During his introductory press convention at Chapel Hill, new Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick was requested whether or not he’d soar again to the NFL after a yr or two in faculty.
“I didn’t come right here to go away,” Belichick stated, to applause within the room.
Beyond the truth that it will have been not possible in that setting to say, “I’d like to,” actions at all times communicate louder than phrases. And the one motion that issues on this case is the negotiation of his contract with UNC.
Belichick negotiated a buyout that drops from $10 million to $1 million on June 1, 2025. That places him in play for the 2026 hiring cycle, if anybody from the NFL desires to rent him.
For now, nobody does. Right or unsuitable, it’s crickets for Belichick from professional soccer.
People in Belichick’s orbit are perplexed. Others in league circles level to the shortage of curiosity in Belichick as proof that, as one supply estimated, two thirds of all NFL house owners don’t know what they’re doing. Words like “dysfunctional,” “smug,” and “clueless” are used. And rightfully so, in various circumstances.
Two exams should be handed to get a license to drive a automotive. None should be handed to personal an NFL staff. The necessities are: (1) manage to pay for to purchase it; or (2) be the one who inherits it when the present proprietor croaks.
That’s why, in a transfer that was far much less Woodward and Bernstein than it was Belichick and Lombardi, phrase emerged on Saturday that Belichick reached out to the Jets, after the teaching emptiness there arose. It certainly wasn’t about Belichick wanting to educate the Jets. It certainly wasn’t easy due diligence; if that’s the case, the place’s the report that he referred to as the Bears and the Saints? (Then once more, possibly he hasn’t determined to leak it but.)
This was about, in my very own evaluation, one factor. Making a guess that the Jets will proceed to stink, and planting a flag for the world to see that the Jets may have had the best coach in soccer historical past, and that proprietor Woody Johnson was too silly to see it.
It all provides as much as Belichick holding himself in play for an NFL job. While it’s extremely unlikely that he’d depart earlier than he coaches his first sport for UNC, the June 1, 2025 date on which the buyout drops by an order of magnitude wasn’t the product of a random calendar generator. At that time, he can stroll away for a mere million bucks.
In principle, if a coach abruptly retires, resigns, or is fired as of June 1, Belichick might be lured away from UNC for under $1 million.
That time period is there not as a result of Carolina needed it. Belichick needed it. He may have gotten one thing else by way of the contract talks, if for instance the buyout had remained at $10 million for 2 or three or 4 years.
In the context of billion-dollar soccer, one million bucks is a mildly bitter belch, at worst. Belichick — who does the whole lot intentionally and strategically — put that time period in there. The message is obvious: If/when an NFL proprietor smarter than Woody Johnson desires to win video games, that proprietor will name me.
The buyout isn’t a roadblock to such a transfer. Hell, it’s virtually an invite.
