I am a writer, not a journalist. I do not have inside sources telling me about Bill Belichick’s job security or how the people who hired him are feeling about their investment after five games and a whole
host of embarrassment on and off the field. I just react to the things that are happening and try to analyze them.
What I’m saying is that I’m not breaking any news — but I’m ready to call it anyways. Bill Belichick’s time in Chapel Hill is over. He might not officially leave until another embarrassing loss. Maybe he’ll last until the end of the season. But the current state of things, with new pieces of damning news coming out faster than we can write articles about them… I’ve been here before. Most of you have, too. This is how an ugly relationship ends: a big something happens that breaks all the resistance that’s been built to the small somethings. Gradually, then suddenly, to quote Hemingway. Slowly, then all at once, if you prefer John Green.
The fan base was despondent after yet another blowout against Clemson on Saturday, but that might not even have been the big thing in this case. No, that came Sunday night and into Monday morning, as reports came out that the UNC Football Twitter account was under directive to not post anything celebrating Drake Maye in his breakout sophomore season as an NFL starting quarterback. Losing, even being noncompetitive in every loss, is one thing. A slight to the best player UNC football might have seen in more than two decades, not to mention a member of a quintessentially Carolina family, and during this dire stretch of Carolina football where he may be the best thing going for it? That’s another thing entirely. It was proof that Belichick cared more about himself than about the program; that everything he had said about being invested in UNC Football was self-serving fiction. And, well, if he thought he could be Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network and get away with caring the minimum amount… sorry, Bill, you’re just not that guy.
Maybe all these things as individual facts don’t really move the needle. A player’s family being given field access tickets? Annoying, but not damning. A fight at halftime of a brutal loss? It’s an emotional game! Upset parents frustrated at a lack of communication? Habits change when regimes change. Reports of an intrasquad caste system that influences how players are treated and disciplined? … Actually, that one would be pretty bad regardless. But rolling out this way, coming from multiple sources, it all kind of coalesces around the fact that the car didn’t just take a wrong turn — it’s well and truly totaled.
You expect mockery when somebody who has made himself a villain as willingly as Belichick has flames out at this level. At this point, though, it’s not even mockery I’m seeing from the football and media world, it’s pity. Pity for the players who thought they were going to be coached by the GOAT and instead got whatever this mess is, and pity for Carolina fans who were cajoled into believing and have to watch this mess through no fault of their own. The kind of pity you only really feel in moments of finality — a pet’s last days, the sight of a building before demolition, the minutes before 2:00 AM when you realize that one does, in fact, have to go home again. It’s over. The music has stopped, the lights are on, and you notice how sticky the floor actually is. Wait, where was I going with this?
Ah, right. The thing is, Belichick doesn’t even feel like somebody who’s clinging to his job. He’s not trying to use the media to his advantage like he did during contract negotiations (in fact, the very mouthpiece he used to gain leverage over UNC at the time is now posting about how over it is: saying that various staff members are already talking to other schools about joining them once the regular season is up, that Belichick might be willing to walk away and forgo his buyout, and painting an altogether grim picture. He’s not defending himself, even denying the “rebuild” excuse that his general manager was already using when a media member lobbed it to him on Saturday. He’s not making staff changes, though an open week would be the time to do so and shift blame for this season on somebody else. His behavior is either that of somebody who thinks he’s completely safe or knows he’s completely cooked. And I’ll say a lot about him, but I don’t think he’s so far gone he thinks it’s the former.
Like I said, I don’t know when the plug is actually going to be pulled, but I like to think I know a lame duck when I see one. Belichick might coach one game or six more in Chapel Hill because money and politics always complicate things, but Chapel Bill is already a thing of the past. The vibes are simply too strong and too rancid to say otherwise.
