The Tar Heels have dipped into the retired coaches community once again and this time it is for arguably the best football mind of all-time.
According to multiple reports, legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick has agreed to a deal to become the 36th head coach in Tar Heel football history.
Belichick agreed to a 5-year contract that will total $50 million over the course of the contract. The Board of Trustees officially approved the hire and contract on Thursday morning in a closed session.
Belichick, who spent time in Chapel Hill as a child when his dad was the backfield coach for the Tar Heels under George T. Barclay, has spent this season on the couch after mutually parting ways with the New England Patriots after 24 years as the team’s head coach and general manager. In those 24 seasons, Belichick built one of the most dominant dynasties in the history of sports alongside quarterback Tom Brady. The franchise made the playoffs 18 times and appeared in thirteen conference title games under Belichick where they found their way to the Super Bowl nine times. In those nine appearances, Belichick won an NFL record six Super Bowl titles, three of which came in the 2000s and three of which came in the 2010s. Belichick is the NFL leader in postseason wins by a coach with 31 and has a career record of 333-178, which puts him second in league history behind the great Don Shula.
Belichick's NFL coaching career did not come without controversy, though. It started in 2000 when Belichick resigned from what was supposed to be his intro presser with the New York Jets. Instead, it turned into a resignation, where he left a note on a napkin announcing he was leaving.
While that incident did not result in punishment, the incident during his time in New England did. In 2007, NFL security caught members of the Patriots coaching staff taping New York Jets signals on the sidelines in an incident that would become known as “Spygate”. Belichick was fined a league-record $500,000 for the incident and the Patriots were fined and forced to forfeit their 2008 first-round draft pick.
Many will also tie Belichick into the “Deflategate” scandal of 2014, but that was a situation where only Brady and the team were officially punished. In 2022, NFL reporter Mike Florio revealed that the NFL deleted data that could have shown that there was no wrongdoing on the Patriots' part.
Prior to his time in New England, Belichick had a head coaching stint with the Cleveland Browns from 1991 to 1995. In those five seasons, he posted a 37-45 record which included just one season over .500.
When Belichick wasn’t a head coach, he spent his time under the tutelage of legendary coach Bill Parcells. He first served under Parcells in 1983 as a linebacker coach while also serving as the team’s special teams coordinator. Parcells elevated Belichick to defensive coordinator in 1985, a position he would hold for the next six seasons until he left for Cleveland. He would reunite with Parcells after the Browns fired him in the offseason of 1996 as the Patriots assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. He would follow Parcells to the Jets the following offseason where he would serve as the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator and was named the coach-in-waiting.
Belichick started his coaching career as a special assistant with the Baltimore Colts in 1975 before spending two seasons in Detroit coaching special teams and pass catchers. In 1978, he headed to Denver as a special teams coordinator and a defensive assistant. He would take on the same roles with the Giants before upgrading from a defensive assistant to a linebackers coach, a spot he would hold through that transition to Parcells.
There are a lot of things to like about this move. It’s hard to think that hiring a six-time Super Bowl champion as your head coach won’t create a ton of interest both internally and externally. The thought, it seems, from the athletic department and other decision-makers is that Belichick will bring an immediate boost to the program’s NIL funding which is reportedly severely lacking right now. If this is the case, they will be in the perfect position to make a big splash on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal where interest in the program would be at an all-time high. From a development standpoint, there is no other program in the country that would be able to compete with the amount of NFL experience that many believe would be a part of Belichick’s staff. He is also seen as one of the greatest disciplinarians and defensive minds in football history, two things this program sorely needs.
The concerns start with Belichick’s age. At 72, he is not even a full year younger than Mack Brown, who many thought was getting too old for the job. The biggest challenge for him to navigate will be his lack of college coaching experience, especially in the modern era where head coaches are involved in everything from on-field to NIL to recruiting and the transfer portal. Bringing in a general manager to handle this stuff makes sense, but it is still going to take a lot out of a guy who will be 73 when the season starts. There is also some concern that he may have lost his fastball at the end of his time in New England after Brady’s departure for Tampa Bay. While Brady would go on to win a seventh Super Bowl, Belichick posted just a 29-38 record in his final four seasons. Hopefully that fastball can return in 2025 on the Tar Heel sidelines after a year off.
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