Bill Belichick's NFL return might be on pause with UNC willing to fulfill demands

After failing to secure a head coaching gig for the 2024 NFL season, it was assumed that longtime Patriots coach Bill Belichick would pursue the opportunity again the following year. In the meantime, he will continue to work in the media and once the offseason begins, look into the head coach vacancies across the league to see where he would like to go next.

The belief has been that many teams will be interested in hiring the 8-time Super Bowl Champion despite the seeming lack of intrigue from teams earlier this year. A few teams have been heavily involved in the conversation as the likeliest destinations for Belichick, with the Cowboys, Giants and Jaguars being at the top of the list.

That made his decision to interview with the University of North Carolina earlier this week more shocking. Not only because it seemed like a step backward for the legendary figure who is just 15 games away from holding the winningest coach of all time title, but also because his desire to return to the NFL has been well documented.

However, as more details have been released about his meeting with the university, it makes more and more sense why Belichick may be considering a move into college coaching.

Negotiations with UNC might make Bill Belichick choose college football over a return to the NFL

As reported by The Guardian's Ollie Connolly, the current chatter suggests that UNC is willing to give Belichick some of the freedoms he was hoping to have with a new team in the NFL. Most interesting of all is the college's guarantee that his son Stephen will eventually take over as the team's head coach when he decides to move on.

That could very well be the selling point for Belichick to take the jump into college football and put his NFL ca

Connolly further backed up his report by stating that Belichick still wants to get back to the NFL, but he's not using the interview with UNC as leverage for those interviews. In fact, Connolly wrote that the tenured head coach is not sold on a return as the "landscape is already considered thin based on feedback for the league."

That goes against the months of rumors claiming several teams, including the Cowboys, were interested in Belichick in 2025. Perhaps this means he hasn't had good communication with any team, or the teams he would most like to work for aren't calling.

It could also be more about setting up his son for a coaching career of his own, which might trump having to wait for several months to see if an NFL team will be interested enough to hire him. He dealt with that earlier this year with the Falcons, who appeared on board to hire him until the very last second, only to go in another direction.

There's also the smaller pool of candidates in the college football scene that makes it a bit less stressful, as Belichick is just one of two being seriously considered for the job.

It will be fascinating to see how this pans out, considering current Patriots quarterback Drake Maye went to UNC. At some point, he could attend a game with Belichick as the head coach; what a wild turn of events.

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