Bill Belichick will be back coaching football in 2025.
The North Carolina Tar Heels announced Wednesday night that they had officially hired the six-time Super Bowl winner to be their next head football coach.
The news was first reported by Inside Carolina on Wednesday afternoon, which was also first to report Belichick was in discussions with UNC for the job. The contract agreement was confirmed by ESPN's Adam Schefter, Pete Thamel and Chris Low as well as Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde, Albert Breer, and Bryan Fischer.
Prior to the deal being completed, it was reported by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer and Pat Forde that the two sides were working through financial terms over the past 24 hours. ESPN added that said hurdles included, "the potential role for his son… Stephen Belichick; North Carolina's name, image and likeness resources; Belichick's salary and resources for the staff and reporting structure."
Now, a deal is done.
ESPN's reporting detailed that a five-hour meeting on Sunday with board chair John P. Preyer, who spearheaded talks with the coach, was a substantial development leading to the two sides ultimately agreeing to terms Wednesday.
Next up is for the North Carolina Board of Trustees to meet Thursday to approve the deal according to Forde, Breer and Fischer.
Belichick and the University met a handful of times over the course of the last week-plus, with Inside Carolina reporting the first of at least three meetings last Thursday. The long-time New England Patriots head coach has since spoken several times about the now-reality of coaching college football, including relaying to ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show how he would run an NCAA program:
"[It] would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," Belichick explained on Monday afternoon. "It would be a professional program. Training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football."
He continued: "It would be geared toward developing the player. Time management, discipline structure and all that, that would be life skills regardless of whether they were in the NFL or somewhere in business. I feel very confident that I have the contacts in the National Football League to pave the way for those players that would have the ability to compete in the [NFL]… they would be ready for it. I have no doubt about that."
Belichick will now look to turn that into a reality in Chapel Hill.
Over 24 seasons, Belichick led the Patriots to 10 Super Bowls—winning six of them, a 226–121 regular season record, and a 31–13 postseason record. He is just 14 wins shy of breaking Don Shula’s all-time NFL wins record.
The 72-year-old now takes over for Mack Brown, 73, who was fired by the University late last month after their 35–30 loss to NC State.
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Mike Kadlick is a breaking/trending news writer at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered the New England Patriots for WEEI sports radio in Boston and continues to do so for CLNS Media. He graduated from Boston University with his Master's in 2021. Mike is also an avid runner and a proud lover of all things pizza.
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