Over 20 years ago Bill Belichick walked to a podium, announced his resignation as the head coach of the New York Jets hours after taking the job — an announcement he scribbled on a napkin ahead of the conference — and left to take the same position with the New England Patriots.
Could something like that happen again with the legendary head coach?
Belichick was recently introduced as the next head coach at the University of North Carolina. He returned to a campus he discovered as a child when his father Steve was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels. Belichick has been working on the recruiting trail since that announcement, ahead of his first year as a head coach in the ACC. The school even announced their first signing in the transfer portal under Belichick, offensive lineman Christo Kelly from Holy Cross.
But the NFL is always lurking, and at the moment there are six head coach openings: The Las Vegas Raiders, the Chicago Bears, the New Orleans Saints, the New York Jets, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Belichick’s old team, the Patriots.
According to new reporting, Belichick has been contacted by teams, including the Raiders, about a potential return to the NFL just weeks after taking the UNC job. The NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero on Wednesday reported that Belichick’s former quarterback Tom Brady — a minority owner of the Raiders who is expected to play a significant role in the decision in Las Vegas — contacted Belichick “about what it would take to make a reunion happen in Las Vegas” as the team’s next head coach.
In addition, Pelissero noted that at least one of the other teams with a vacancy has inquired about Belichick’s availability.
Under Belichick’s contract with UNC, there is a $10 million buyout if the head coach leaves for a different job before June 1 of this year, but there is uncertainty over whether that would apply to Belichick leaving for the NFL.
This is certainly a change from a year ago when the only job Belichick interviewed for was the opening with the Atlanta Falcons. Rather than hiring the legendary head coach Atlanta went in a different direction, hiring Raheem Morris. That lack of interest seemed to paint a picture of the league cooling on Belichick’s future as a head coach.
Now with multiple teams reportedly inquiring about his availability — including an inquiry from his former quarterback — it seems that the interest level in Belichick has increased.
As for whether Belichick would leave UNC so quickly, it is hard to come away with that conclusion given some of his comments when he was introduced in Chapel Hill. “I always wanted to coach in college football, it just never really worked out,” Belichick said back in December. “Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK. This is really kind of a dream come true.”
He was also asked about this very possibility: Leaving for an NFL job. Belichick dismissed that a quickly as he could.
“I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick said.
Belichick’s history in New York may leave the door option to at least the possibility, but everything the head coach has said and done to this point leaves one with the impression that such a door is closed.
At least for now.
