With North Carolina football struggling to a 2-3 start, Bill Belichick has been getting buried by bad headlines.
Last week, local affiliate WRAL published an exposé on cultural issues in the program, The Athletic wrote a long-form piece of dysfunction behind the scenes, and Ollie Connolly of The Guardian reported Belichick had already “discussed buyout options with North Carolina’s hierarchy.“ The scrutiny grew so intense that Belichick and athletic director Bubba Cunningham released statements pledging support to each other.
Over the weekend, Dianna Russini added to the reporting, writing that there are “suspicions within UNC’s program that some of the negative headlines have origins in New England.”
That would certainly seem consistent with some of Belichick’s behavior, as the coach banned New England’s scouts from the North Carolina facility and reportedly told the social media team not to post clips of any Patriots-related content.
On NBC Sports Boston’s Next Pats podcast, Russini expounded on her reporting.
“I don’t get the sense that New England is doing anything. It’s not even a sense: I don’t have any reporting where New England is doing things to make Bill Belichick look bad in North Carolina,” Russini said. “In fact, anyone I talk to in the Patriots organization, they don’t mock it, but they feel like this is like Bill fighting a ghost at this point.”
Russini also offered a more common example of what she thinks is happening.
“Do you know those people in your life who went through a breakup and they still think that their ex is doing things to them?” Russini said. “And you’re like, ‘They moved on. They’re not doing anything to you. They don’t care anymore.’ That’s kind of how I feel that situation is, where I do believe Belichick and (GM Mike) Lombardi are in this bubble where they’re defensive right now, and they’ve got their guards up because everyone’s coming at them.”
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