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Report: Bill Belichick believes negative reports ‘have origins in New England’
Bill Belichick has found himself mired in negative attention amid a 2-3 start at UNC.
Bill Belichick hasn’t got off to a very strong start at the University of North Carolina — and that might be putting it lightly.
Beyond the Tar Heels opening the year with a 2-3 record, Belichick and his program have found themselves mired in several controversies amid reports of the team’s dysfunction under the former Patriots head coach.
And, according to a report from Dianna Russini of The Athletic, Belichick believes a lot of this negative press as of late is emanating from his former employer.
“Belichick’s NFL past continues to hover around this situation, from questions about his legacy to regular flare-ups involving the Patriots to suspicions within UNC’s program that some of the negative headlines have origins in New England,” Russini reported over the weekend about Belichick’s future in New England. “The Patriots have taken the high road, steering clear of the public sniping.”
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Russini’s report is the latest documentation of apparent bad blood between Belichick and a Patriots team that he coached to six Super Bowl championships.
Despite both Belichick and the Patriots deeming the coach’s decision to leave Foxborough as a “mutual” agreement after a four-win 2023 season, Patriots owner Rober Kraft changed the narrative in October 2024 during an interview on “The Breakfast Club.”
“I kept him for 24 years,” Kraft said. “I didn’t enjoy having to fire him, but I tried to do it — if you look at the press conference and how it happened, tried to do it in a classy way.”
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Belichick later made no reference to Kraft at all in his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football” earlier this year, with Belichick saying during his interview on CBS Sunday Morning that his decision to leave the Patriots was a “mutual decision.”
Belichick later took umbrage with Kraft’s comments on Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski’s “Dudes on Dudes” podcast in July after the Patriots owner said that he took a “big risk” in hiring Belichick in 2000.
“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job,” Belichick told ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. “I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable.”
Belichick landed another shot against the Kraft family over the summer when asked by Ben Volin of The Boston Globe about his control over the Tar Heels program.
“There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that,” Belichick told Volin of the leeway he has at UNC. “But it’s way less of what it was at that level. Generic NFL teams, you have the owner, president, general manager, personnel director, college director, pro director, cap guy, some other consultant, then head coach.
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“I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful,” Belichick added.
Despite Kraft noting that he wants to build a statue of Belichick next to Tom Brady’s at Gillette Stadium, some of that sentiment might change given Belichick’s continued icy attitude toward the Patriots.
Belichick confirmed a report last month that he banned a Patriots scout from attending football practices at North Carolina earlier this summer.
“It’s clear that I’m not welcome there around their facility, so they’re not welcome at ours,” Belichick said of the rationale behind banning the Patriots staffer. “Pretty simple.”
Another report from earlier this month said that Belichick instructed UNC staff to not mention Patriots players (like former UNC standout Drake Maye) on their social-media channels, prompting criticism from 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Scott Zolak and many others.
Amid more reports from last week that mapped out a “divided” UNC locker room, a breakdown in communication between Belichick and his staff, and Belichick even discussing buyout options with the school, Belichick pushed back against said discourse on Monday at Chapel Hill.
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“Some of the reports out last week about my looking for a buyout and trying to leave here and all that, it’s just categorically false. There’s zero truth to any of that,” Belichick said Monday. “Glad I’m here. We’re working towards our goals and the process. I‘ve had great support from Chancellor (Lee) Roberts, Bubba, Steve (Newmark) and so forth, Mike Lombardi. Those people have all been great and I appreciate all their help on everything.
“We just believe very much in the process. Like (49ers Hall of Famer) Bill Walsh said, ‘The score will take care of itself.’ I’ve always believed that. You’ve just gotta keep working and grinding away and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
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