PHOENIX, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 10: Michael Lombardi attends SiriusXM At Super Bowl LVII on February 10, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona.
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Before he became a television analyst and journalist covering the NFL, Michael Lombardi spent many years in the NFL in the front offices of several teams.
After he was a scout for the San Francisco 49ers in the mid-1980s, he joined the Cleveland Browns in 1987 as a scout and later became their pro personnel director and director of player personnel.
He then returned to Cleveland in 2013 and spent one year as their general manager and vice president.
Lombardi is now joining Bill Belichick, who was the Browns’ head coach from 1991 to 1995, as the general manager of University of North Carolina football, per Ari Meirov.
North Carolina is hiring Michael Lombardi as their GM , joining Bill Belichick. https://t.co/HDZbmoNuYx pic.twitter.com/5vZCV9K8wN
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 12, 2024
Belichick was hired to become North Carolina’s new head coach on Wednesday, and it could usher in a new era of Tar Heels football that will be unlike any other.
The Tar Heels have long been regarded as a basketball powerhouse, but they have never excelled that much on the gridiron, and they haven’t won an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) title since 1980.
When they won that last conference championship, they were led by linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who would go on to become a legend for the New York Giants, a team that had Belichick as its defensive coordinator and won Super Bowl championships in 1986 and 1990.
After his lone year as the Browns’ general manager, Lombardi was reunited with Belichick when he became an assistant to the coaching staff of the New England Patriots from 2014 to 2016.
After that, he joined Fox Sports, and he currently hosts “The Lombardi Line” on Vegas Stats & Information Network, a betting-oriented media outlet founded by the family of broadcasting legend Brent Musburger.
NEXT: Browns Coach Was Favored To Land UNC Job If Bill Belichick Didn't Take It