CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls during nearly a quarter of a century coaching the New England Patriots, but it’s clear that relationship has deteriorated since his departure from the NFL team in January 2024, leading to plenty of animosity and hard feelings.
When asked to address recent reports from The Athletic that he banned a Patriots scout from attending practices at the University of North Carolina this summer, the first-year college coach said bluntly: “It’s clear I’m not welcomed in their facility, so they aren’t welcomed in ours.”
Then he added: “Simple as that.”
Belichick’s comments came just minutes after he won his first game with the Tar Heels, 20-3 over Charlotte on a rain-soaked afternoon in front of a record crowd of 19,233 at Jerry Richardson Stadium.
There was no fist pump after the win. There was no Gatorade bath for Chapel Bill.
Heck, he didn’t even get a game ball from his players.
“I think if we had done that he would have looked at us like, ‘Uh yeah, been there, done that,'” Tar Heels defensive back Gavin Gibson said.
The Tar Heels beat an inferior opponent in Charlotte, one that is 37-52 since making the leap to Football Bowl Subdivision a decade ago.
The win for the Atlantic Coast Conference program wasn’t all that impressive in nature, and there is certainly plenty of room for improvement. That’s particularly on offense, where the Tar Heels scored on their first possession only to go into an offensive funk for the second time in six days.
The only difference this time was they were able to get away with because Charlotte’s offense had nothing for the Tar Heels.
In the end, a win was a win, and this one might have helped heal some wounds from Belichick’s debut on Monday night, which ended in an embarrassing 48-14 loss to Big 12 member TCU in front of a who’s who of famous North Carolina sports alumni including NBA legend Michael Jordan, NFL great Lawrence Taylor and U.S. soccer star Mia Hamm, as well as a curious national television audience provided by ESPN as Labor Day wrapped up.
Belichick spent the short week since then in the headlines — first drawing criticism for the loss after the school gave him a five-year, $50 million contract to turn the program around, and secondly for his decision to ban a Patriots scout from the team’s campus in Chapel Hill, one that many viewed as petty and selfish.
Of course, Belichick doesn’t care what people think about him. He never has.
He’s always done things his way, and it’s unlikely the 73-year-old is ever going to change.
He spent 24 mostly highly successful seasons with the Patriots, where he teamed with quarterback Tom Brady to reach the Super Bowl nine times, winning the title matchup to cap the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016, and 2018 seasons. When Belichick and the Patriots split, he had 333 regular-season and playoff wins, trailing only Don Shula (347) for the NFL record.
A lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he has won plenty of big games, and Saturday wasn’t necessarily one of them.
Wearing a short-sleeved white overcoat with a throwback 1980s U-N-C logo on his chest along and the famous Jumpman logo of Jordan’s silhouette, he deflected questions about his first win by giving credit to his players.
“It’s hard to win,” Belichick said. “You’ve got to do a lot of things right. You’ve got do it better than your opponent, so we were fortunate to do that. So it’s good to be part of it. I tried to do what I could to help them, but look, I didn’t make any blocks, tackles, catches, runs or anything else out there.”