The NFL's Bill Belichick skepticism has been validated - ESPN

For decades, Bill Belichick lorded over the NFL as few ever have. A bully in a hoodie, he led his New England empire to six Super Bowl titles and 17 AFC East crowns and through countless controversies.

From success to scandal, from fashion choices to news conference one-liners, he was always top of mind in the NFL.

He still is, actually.

«I don't think there is a conversation these days where what is happening with Bill doesn't get mentioned within the first five minutes,» one NFC player personnel director said.

Train wrecks cause craned necks, and Belichick's early tenure at the University of North Carolina qualifies as one.

Snubbed by the league he once dominated, Belichick headed to the college ranks this year expecting success. Instead, he has thus far produced a stumbling, embarrassing soap opera of a season. The Tar Heels are 2-3 and desperately lack talent after losing 39 players from last year's team and bringing in more than 40 transfers. They head to Cal on Friday as 10.5-point underdogs.

The jokes are frequent. So too is the schadenfreude. Most notably, though, the scene in Chapel Hill provides validation for NFL teams, which, after Belichick and the Patriots parted ways after the 2023 season, uniformly passed on hiring him.

Monday saw Belichick's weekly UNC news conference attended by the school's chancellor and athletic director, an attempt to show a united front against speculation about a possible firing and/or resignation.

«Reports about my looking for a buyout or trying to leave here is categorically false,» Belichick said. «There's zero truth to any of that. I'm glad I'm here.»

Where he really had wanted to be was in the NFL. Multiple sources say that as he limped through his final season in New England