Bill Belichick is now the coach of North Carolina. It's official. He held his introductory press conference on Thursday.
So there will be no Giants, Saints or other NFL team for him in the near future. The Tar Heels are not a big program. They finished the season with 6 wins and 6 losses.
How did Bill Belichick, six-time champion with the Patriots, end up accepting this surprise signing? Apparently, a little out of spite.
According to ESPN, which cites someone close to the coach, Belichick would be “ disgusted » by the NFL and what, according to him, it would have become.
“It’s a big one.” screw you “to the NFL,” explains another of his close friends.
Last season, after he left the Patriots, seven NFL jobs were open. Only the Falcons gave him a job interview, before choosing Raheem Morris. According to Yahoo Sports, Bill Belichick knew which teams could call him this year, and especially how much room for maneuver they would be willing to give him. And apparently that wasn't interesting enough for him. On the North Carolina side, he will not have an owner to supervise him, and his hands will be much freer.
A door open to a return all the same
Angry with the NFL, Bill Belichick? Not completely though. Because The Athletic reports that a clause in his contract with North
Liver tumor: prognosis depending on stage, grade and risk
Carolina could allow him to return to the NFL.
Until June 1, 2025, the coach's contract can be bought out for $10 million. Then that clause drops to $1 million. Suffice it to say, a trifle for an NFL franchise. A departure in the middle of spring or summer seems improbable, as it does not correspond to the pace of hiring in the NFL. But this potentially opens the door for next season.
Obviously, there was no question of thinking about that during his first press briefing.
“I didn’t come here to leave,” assured the new North Carolina coach. “I’m here to do this for a long time. I'm ready. »
Bill Belichick wants to lead a springboard to the NFL
The theme of Thursday's presentation was homecoming. Bill's father Steve was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 1953 to 1955. Enough to create a story arc.
“Coach, welcome back to Carolina,” said Lee Roberts, the university’s chancellor.
“I grew up around college football with my dad. As a kid, all I knew was college football,” recalled Bill Belichick, who never coached outside of the professional ranks. “I was too young to remember much about Carolina, but growing up you always hear the same stories. One story I always heard was that my first words were “Beat Duke.” » »
It's beautiful.
More concretely, it was a few days earlier, before his hiring was made official, that Bill Belichick had delivered his true vision.
“If I ran a college program, I would make it a springboard to the NFL for players who have the ability to play in the NFL,” he explained on ESPN. “It would be a professional program with training, nutrition, tactics and coaching techniques that would be consistent with the NFL. This would be an NFL program at the college level. »
At 72, a new adventure begins for the most successful coach in the NFL.
