With a new year just around the corner, that means it’s time for some Top 10 lists. Bill Belichick had a miserable 2025. A complete listing of missteps, screw ups, and embarrassments would exceed the five
act limit of a Shakespearean tragedy. How bad was Belichick’s 2025? Let’s review the Top 10 moments. If this list omits your favorite Belichick pratfall, or if the rankings seem off, please post your thoughts in the comments below.
#10: Mac Jones goes off with the 49ers
Belichick did his dead-level best to ruin Jones after a promising rookie campaign. Belichick picked Matt Patricia to run his offense and Joe Judge as his QB coach. For those who don’t know, Patricia has only called plays for an offense at any level of football once in his life: the 2022 Patriots. Patricia currently runs the defense for Ohio State. After being benched and labeled a bust in New England, Jones ended up with the 49ers this season and currently ranks seventh in the NFL by QBR. Jones went 7-3 as a starter in relief of Brock Purdy, despite running an offense depleted of some of its most dynamic playmakers. Jones will be in the mix for NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.
#9: New England Patriots return to glory without Belichick
Belichick somehow burned every bridge he had in New England, blaming Robert Kraft and Kraft’s family for the 8-9 and then 4-13 tailspin the Patriots endured in Belichick’s final two years there. Well, apparently the Krafts learned something about football from him, as the franchise currently competes for the top seed in the AFC playoffs and features a MVP candidate with Drake Maye at QB. Two years removed from firing Belichick, the Patriots suddenly are a very, very good football team again.
#8 Bill bans all things Patriots from UNC football social media and gets roasted
Belichick imported his grudge against his former employer, banning all Patriots personnel from UNC facilities. Apparently, that ban extended to UNC athletics social media, which was oddly radio silent on Drake Maye’s breakout performances earlier this season. Although the existence of a ban was denied, the fact remains that social media content celebrating Maye was non-existent prior to fan uproar and then highly present after fan uproar. But correlation isn’t necessarily causation. Probably coincidence.
#7 Right before betting blown out by UCF…
#6 The Disappearing Documentary
Remember how Belichick’s celebrity was going to be a force multiplier for UNC football? Bring a spotlight that in turn would generate excitement and eyeballs, helping to lift the program into the ranks of the elite? The centerpiece of that “Belichick Bonus” was originally going to be a Hard Knocks documentary by HBO and NFL Films, free advertising for the program. However, HBO quickly pulled out of the deal, reportedly over interference from Jordon Hudson. Hulu stepped into the mix to resuscitate the program, but a no-good, awful September performance by the football team may have squelched Belichick’s eagerness for a behind-the-scenes look at the unfolding disaster that was UNC Football 2025. The documentary’s 2nd shot at life ended in early October.
#5 UNC’s offense may have been the worst in UNC history
The subject has been reviewed exhaustively, but it also can’t be left off the list.
#4 Opening game TCU disaster
ESPN singled out this game for a national spotlight. Some of UNC’s most famous athletic faces graced the sidelines. Then, UNC got crushed like a FCS squad getting paid by a SEC powerhouse to be a tackling dummy for a few hours.
#3 UNC’s defense was as bad as some of Gene Chizik’s UNC defenses
The offense’s ineptitude got all the attention. Belichick’s reputation for defense may have colored some fan impressions. Belichick’s determined efforts to protect the defense kept it off the field as much as possible. Still, the defense managed to be, at best, no better than last year’s defense and in some ways worse. For a coach with a brand so firmly attached to defensive excellence, and with two sons on the defensive staff, the defense’s poor stats and well-documented lack of effort at times had to be excruciating for Bill.
#2 Belichick forced to pretend a NFL team still wants to hire him
The only thing worse than being ignored by NFL teams in need of coaches? Issuing press statements to pretend you didn’t want the job anyway. Do NFL teams hire coaches whose last two seasons went 4-13 and 4-8?
#1 4-8 against one of the easiest schedules in college football’s bowl division, with a blow out loss to NC State close the season.
That’s Carl Torbush and John Bunting territory. However, Torbush and Bunting didn’t come swaggering into the job radiating NFL superiority and acting like college ball would be a cake-walk for the Greatest Coach in NFL History. For all of the indignities suffered off the field, watching a football team bearing his name getting outhustled, outexecuted, and outcoached has to rank as the worst humiliation of 2025 for Bill Belichick. No amount of failure here can remove Belichick’s accomplishments in the NFL. On the other hand, those past accomplishments in no way diminish just how bad a football team Belichick put on the field this past season.
