemed hesitant to give Belichick the omnipotent football power that he sought.
That leads us to Wednesday and the latest shocking news surrounding Belichick. The NFL lifer is headed to college at age 72, set to take over at the University of North Carolina, a football program long overshadowed by the school’s own basketball team.
Welcome to Chapel Hill, Bill Belichick!
The eight-time Super Bowl Champion has officially been named our next @UNCFootball Head Coach. #GoHeels x #ChapelBill pic.twitter.com/cnngQI7gnC
— UNC Tar Heels (@GoHeels) December 12, 2024
On the surface, the move is perplexing. Belichick has been in the NFL for 49 years. Now, nearing the end of his illustrious career, he’s going to tackle college football? And deal with the transfer portal? NIL? Boosters? All those off-the-field aspects of the job that drove his buddy Nick Saban out of the sport?
Sure, there are interesting facets of the story that range from the heart-warming (Steve Belichick, Bill’s father, coached at UNC from 1953-55!) to the practical (college football is functioning increasingly like a professional sport).
But do you want to know why Belichick is really headed back to college? Control.
After the way things ended in New England — with a roster that was falling apart, an outdated front office and an undermanned coaching staff — NFL teams were reluctant to fully hand over the keys to Belichick. Maybe a couple would’ve been interested this winter in hiring him to coach while keeping him separate from the decision-makers in the front office. But it didn’t seem likely any were going to let him run the team the way he did in New England.
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But who does get that power? College football coaches.
At North Carolina, Belichick will get to pick his whole staff. He’ll get to decide on the players. He’ll have control over the schedule. He’ll have a say over how the facilities are shaped. He’ll get to control everything from offseason workouts to the game plan on Saturdays. That’s part of being a college coach these days: power over every aspect of the football program.
Some coaches have fled head college jobs for what appear to be demotions amid the increasing demands on NCAA head coaches and the relentless schedule they face. Former Boston College coach Jeff Hafley left to become the defensive coordinator with the Green Bay Packers. Former UCLA coach Chip Kelly gave up that post to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.
But those all-encompassing aspects of the job are actually perks for Belichick, who is football-mad and obsessed with details and processes.
The question now is whether it’ll all work.
Yes, the college game has changed thanks to revenue sharing, the transfer portal and NIL creating something resembling free agency. But Belichick has never had to woo boosters, deal with recruits (and their parents) or negotiate the Wild West of NIL.
Yes, Belichick will now have the power he sought. But while he had only one man to report to with the Patriots — Kraft — he is now thrown into the middle of a reported tussle between the board of trustees and athletic department, not to mention the chancellor and a group of boosters who may feel like they occasionally deserve the ear of the coach.
There’s also the issue of relating to younger players. Belichick was never known for his ability to connect with people. He often walked past Patriots players without so much as a “hello.” Compliments from him are rare. Will that work with a Gen Z locker room?
Then there’s the issue of roster construction and the unavoidable truth that his management of the Patriots led to a disastrous 4-13 season that prompted his divorce from the team he coached for 24 years. In reflecting on what went wrong, Kraft said this year he regretted not having more “checks and balances” on Belichick.
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That’s not to say this can’t work. No one knows the NFL better than Belichick. As he suggested on “The Pat McAfee Show,” maybe he can turn UNC into a pipeline to the league, thus attracting better players and yielding wins along the way. Despite how bad his last Patriots teams were, ol’ Bill can still put together a great defensive game plan.
Maybe such a high-profile hire rejuvenates the program the way Deion Sanders did for Colorado. Maybe Belichick’s defensive mastery befuddles the poor ACC coaches who don’t know what they’re up against. Maybe he combats concerns about his longevity in Chapel Hill by building a program that prepares players for the pros better than anywhere else.
But for now, as the shock wears off and the idea of Belichick pacing the sidelines at Wake Forest and Syracuse begins to crystallize, the reason this happened is clear.
In college, Belichick will get a level of power and control he couldn’t have again in the NFL.
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(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
