One NFL team is not welcome at the UNC football facility, Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick acknowledged on Saturday.
Belichick’s first season at UNC has gotten off to a rocky start. His team was blown out in its season opener last Monday, and in the days following the game, reports emerged that Belichick was keeping scouts from a certain NFL franchise from attending UNC practices.
Following UNC’s 20-3 win over Charlotte Saturday night, Belichick confirmed as much.
The New England Patriots, the organization that employed Belichick for 24 seasons as part of the greatest dynasty in NFL history, are “not welcome” at UNC.
“It’s obvious I’m not welcome at their facility, so they’re not welcome at ours,” Belichick said postgame, via ESPN.
Belichick has beef with his former team
As head coach in New England, Belichick led the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and nine AFC titles. However, his relationship with owner Robert Kraft and his son, team president Jonathan Kraft, soured tremendously over the final years of their partnership.
It is Belichick’s distaste for the Krafts, how he was treated during the end of his New England tenure and after he left, that is fueling this beef, writes Dianna Russini of The Athletic.
“Belichick, I’m told, has no issue with his former linebacker Mike Vrabel, now the Patriots’ head coach, or with New England executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf,” Russini said last week. “This is all about his feelings toward his former bosses, Robert and Jonathan Kraft.”
The coach is taking heat for his policy
Of course, Belichick is entitled to feel however he wants about the Kraft family and the Patriots franchise. But some feel he’s being unnecessarily petty in this instance, possible to the detriment of his players.
“Belichick’s pettiness serves no purpose. Coaches get fired all the time. That doesn’t mean they’re no longer welcome in the building,” writes Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. “He’s hurting his players by making it harder for them to be properly scouted by all NFL teams. He’s also destroying any glimmer of hope he may have had to return to the NFL.”
We’ll see if Belichick rethinks the ban at some point this season. We’re not holding our breath though.
