At a press conference on Thursday, former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick held up an old white University of North Carolina sweatshirt with the number 38—a piece of clothing special to him. It belong to his father who was an assistant football coach at the college in the 1950s.
Now, Belichick is taking the reigns there. After a year-long hiatus from coaching, Belichick signed a five-year contract to return to the sidelines and do what he does best—coach football.
“It’s great to come back to an environment that I grew up in,” Belichick said at the press conference at UNC, explaining his first words were, “Beat Duke.”
Belichick said in a statement he always wanted to coach college football and coaching at UNC is a “dream.” His father, Steve Belichick was an assistant coach at UNC for three years in the 1950s, before becoming the assistant coach for 34 years at the United States Naval Academy. While Steve died in 2005, Bill has long credited him for influencing his coaching career. A picture of young Bill Belichick sitting on the bleachers as a child at the UNC stadium has circulated on social media.
The now 72-year-old worked in the NFL from 1975 through 2023 and won six Super Bowls in his 20-plus-year tenure as the head coach of the New England before parting ways last January.
This will be Belichick’s first time coaching at the college level—and the sports world has had plenty of opinions since the news broke. Former Patriots player Ross Tucker said on WEEI Afternoons, “He would be, probably by far, the worst college head coach I could ever imagine.” Tom Brady, meanwhile, congratulated his former coach on Instagram.
Despite some controversy over the move, the college appears to be welcoming Belichick in its own way. UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham took off his jacket before sitting down for the press conference and put on a jacket with torn off sleeves as a nod to Belichik’s New England fashion choices, in which he often wore torn up sweatshirts with the sleeves cut off.
Belichick was asked why he wanted to keep coaching at the press conference given his age. “It beats working,” Belichick said, adding his father told him, “When you love what you do, it isn’t work.”
