Bill Belichick was announced Wednesday as North Carolina’s next head coach in a shocking appointment that will impact college football for years to come. It turns out that this stunning move had less to do with Belichick’s desire to go to college football and more to do with his frustration at the pro level.
Part of Belichick’s pivot to college programs was that he was “disgusted” with what the NFL has become, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reported Thursday. Belichick was reportedly frustrated with NFL team owners who seemed unwilling to accept his approach; another Belichick confidant told ESPN he was “tired of the stupidity” in the league.
As a result, Belichick saw the college landscape as “more transactional and less relational,” according to ESPN. Wickersham wrote that Belichick’s choice to leave the league is “a big f*** you for the NFL,” in the words of a confidante.
Multiple executives told Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports on Wednesday that Belichick knew which NFL teams with openings would have been willing to consider him and how much wiggle room they might give, and that he opted to try something new instead of a new one postpone recruitment. cycle.
According to Epstein, the UNC program gives Belichick a new structure to try out, where he can build a program in a new and potentially revolutionary way. Crucially, Belichick, who likes to have significant control over how he does things, has no club owners to answer to.
Belichick’s appointment to lead the Tar Heels drew strong reactions from the sports world. Some believe the move is brilliant; others fear (or perhaps hope) that it will be a disaster. (For North Carolina, it seems worth the risk.)
That said, it’s not entirely unprecedented for a Super Bowl-winning coach to attend college. Belichick will be the second after Bill Walsh to transition from the pros; a total of nine Super Bowl-winning coaches have coached college at some point in their careers.
