It’s straightforward for Bill Belichick to say he believes NFL groups would have been in him throughout the upcoming hiring cycle. But the truth is that he didn’t consider any such curiosity would have resulted in a job he deemed to be appropriate, so he went with a school job.
There’s a way in some league circles that Belichick was wanting not only for potential curiosity however an unofficial dedication, earlier than the top of the present season. That would have violated the spirit if not the letter of the Rooney Rule; a staff would have had an unofficial understanding with Belichick whereas embarking on a box-checking search earlier than inevitably interviewing Belichick and formally hiring him.
While such ruses aren’t unprecedented (it was broadly believed that Washington did simply that when hiring Mike Shanahan in 2010), most groups aren’t prepared to avoid the principles. No one was prepared to do it for Belichick.
Perhaps extra precisely, nobody whom Belichick deemed worthy of his providers was prepared to do it. Before Belichick took the job, Mike Lombardi (who per the Wall Street Journal made the primary contact to North Carolina on behalf of Belichick) brazenly requested as to the NFL, “Where are the nice jobs?” Along the way in which, Lombardi took a not-so-subtle shot on the Jaguars and chief soccer technique officer Tony Khan, saying “there’s sons of homeowners that run the analytical division.”
Whether their message is that no out there job is worthy of Belichick or that no proprietor is sensible sufficient to provide Belichick the keys (or a few of each), the unmistakable vibe coming from Camp Belichick is that there’s one thing unsuitable with the house owners, not with him.
Last 12 months, he went 0-for-7 as to non-Patriots vacancies, getting just one interview. This 12 months, no staff was linked to him — past Saturday’s leak from Belichick and/or Lombardi that Belichick contacted the Jets.
Who within the NFL would have promised Belichick a job, earlier than conducting a full search? Yes, he’s an excellent game-day coach, maybe one of many best of all time. But as one NFL decision-maker lately famous, Belichick is 70-93 in video games performed with out Tom Brady.
Basically, Belichick is popping the tables on the road coined by George Costanza: It’s not me, it’s you.
Taking one other web page from the Costanza playbook, Belichick broke up with the NFL earlier than the NFL might break up with him.
That mentioned, it’s not over. Regardless of what Belichick says, the negotiated UNC buyout that plummets from $10 million to $1 million on June 1, 2025 implies that the NFL simply can come calling within the 2026 hiring cycle.
And if somebody actually needed him in 2025, they may nonetheless name. The pre-June 1 buyout is peanuts for an NFL staff, particularly with no wage cap for teaching expenditures.
While it’s extremely unlikely that Belichick would depart Chapel Hill earlier than even teaching a single spring follow, it’s only a matter of time earlier than Belichick or Lombardi leak to somebody that one of many groups with a emptiness within the upcoming hiring cycle known as Belichick to see whether or not he needed to interview for the job.
