During his introductory press conference at Chapel Hill, new Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick was asked whether he’d jump back to the NFL after a year or two in college.
“I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick said, to applause in the room.
Beyond the fact that it would have been impossible in that setting to say, “I’d love to,” actions always speak louder than words. And the only action that matters in this case is the negotiation of his contract with UNC.
Belichick negotiated a buyout that drops from $10 million to $1 million on June 1, 2025. That puts him in play for the 2026 hiring cycle, if anyone from the NFL wants to hire him.
For now, no one does. Right or wrong, it’s crickets for Belichick from pro football.
People in Belichick’s orbit are perplexed. Others in league circles point to the lack of interest in Belichick as proof that, as one source estimated, two thirds of all NFL owners don’t know what they’re doing. Words like “dysfunctional,” “arrogant,” and “clueless” are used. And rightfully so, in more than a few cases.
Two tests must be passed to get a license to drive a car. None must be passed to own an NFL team. The requirements are: (1) have enough money to buy it; or (2) be the one who inherits it when the current owner croaks.
That’s why, in a move that was far less Woodward and Bernstein than it was Belichick and Lombardi, word emerged on Saturday that Belichick reached out to the Jets, after the coaching vacancy there arose. It surely wasn’t about Belichick wanting to coach the Jets. It surely wasn’t simple due diligence; if so, where’s the report that he called the Bears and the Saints? (Then again, maybe he hasn’t decided to leak it yet.)
This was about, in my own assessment, one thing. Making a bet that the Jets will continue to stink, and planting a flag for the world to see that the Jets could have had the greatest coach in football history, and that owner Woody Johnson was too stupid to see it.
It all adds up to Belichick keeping himself in play for an NFL job. While it’s highly unlikely that he’d leave before he coaches his first game for UNC, the June 1, 2025 date on which the buyout drops by an order of magnitude wasn’t the product of a random calendar generator. At that point, he can walk away for a mere million bucks.
In theory, if a coach abruptly retires, resigns, or is fired as of June 1, Belichick could be lured away from UNC for only $1 million.
That term is there not because Carolina wanted it. Belichick wanted it. He could have gotten something else through the contract talks, if for example the buyout had remained at $10 million for two or three or four years.
In the context of billion-dollar football, a million bucks is a mildly sour belch, at worst. Belichick — who does everything deliberately and strategically — put that term in there. The message is clear: If/when an NFL owner smarter than Woody Johnson wants to win games, that owner will call me.
The buyout isn’t a roadblock to such a move. Hell, it’s practically an invitation.
