Former Patriots (and, a long time ago, Browns) coach Bill Belichick made headlines last week by making a connection to the vacancy at North Carolina. He is, by all appearances, serious about the possibility of coaching at the college level.
There’s a reason or two for it. As explained during Sunday’s Football Night in America, Belichick is (I’m told) “very surprised” that he has yet to hear from NFL teams about coaching in 2025.
Currently, three jobs are vacant — the Jets, Saints, and Bears. None, we’re told, have reached out to Belichick.
Other teams that might be thinking about, or planning to, make a change after the season (or sooner) could also talk to Belichick, since he’s currently not employed by any team. It’s not known with certainty that there has been no contact from teams that have yet to fire their coaches. Regardless, there’s no clear connection between Belichick and a potential vacancy, for now.
Part of the problem is that most of the teams that will be looking for coaches are looking for coaches for a reason. They’re bad teams. And bad teams stay bad. Why would Belichick want to harm his own legacy by trying to reverse that trend with a team that has a clear whiff of dysfunction wafting from the top of the organization?
Belichick was shut out last year, getting only one interview after his time with the Patriots ended. And the Falcons didn’t hire him.
If he’s going to be shut out again by NFL owners this year, and if he wants to coach in 2025, he needs to have another place to coach. And unless he’s interested in the CFL, Belichick’s only option is college football.
There’s another angle to Belichick going back to school, Thornton Mellon-style. We’ve heard, and it has been reported, that Belichick hopes to set up his son, Steve, with a head-coaching opportunity. It’s far easier to pull off the coaching-succession equivalent of a Triple Lindy at the college level than in the NFL.