Bill Belichick’s road to Chapel Hill from a historic NFL career reportedly went through Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio at the end of last year.
The Tar Heels fired coaching legend Mack Brown weeks after the 2024 election after a 6-6 season last November. While North Carolina was seeking a new coach, Belichick was reportedly looking for a job.
According to a report from ESPN, Belichick was intrigued by the idea of coaching in college after no NFL teams expressed interest in him after the 2023 season.
After calling Rubio – who was at that time awaiting Senate confirmation for his biggest gig yet – strings were pulled.
Rubio called Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), and UNC and Belichick agreed to terms after the school evaluated its pool of candidates. ESPN reported:
Belichick first sent word of his interest in the UNC job through political allies. He reached out to a longtime friend, then-Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who then contacted Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, hoping to light a fire in Chapel Hill in support of Belichick.
“Rubio follows the sports world pretty closely, and he called me and said, ‘There’s a chance Belichick would come to Chapel Hill,'” Tillis told ESPN. “He said, ‘He wants a school with a great academic reputation, and he wants to try to build a program to bring them a national championship. I said, ‘Well, let me go [make some calls].'”
Tillis hung up the phone and immediately called Phil Berger, the North Carolina Senate president pro tempore, who had strong connections with power players at UNC. Berger initially laughed at the suggestion until Tillis assured him that, yes, Belichick truly wanted the job.
On Dec. 12, North Carolina announced it had snagged Belichick as its head coach, although he reportedly was not the administration’s first choice.
“I’ve always wanted to coach in college football. It just never really worked out,” Belichick said at his introductory press conference. “Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK, but this is really kind of a dream come true.”
The coach made no mention of Rubio or Tillis.