One of the most surprising moves off the NFL offseason involved former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick taking his six Super Bowl rings down to Chapel Hill, eschewing the NFL to replace Mack Brown as North Carolina head coach.
Patriots fans and those who are morbidly interested in seeing how someone like Belichick will handle coaching in college at this point in his career may be in luck. Belichick's debut season with the Tar Heels may be beamed to TVs across the country, and the New York Giants are responsible for this.
The NFL found it next to impossible to locate a willing participant in their offseason variant of Hard Knocks, as they debacle surrounding the Giants' decision to let Saquon Barkley go to the Philadelphia Eagles and the resulting fallout directed at Joe Schoen made many nervous about putting sensitive topics on blast for the whole football world to see.
Per Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, Belichick and UNC will be featured on the offseason Hard Knocks due to a lack of professional interest. Fans can follow just how well Belichick is acclimating himself to the college game.
Former Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, UNC to be featured on Hard Knocks
Belichick has tried his hardest to remove the image of a gruff ludite who is behind the times, as he became a vocal media figure in his sabbatical from coaching. UNC is banking on his ability to put together a championship team to set them apart in what has become a fairly weak ACC.
Belichick won't just be diagramming plays, however. Belichick will need to be on the road trying to seal top recruits, managing a roster full of young players still learning the game, and dealing with an often invasive group of administrative officials and boosters. This might make for some compelling television.
Patriots fans will also get to see how much of the new-look Belichick was an act to make himself look better for prospective teams who want to hire him and how much was him genuinely trying to adapt his style of coaching to succeed in the modern era.
Saquon's decision to leave the Giants, and New York's handling of that move, was so seismic that it may have essentially killed an entire television show. With Belichick peeling back the curtain as he arrives at North Carolina, perhaps the former Patriots maven could kick-start a new type of show in the college ranks.