Bill Belichick left the New England Patriots after a record-setting NFL career and took the head-coaching job at the University of North Carolina, a program without a national title and considered middle of the pack. Observers questioned whether Belichick's professional genius would translate to college football and how his style would work with young players. In spring, Jordon Hudson, Belichick's twenty-four-year-old girlfriend, became a focal point, appearing at spring training and appearing on the coach's e-mail correspondence, and drawing intense local attention. The town and university are negotiating competing priorities: a desire for football success versus preserving UNC's basketball identity amid broader financial and moral questions in college sports.
Bill Belichick's return to coaching was always going to be a big story. He has the second most wins as a head coach in N.F.L history, and led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowls in twenty-four seasons, before retiring, in 2024. But his new job was taking him down a notch, to the University of North Carolina, home to a middle-of-the-pack program that had never won a national title.
In her reporting, Williams explores Belichick's odd late-life transformation from aloof football wizard to TV pitchman, Instagram main character, and tabloid fixture. And, in Chapel Hill, she finds a school, and the town it defines, muddling through the financial and moral complexities of modern college sports. Some people are desperate for the football team to start winning. Others want it to lose, and allow U.N.C. to remain, first and foremost, a basketball school.
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