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It’s about more than football on the field.
The irreversible mess in which Carolina has found itself has turned into the Bill Belichick scandal metastasizing across America.
Reports continue to flow out from sources inside or close to the football program. According to multi-Emmy winner Chris Clark’s Sports Blog, “Belichick has shown a willingness to trigger his own $1 million buyout.”
That’s what the Hoodie has to pay UNC for breaking his contract, but between the $20 million guarantee Belichick has for the next two years along with two-year deals for his two sons, Mike Lombardi and his son, the total buyouts could be millions more that will undoubtedly be part of any negotiation.
Clark adds that “members of Belichick’s coaching staff have already spoken to other schools expected to be in the CFP playoff,” hoping to catch on with them. His leakers further report, “The rats are leaving the ship” and “serious recruiting violations remain under investigation at UNC.”
The Ivory Tower crowd that broke policies and rules and perhaps laws and gave him a three-year guarantee has disappeared beyond soft statements from Chancellor Lee Roberts and new Board of Trustees chair Malcolm Turner about patience. Their constituency, in fact, is losing its patience.
When Belichick and his girlfriend get off that plane in California, they will find waiting a ravenous West Coast media welcoming a hiatus from the ongoing fight between its governor and the president.
This has gone way past a bad football team with players Belichick and Lombardi inherited and a clear failure in the transfer portal. They are talking about a new freshman class coming in when they will likely lose the current freshman class. Does that sound like progress or treading water?
It has become more than what happens between the sidelines and end zones.
The girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, was a curious tidbit about Belichick when they arrived in Chapel Hill, but attempts aren’t working to get her off the sideline before games and not create so many photo opps for all kinds of media.
Perhaps the worst look was during Carolina’s first open date. The Hoodie and who he calls his “muse” jetted on a university-leased plane to strolling hand-in-hand on Nantucket Island after catching a high school football game.
Then there was Belichick banning social media mentions of the Patriots, his old NFL team he now hates whose beloved quarterback Drake Maye had his career game last Sunday night. The Maye family, from Mark to Luke to Beau to Drake, is as royal as any in UNC history. What a selfish, petty move by a six-time Super Bowl winner.
I hear and read grumblings from Carolina fans who want big time football at any cost and behavior. Most alumni are more concerned with the reputation of their university.
With all of this cannon fodder – NCAA violation, illegal hiring, a broken, unfixable locker room – UNC has plenty to begin settlement talks.
Featured image via Associated Press/Phelan M. Ebenhack
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
