Bill Belichick was announced as North Carolina’s next head coach Wednesday in a shocking hire that will have ramifications on college football for years to come. But it turns out that the stunning move might’ve had less to do with Belichick’s desire to join 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 on Thursday. Belichick was reportedly frustrated with NFL owners who did not seem to want to buy into his approach; another confidant of Belichick told ESPN that he was “tired of the stupidness” in the league.
As a result, Belichick saw the college landscape as “more transactional and less relational,” per ESPN. Wickersham wrote that Belichick’s choice to leave the league is “a big f*** you to the NFL,” in the words of a confidant.
Multiple executives told Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein on Wednesday that Belichick knew which NFL teams with openings would have been willing to consider him and how much leeway they would be able to give, and that he opted to try something new instead of sitting out another hiring cycle.
Per Epstein, the UNC program offers a new structure for Belichick 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, will not have any owners to answer to.
Belichick being hired to lead the Tar Heels elicited a number of strong reactions from the sports world. Some believe that the move is brilliant; others fear (or perhaps hope) that it will be a disaster. (For North Carolina, it seems to be worth the risk.)
With that said, it is not entirely unprecedented for a Super Bowl-winning coach to pivot to college. Belichick will be the second to switch from the pros after Bill Walsh; in total, nine Super Bowl-winning coaches have coached college at some point in their career.
