Two NFL seasons have transpired without should-be Hall of Fame head coach Bill Belichick, who had spent half of a century in pro football.
Today at noon ET, he embarks on his second season at the college level, with North Carolina.
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Like last year, the season commenced with a game against TCU. (It started well, before imploding.) Unlike last year, the game will be played not in Chapel Hill but in Dublin, Ireland.
UNC won’t have defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, who remains on medical leave. And the Tar Heels haven’t had the services of G.M. Michael Lombardi, who was placed on paid administrative leave last month while the school conducts an internal investigation of him.
The bigger question is the quality of the roster that Belichick and Lombardi have compiled for the coming season. They opted to go heavy on high-school recruits for 2026, with less of an emphasis on the transfer portal.
The performance of these young players will ultimately influence Belichick’s fate. Only the first three years of his five-year, $50 million contract are guaranteed; if he’s fired after 2026, the school would owe him one season of pay.
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Last year, Belichick went 4-8 with a team that simply wasn’t good enough — regardless of his legendary ability to devise and implement game plans tailored to outscoring any given opponent. If the players aren’t good enough this year, it’s hard to imagine Belichick returning for a third season.
Which likely would bring his coaching career to an end. Unless one of the NFL’s franchises decides to roll the dice on him.
With Belichick getting only one interview in three NFL hiring cycles (and not a sniff in January, when 10 jobs were open), it’s hard to imagine Belichick finding a landing spot in the pro game. Especially if he’ll be looking for a place where the deck would be pre-stacked in his favor.
But it’s not impossible. Crazier things have happened. Like, for instance, the Hall of Fame voters inexplicably denying him a bronze bust in his first year of eligibility.
