North Carolina hiring Bill Belichick as head football coach brought plenty of attention as it was when it happened last winter. However, between Belichick himself, people in his camp, and people involved
with the hire on UNC’s side, folks involved invited plenty of that attention themselves. One of the effects of this attention seeking was a documentary following the team, originally pitched as a potential installment of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” but eventually picked up by Hulu.
Well, scratch that. On Tuesday, Inside Carolina reported that the documentary will not be moving forward.
It’s not exactly surprising that UNC and Belichick would not want to move forward with the show, considering how the season has gone so far. When originally pitched, the idea was probably expected to be a triumphant behind-the-scenes look at an NFL legend coming in and succeeding on the college level. Obviously, that is not what is happening, and selling what’s happened so far as any sort of positive would be a massive stretch. The Tar Heels are currently 2-3, with three blowout losses and two less-than-impressive wins.
Beyond the lack of success on the field so far, recent days have brought reports of there being turmoil behind the scenes at UNC. Considering that these behind-the-scenes documentaries seemingly all have editorial oversight from the subjects these days, it’s not a shock that Belichick and company would pull the plug instead of letting that hit the air.
That being said, I personally would be vastly more interested in what they’ve already shot than I would if it was the puff piece positive series everyone had originally hoped and planned for this to be. I can’t say as a fan of UNC that I’m enjoying the on field product, but it’s hard not to be morbidly curious about what’s happening behind the scenes. We’re probably never, ever going to see that, especially because you have to assume that Belichick himself did have some sort of creative control, but it would be fascinating.
Like a lot of what’s transpired in the Belichick era so far, the idea for a documentary was pretty short-sighted to begin with. Like the people who made this decision, those in charge of the documentary probably thought Belichick would use his superior NFL intellect to outcoach anyone in college. Now, we’ll probably never know if that was exactly the case.
