You'd think after getting blasted by TCU in primetime in Week 1 and struggling to put away Charlotte in Week 2, North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick might show a little humility. But not our ol' Billy Badass! Though his teams in recent years have struggled to grind out wins, he personally is still elite at grinding axes, even if it comes at the expense of the people he's supposed to be helping.
Last week, a story came out that Belichick had banned scouts for the New England Patriots from UNC facilities. The man himself was more than happy to confirm this story after his team's win on Saturday. "It's obvious I'm not welcome at their facility," Belichick told reporters, "so they're not welcome at ours."
This is an incredibly petty move that is also actively unfair to the actual college athletes on his team. Part of being a good college recruiter and coach is about convincing players that you and your staff will do everything in your power to get them to the next level. Fully barring one of those 32 potential future employers from getting a closer look at your players only shrinks those players' professional prospects. On top of that, Belichick's UNC only offers limited facility access to the scouts of the other 31 teams as well. To say the quiet part out loud, neither Belichick nor this team are good enough to be pulling stunts like this.
For the Patriots' part, head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about the situation on Monday and said that, as far as he knows, Belichick is absolutely welcome to the facilities in Foxboro. "Bill came back for, to the best of my knowledge, Tom's ceremony," Vrabel said in a radio interview, referring to Belichick showing up to Tom Brady's Patriot Hall of Fame induction back in June 2024. "So I guess he's welcomed back based on the fact he was there... since his departure as the head coach here, he's been back. I'll leave it at that."
I'm sure Vrabel himself would be glad to welcome his former coach back at their old stomping grounds, but let's be honest here: When Belichick talks about not feeling welcomed, he's referring to his icy relationship with owner Robert Kraft and the Kraft family, who have been not-so-subtly taking shots at one another since Belichick's "mutual retirement" from the Pats in 2023, from the rumors that Kraft was warning other NFL teams not to hire Belichick, to that hilariously one-sided Patriots Apple TV documentary in which they all but explicitly blame Belichick for the fall of the dynasty he helped build. It's obvious Belichick and Kraft are engaged in a blood feud at the moment, and Bill is going to do whatever it takes to get some modicum of revenge. Unfortunately for him, it's going to take putting a good product on the field first before you can walk around like you're still the king.
