Bill Belichick is in the news for reasons he’d probably rather not be.
He’s already attempting something that will test even him to the limits. Belichick has won eight Super Bowls (two as an assistant coach) and he’s thought of as one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. He’s now the new head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, after taking a season off when he and the New England Patriots parted ways.
The conventional wisdom is that a coach going from college to the NFL is trying to slay a different beast. Just look at Nick Saban’s NFL career for proof of that. Perhaps the same could be said of coaches going from the NFL to college, though, especially in the NIL and transfer portal era.
Not only does Belichick have to coach for UNC, but he’s also the main face attracting talent to the program. Nowadays, that process comes along with millions of dollars in NIL money as well as an ever-open transfer portal. It’s been so tough that even long-time college coaches have gotten sick of the process and bowed out.
Belichick is trying to make that transition as smooth as possible, but a recent interview with CBS’ Tony Dokoupil about the long-time coach’s new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football”, has caused ripples and distractions.
What happened?
Belichick, 73, is famously (or perhaps infamously) dating Jordon Hudson, who is 24. In the interview, Dokoupil asked Belichick how the two met, which led to Hudson (off screen) chiming in.
“We’re not talking about this,” she had said.
The clip of that moment went viral, as such things do, and that led to competing arguments from either side of the interview via press releases.
