Perhaps one of the more surprising reports in the sports world this past week was that former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is interviewing for the head coaching job at the University of North Carolina.
It’d be an interesting change of plans for Belichick, who this season has become a fixture of NFL media with his laundry list of recurring media obligations. Most have speculated that if Belichick were to get back into coaching following this season, he’d do so at the NFL level in order to chase the all-time wins record.
But when reports emerged of his interviews with UNC last week, the possibility that Belichick could shift his focus to the college level became more realistic.
Count a trio of his former players among those that aren’t yet convinced, however. Appearing on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, former teammates Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Julian Edelman weighed in on the possibility that Belichick could be on the Tar Heels’ sideline next year.
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“We heard this week that Bill Belichick is actually interviewing for college jobs,” host Curt Menefee began. “Can you imagine him coaching college?”
“No,” Brady immediately responded. “Absolutely not,” Edelman concurred.
“I think there’s a lot of things he can do and obviously he’s tremendous. …But getting out there on the recruiting trail and dealing with all these college kids, that would be surprising,” Brady followed up.
“Could you imagine Bill, on a couch, recruiting an 18-year old?” Edelman prompted.
“Listen, you really wanna come here?” Brady said as he began a Belichick impression. “I mean, we don’t really want you anyway. But, I mean, I guess you could come. We’ll figure out if you play,” Brady continued as the rest of the crew was cracking up.
The next few weeks will be interesting to see if there’s any legitimacy to Belichick’s interest in coaching UNC. The visual of Bill Belichick sitting on the couch at a recruit’s home is objectively hilarious, but one would have to imagine he wouldn’t be doing a ton of recruiting if he actually took the job.
Ironically, Belichick’s more “authoritarian” coaching style might be better suited for the college game these days. It’s difficult to convince a locker room of 53 grown men, most of whom are millionaires, to buy into a Belichickian system. But college kids? They might be more receptive to that type of coaching.
No matter where Belichick ends up, be that the pros, college, or in front of a TV camera, he’ll certainly have plenty of former players talking about him on TV.
