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UNC football is certainly acting like the NFL’s 33rd team.
General manager Michael Lombardi said that was their goal shortly after Carolina hired Bill Belichick. Two months before the Tar Heels play their first game, it looks at least partially true.
Their 2025 roster is up on GoHeels.com. It has 110 players listed, which is five over the number of scholarships a school is now allowed to give out. Even if Belichick plans to have a taxi squad like NFL teams do, that’s a lot of expensive educations for the Rams Club to fund for at least one year.
Through social media, some posted by UNC’s athletic department, Belichick looks good working with the players on the practice field and doing somewhat entertaining interviews. In one he revealed the reason why during spring practice no one had a jersey number on.
“That’s how we get to know each other, players and coaches,” the Hoodie said, adding that they all get identified by their traits. Their voices, their speed, their hands and do they hustle their butts off.
Makes sense, and now that the official roster has been posted each player does have a number.
Another element similar to how Belichick ran the Patriots for two decades is that he makes every decision and his staff does what he needs and wants done. And he comes and goes as he pleases, during the summer that is to his home on Nantucket Island.
That may have been part of the reason he did not get the one NFL job he wanted. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank was about to hire him and then checked with his buddy and Pats owner Robert Kraft, who confirmed BB ran every aspect of the Pats program. When Blank told that to some of his front office people, who may have feared for their jobs, he instead hired Raheem Morris.
But the one story that has followed Belichick to Chapel Hill is his young girlfriend Jordon Hudson, who it was clarified by UNC is not employed by the university and handles Belichick’s personal branding and marketing. That alone has still caused problems.
The worst misstep was when NFL Films and HBO canceled the Hard Knocks series as it was to start taping. Belichick had already been on every prominent national talk show, some more than once, so what would have been better for his brand than a weekly TV series?
Reportedly, NFL Films and HBO scrapped the show after Hudson said she wanted some sort of production title, even though she has little or no TV experience. Maybe she wanted some editorial control.
After a UNC statement clarified Hudson’s role, things calmed down.
But is it total fiction that Hudson was involved in a star wrestling transfer who was already on campus not being admitted to Carolina, according to the wrestling coach from Nebraska, where the wrestler is now?
The bizarre story is already reported on two national outlets, one saying whatever happened was “a lot of drama for that chancellor.”
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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.
